College football fans from around the country, no matter where their fandom resides, will remember May 19, 2022. Near the dead middle of the offseason the sport took over headlines despite games still being months away from kicking off.
On the preceding evening, Alabama head coach Nick Saban discussed the state of college football and specifically named numerous programs that have allegedly utilized the NCAA’s name, image, likeness (NIL) policies in a way that wasn’t originally intended.
Point blank: Saban said that Texas A&M had the nation’s top recruiting class because their top commits were bought.
Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher took great offense to this claim and held a special press conference, where he spent nearly 10 minutes talking about Saban’s accusation, the relationship they once held and how that bridge has been burnt.
The two coaches once had a close bond, or so it seemed. Fisher worked on the offensive staff at LSU under Saban, who was the Tigers head coach at the time.
Numerous cordial interactions have taken place between the coaches. Fisher became the head coach at Florida State and Saban landed the Crimson Tide head coaching gig. After a decade in Tallahassee and seven years as the Seminoles head coach, Fisher made the move to the SEC and joined Texas A&M, where they would face off annually.
Today, it became clear that tension will exist for as long as Saban and Fisher are around. Comments made during the press conference didn’t just defend the Aggies program, but called Saban’s integrity into question.
Here’s a look at how they’ve interacted in the past, while still on friendly terms.