Nick Saban credits Miss Terry for pushing him to take LSU job in hilarious story

When LSU was looking to hire somebody ahead of the 2000 season, Nick Saban was their guy. Saban was the head coach at Michigan State but due to a lack of support from administration, he was looking to leave East Lansing. Saban met with LSU officials in Memphis for an interview, where intentions were made quite quickly.

“They offered me the job,” Saban said. “But I said ‘I can’t take the job, I’ve never been to LSU before. I don’t know what it’s like.’ And I can’t go for an interview, because if they find out publicly at Michigan State that I’m thinking of going somewhere else, they’ll absolutely crucify me.”

With Saban not having a way to get down to Baton Rouge, he decided to send Miss Terry. Nobody better to scope out the scene than his wife, getting a couple of days down in the South. First, the initial scouting report was not a positive one.

However, one moment was enough for Miss Terry to advise her husband to take the LSU job. He told the story on Saturday night while being inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame.

“She spent two days,” Saban began. “I said ‘Well, what’d you think?’ And she said ‘Man, this place needs a lot of work.’ She said ‘The stadium is in bad shape, they have no academic facilities, they have no academic support center, the players are not doing well academically.’ She said, ‘You have to get in the bus to ride to practice every day from the campus because the facilities are separated. The coach’s office is in a bank building and really unimpressive. I don’t know how you would recruit there.’ But she said ‘I went in the weight room today. They’ve got some damn good looking players.’ So that’s how I took the job.”

Nick Saban tells the story of how his wife Miss Terry got him to LSU….

"Put your big boy pants on and your ass in the press conference and go to work!" (via @LaSportsHall) pic.twitter.com/fOQrGZo24f

— Carter Bryant (@PowerHourLSU) June 29, 2025

Even so, the job was not completely done. Miss Terry had to push Saban over the line one more time before officially getting introduced as the LSU head coach. All the negatives she originally reported back were standing out to Saban as he did not get a first-hand look at the players. And from there, Miss Terry quickly set things back in order.

“Before I went into the press conference, I went into the corner and talked into the phone and I said ‘Terry, this is not really what I thought it might be after your interview,'” Saban said. “And she said, ‘Put on your big boy pants on and get your ass in the press conference and get to work.’ So, that’s what we did.”

The rest is history. Saban went on to have an immense amount of success during his five seasons at LSU, highlighted by winning a national championship in 2003. He eventually left in favor of the Miami Dolphins before infamously (at least at LSU) getting back into the college game at Alabama. But none of it would have happened if not for a recon mission pulled off by Miss Terry.