🏈 Nick Saban has more of a history with Michigan than Alabama does

[BAMANEWSBOT]

History will be made a week from today when two of college football’s winningest programs meet in the Cowboys Classic.It will be the first meeting between Alabama and Michigan in a regular-season game. The Crimson Tide is 1-2 against the Wolverines, and all three of those games were in a bowl.

But Alabama coach Nick Saban has a history with Michigan. He’s entering his 11th season as a coach in the Southeastern Conference, but that’s still one year less than he coached in the Big Ten Conference.

Saban is 5-7 lifetime against the Wolverines, including a 2-3 record as the head coach at Michigan State (1995-99). He was 1-1 as an assistant at Ohio State (1980-81) and 2-3 as an assistant at Michigan State (1983-87).

He recently was asked what stands out about those rivalry games. It’s interesting how vividly he remembers some details, such as a down and distance, but not others, such as years or final scores.

“Some were good, some were bad,” Saban started. “You want the good ones or you want the bad?

“Two come to mind like that, one good, one bad.”

He started with a loss.

“I forget what year it was,” Saban said. “We were playing at Michigan and they had a really good team. This might have been the year after they won the national championship, but I can’t attest to it.”

It actually was 1996, the year before Michigan won the national championship and defensive back Charles Woodson won the Heisman Trophy.

He remembers the Spartans leading 14-3 shortly before halftime, and they had the ball but did not have good field position.

“So it was third-and-5 and we threw an incomplete pass,” Saban recalled. “There was about 30 seconds to go in the half, and … we were happy to punt and be ahead 14-3.

“Well, they called roughing the passer on the quarterback. We got a 15-yard penalty, and that put us up right at about the 45-yard line, so we said let’s try and steal a field goal out of this. So we go two-minute right out of the box, the quarterback throws a slant, the safety runs it down from a Cover 2 in a three-deep zone, picks it off and runs 45 yards for a touchdown.”

It looked as if Michigan State would lead 14-10 at halftime.

“They kick off to us, they pooch-kick, we fumble, they recover it,” Saban said. “Woodson was still there, because I still remember this: After the scramble for the ball, there’s about 15 seconds to go. They run two plays, don’t score. There’s like seven seconds to go, and they put Woodson in at receiver, he runs a post and they throw him the ball, he scores a touchdown.

“So in like 40 seconds, 35 seconds in the (half), we go from being ahead 14-3 to behind 17-14 at Michigan. That was the worst story.”
Michigan won 45-29. Woodson returned a second-half interception for a touchdown.

“The best story was the last year I was at Michigan State, when (Tom) Brady was playing, and we won 31-28,” Saban said.
Actually, the final score was 34-31.

“That was probably one of the better wins, because they had a really good team,” Saban recalled. “That was a really good team that we had, too.”

The Spartans were 5-0 going into the home game.

“And we were ranked,” Saban said, “and we couldn’t live with success. We went and played Drew Brees the next week and he drilled us.”

Michigan State lost 52-28 at Purdue.

Saban grinned.

“I remember that, too.”

 

[TerryP]

I know it's tempting to think that this game against Michigan is just another game on our schedule in Saban's mind. I've told myself, and believe it as well, that he'll approach it that way.

I still have to acknowledge there's no way a person can coach in a conference like the Big10 and not have desire to beat Michigan. When that is coupled with coaching at Michigan State? And, it can only be compounded by his brief stint at Ohio State.

I don't believe for a second this leads to Saban wanting to "drop __ points on the Wolverines." I believe with all my being that he does want to keep them off the scoreboard.