Why the iconic Crimson Tide coach would relish the opportunity to talk football with Jim Harbaugh, and his respect for the Harbaugh family.
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ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s often noted anytime two teams are about to face each other how much one coach respects the other one. But in the case with Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh, it’s quite obvious there’s a lot of respect between the two.
And it’s not just mere lip-service, either.
For Harbaugh and Michigan, naturally, Alabama has set the standard for where the program — and any program in college football — would like to be.
Saban won his first national championship at LSU before trying his hand in the NFL. After two years with the Miami Dolphins, it didn’t work out for Saban, and he returned to the college ranks, where he took a fledgling Alabama, a shell of the powerhouse it once was under Bear Bryant, and not only resurrected it, he took it to nearly unprecedented levels of dominance, becoming the premier program in the past decade.
Thus, when Harbaugh sat next to the six-time national championship-winning head coach, he had nothing but the utmost respect to pay him.
“When this game was arranged, there’s just a lot of excitement to play an iconic program like Alabama,” Harbaugh said. “Coach Saban and his staff have really set the bar, lead the program. Great football team. And it’s a big challenge for us but a great opportunity for our season, for this 2019 season.”
Harbaugh is famously a man of few words, especially in these formal settings and when talking about teams other than his own, and such was the case when he was asked how he’d like to spend an hour sharing ideas with his Alabama counterpart.
“That’d be a real treat,” Harbaugh said. “There’s nobody better. I have tremendous respect for Coach Saban.”
But that’s when Saban expressed his admiration for not just Harbaugh, but the entire Harbaugh family.
Where Saban didn’t have success in the NFL level, Harbaugh did, turning around a moribund San Francisco 49ers franchise, leading them to three-straight NFC Championships and never having a losing season while in the pro league. What’s more, his brother John continues to lead the Baltimore Ravens — perhaps the best NFL team this season — and has won a Super Bowl (against Jim’s 49ers) as the AFC head coach.
But beyond that, as Saban rose through the coaching ranks, from his alma mater Kent State to Syracuse to West Virginia to Ohio State to Navy to Michigan State — where he was both a position coach as well as head coach — he always sought out the advice of one Jack Harbaugh — Jim and John’s father — the one-time Michigan defensive backs assistant who spent much of Saban’s MSU assistant tenure as the head coach of nearby Western Michigan. Saban says he used to pick the elder Harbaugh’s brain at every opportunity as he was emerging as one of the top DB assistants himself.
What’s more, Saban was the MSU head football coach at the same time that Harbaugh in-law was in East Lansing as a basketball assistant.
“I’ve had the good fortune of having a lot of good mentors through the years,” Saban said. “Whether it was my college coach Tom James or George Perles at Michigan State in the time I spent there with him or Bill Belichick. But I’ve always had tremendous respect for Jim and his family as coaches. His dad Jack kinda came up with me. I was a little younger. He was one of the most respected secondary coaches – that’s what I coached. I used to try to visit with him as much as I could and had a tremendous amount of respect for him.
“Tom Crean, who is Jim’s brother-in-law – his sister is married to Tom Crean – Tom Crean was an assistant basketball coach at Michigan State for Tom Izzo. We’ve kind of had a tremendous amount of respect for the whole family as coaches.”
So would Saban like to sit down and trade ideas with Jim Harbaugh? He would, noting he would relish such an opportunity.
“Jim has obviously had a fabulous career in the NFL as well as college,” Saban said. “I’ve never ever stopped trying to learn. I certainly would cherish and have tremendous gratitude for the opportunity to be able to sit down with Jim and talk to him about how he does things and how that could improve our organization.”
While the two were friendly on Tuesday, they likely won’t be quite as pleasant towards each other on Wednesday, as Michigan and Alabama are set to square off in the VRBO Citrus Bowl at 1PM EST at Camping World Stadium.
