Nick Saban accuses Ohio State fans of having a 'psychological disposition about Michigan'

Nick Saban is all for finding ways to motivate yourself to be successful. However, Saban says Ohio State still has to get over its whole thing with Michigan.

In an answer about a team’s mentality on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ in Columbus on Friday, Saban discussed the Buckeyes’ national title, including the effect that their rivalry loss to the Wolverines in The Game had on them going on to win it all. He thinks that was as much of a motivating factor as anything in them going on to win the College Football Playoff.

“You’ve got to replace that hunger that’s created by not having success. Like, Ohio State getting beat by Michigan last year probably had as much to do with them winning a national championship as anything,” Saban used as an example.

Saban doesn’t feel bad about saying it either. He still thinks Ohio State’s fanbase has too much of an issue in their rivalry with the maize & blue, which he first said back after last season’s loss, before the Buckeyes went on to win the CFP.

“They needed (me to yell at them). They needed it,” said Saban, recalling his comments back in December. “They got this psychological disposition about Michigan that’s just killing them, killing them.”

We all remember the meltdown there was after No. 2 Ohio State lost 13-10 to Michigan last year as a massive favorite at ‘The Shoe.’ Part of that was that it was the Buckeyes’ fourth-straight loss in the rivalry, as the Buckeyes haven’t beaten the Wolverines since 2019. Part of it was the effect that the season-ending loss had on their postseason hopes, which ended up not mattering, as all the pressure was at that point placed on the program and, because of that, on Ryan Day especially.

Still, at that point, Saban had heard enough. While appearing on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on December 27th, criticized their fans for their reaction to the latest loss to Michigan, saying it was “a psychotic obsession” and that “they need(ed) to go get therapy” for it.

“You know, we’ve kind of gotten on their, sort of, fans a little bit. But, you know, these Ohio State fans? You know, they’ve got a psychotic obsession with Michigan and they need to go get therapy or something to try to get it fixed,” Saban said. “They have a chance to win the national championship and here you are, you know, and nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play because they, you know, lost to Michigan, which was a tough game and they lost the game, probably, by some of the mistakes that they made. Those are correctable things.”

The fact of the matter is, in this rivalry, there’s almost no such thing as an overreaction. Saban’s point still stands, though, especially since Ohio State did still go on to win a national title in the end.