During the Friday, Dec. 20 edition of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” former Alabama football coach Nick Saban came to the defense of Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day.
Later that night, Ohio State demolished Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, 42-17 — one game after Day had taken a public flogging for his Buckeyes performance in a stunning 13-10 upset loss at home to rival Michigan on Nov. 30.
Fan fury in Columbus over the loss to Michigan didn’t escape Saban’s notice (or his ire), and the coach had some choice words for a certain type of fan he envisions being critical of their team’s performance.
On Friday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, Saban stayed on the offense of those critical of Day. While calling Ohio State the most talented team in the College Football Playoff, Saban said that some Buckeye fans had a “psychotic obsession” with Michigan.
“We’ve kind of gotten on their fans a little bit, but 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 because they have a chance to win the national championship. And here you are… you know, nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play ’cause they 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, but I think this is probably the most talented team if they play to the standard and level. Offense, defense, they’ve pretty much got it all.”
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Saban went on to say that dealing with the type of success that his Alabama teams enjoyed is difficult and “not a continuum.”
“When you have something bad happen, and the criticism that they (Ohio State fans) had after the Michigan game, there’s a psychological motivation to go out and try to prove yourself and try to prove everybody wrong and have the disposition that you need to play great football, and they certainly did that (against Tennessee). Now, can they continue that through the playoffs?”
Saban reiterated something that he said many times while at Alabama: that success creates an expectation and a standard. “And if you don’t play to that expectation and that standard, you’re probably going to get criticized. You need to know that before you get in the briar patch because that’s the way it is,” he told McAfee.
Saban added:
“You know, at Alabama, every time we lost a game, the ‘dynasty was over. Those guys have had it. They’re done. They’ll never win another game, never win another championship.’ But you can’t be affected by external factors. You’ve heard me say that all the time.”
McAfee recalled the number of critics who called a premature death on Alabama’s dynasty. After losing to Ole Miss in back-to-back years (2014 and ’15), Saban and Alabama went on to win three more national championships in the 2015, 2017 and 2020 seasons.
Saban and the rest of ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew will be at the Rose Bowl for the New Year’s Day rematch between Ohio State and the Oregon Ducks in Pasadena. Kick off is set for 4 p.m. CT on ESPN. “GameDay” begins broadcasting live at 8 a.m. CT.
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