Nick Saban knows a thing or two about Alabama football rivalries.
As the Crimson Tide’s head coach for 17 seasons, Saban put together winning records against Alabama’s three biggest rivals: Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU.
With Alabama facing Tennessee again Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC), Saban weighed in on the annual Third Saturday in October clash from the set of ESPN’s College GameDay, in Austin, Texas, this week for the top-5 showdown between the Georgia Bulldogs and Texas Longhorns.
“This is a big rivalry and I think that a lot of people in the country don’t realize that, to the old-time Alabama folks and Tennessee folks, this rivalry is born because of Coach Bryant and Coach Neyland,” Saban said. “They were great coaches and they both have stadiums named after them, and there’s a lot of tradition.”
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Saban then said something interesting about how his Alabama players approached the Tennessee game compared to other rivals.
“Third Saturday in October is like a holiday in those two states, and the cigar tradition of winning this game afterwards is a fun thing. But for our players (at Alabama), this was a bigger rivalry than any other game that we played,” Saban said to the surprise of fellow GameDay panelists.
“I’m talking about any game. Even bigger than Auburn — to our players. It was always difficult for me to get our players up for the Auburn game. It was never difficult for the Tennessee game.”
Nick Saban said Tennessee was always Alabama’s biggest rival. Sometimes he had trouble getting them up to play Auburn. That was never an issue for the Tennessee games. pic.twitter.com/qKkzBbN3Qv
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 19, 2024
Saban won 16 out of 17 meetings against the Vols from 2007-2023. His lone loss in the series came two years ago in Alabama’s last visit to Neyland Stadium.
Saban added some parting advice for his former team ahead of Saturday’s edition of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry.
“Let me say this: they better get off the field on third down,” Saban said.
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