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ESPN staff
Alabama coach Nick Saban rocked the college football world Wednesday night when he told a gathering of state business leaders that Texas A&M had assembled the highest-ranking recruiting class in the state because it had “bought every player,” the name, Pictures and similarities has .
Saban condemned the influence of money in recruitment and said NIL was being used unfairly. In Alabama, he said of the No. 2 class, “We didn’t buy a single player, okay?”
Then Aggie’s trainer Jimbo Fisher quickly assembled a press conference Thursday morning to respond, and fuel was poured on the fire.
Fisher didn’t hold back, calling Saban a “narcissist” and saying of him, “Some people think they’re God.” Saban’s offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000 to 2004, Fisher practically laughed at his former boss’s claim that there was in the College football has always given par and NIL threatens to undermine that.
“He’s the greatest of all time, huh?” said fisherman. “When you have all the advantages, it’s easy.”
If the coaches didn’t talk about Saban’s comments beforehand, they did after Fisher’s fiery press conference was over. An SEC assistant said his phone “exploded” afterwards. En route recruitment, that’s all the high school coach he was dating at the time wanted to talk about.
The comments struck a chord, not only because of what was said and who said it, but also because of the subject matter covered. The 2022 class of signings was the first to have NIL as part of the recruitment process – whether direct or indirect – and many coaches are concerned about the impact this is having. Time and again they have described the lack of rules as creating an environment akin to the “wild, wild west”.
But to have two coaches go at each other so head-on was shocking, not to mention the fact that they were two of the highest paid and most accomplished coaches in the game, in the same conference and competing in the same division. Just last October, Fisher finally defeated the Dragon and became the first of Saban’s former assistants to defeat him when Texas A&M defeated Alabama at home with a 41-38 walk-off field goal.
Another assistant who once worked for Saban said Fisher must have felt an opening after the win and drawn the confidence to attack. Still, he and everyone he spoke to wanted to know, “What the hell is Jimbo thinking?”
Yes, Saban was wrong. The assistant said Saban crossed the line when he singled out Texas A&M. He was also surprised that the normally calculating Saban allowed himself to be filmed doing what he was doing. “He should have been smarter,” said the assistant.
But why poke the bear? Like many others, the coach was surprised by Fisher’s reaction, pointing out: “[Saban] never said they cheated.”
Regardless, it was captivating.
“I don’t know who we’re playing this week,” the coach said, laughing, “but I’m skipping it to see Alabama-Texas A&M.”
142 Days Until the Aggies Host in Crimson Tide, ESPN polled coaches and athletic directors across the country to learn their reaction to the Fisher-Saban dust: what it means, what happens next, and what they expect when the two coaches meet meet Bryant Denny Stadium in October. – Alex Scarborough
What triggered Saban’s comments?
Was Saban upset that Texas A&M beat him in recruitment? Really Concerned About College Football’s Development? Maybe a bit of both. But there’s no doubt that when Saban speaks, people listen.
SEC Athletic Director: “NIL has caused a lot of confusion and dismay and as a league we have to deal with issues like this, hopefully not in public.”
Big Ten assistant coaches: “A lot of us just talked about what we thought was a call to arms. The way they’re doing it doesn’t really hold up in this new age and that’s how we saw it as. Everyone across the country is calling up a booster to level up and that’s what I thought.”
Power 5 Head Coach: “Nick’s argument is valid, but he’s smarter than that. He doesn’t usually put his hand in a hornet’s nest. There was no reason to cross the line like he did. It just had to be macroscopic and vague. Something happened there. Jimbo did something and the professor didn’t like what the student was doing.”
Power 5 AD: “Everyone knows Nick is very smart. There’s a reason he’s doing this. It’s almost as if he does, A&M is a serious threat, or even bigger. I think he sees this as an existential crisis. He can see it, and unless something changes, that’s his way of saying you have to do something. I think he sees that as a man, that gap could potentially be closing, and he’s trying to sound the alarm.
What was your reaction to Fisher’s rebuttal?
Big Ten Assistant: “I think there was about 90 minutes where no one was getting ready because they were just kicking their asses, including us.”
Group of 5 Head Coaches: “It’s like the sequel to the best movie of all time. [Fisher not calling] will offend saban more than jimbo if he says things that he won’t answer the phone. … I was in a meeting and we had a break. I looked at my phone and I couldn’t stop laughing.”
Big Ten Assistant: “I got texts from coaches in Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC. The whole sport stopped every opponent we scouted and ignored calls from recruits to focus on this press conference. There was a whole lot of lost production in college football today.”
What does that say about the state of college football?
Saban’s comments come at a time of great chaos in the world of big college football. There’s the growing rift between the SEC and the Big Ten and everyone else that spurs talk of a potential CFB Super League. After numerous legal defeats and the impending departure of President Mark Emmert, there is uncertainty about the future of the NCAA. And of course there’s NIL which, as we saw today, has caused a lot of consternation throughout the sport. Will a high-profile row between two of the game’s marquee coaches — which led to public reprimands for both by the SEC bureau — change anything?
Power 5 AD: “The sport is much healthier than the atmosphere around it. More than ever, people are saying what’s on their mind, but it’s not like those things haven’t been said. They were more general about it without naming anyone in particular. There are so many rumors out there, so many things that people hear, even if some of the representatives of some of these athletes are telling the coaches. It’s hard to tell if the numbers are real or if they’re exaggerated – unless, unless, the people involved with the numbers actually come out and make statements about how the guy running the University of Miami. It’s great theater, but it’s an example of what’s going on behind the scenes, people who don’t say it out loud.”
Power 5 Head Coach: “This is untenable and I am incredibly concerned about where collegiate athletics is going. This is coming from a football coach and we’ll be fine, but the rest. Nick was right. Whichever way, the other sports will die.”
Power 5 AD: Literally, my first thought was that our profession had hit an all-time low. That makes trainers look like a bunch of buffoons. It’s no wonder we have the problems we have when we have adults and leaders handling things this way.
What’s next?
Power 5 Head Coach: “I hope it creates some urgency for a new governance structure. Our game is in complete chaos right now and this is a result of the chaos.”
Power 5 Assistant: “What I keep coming back to from a 30,000-foot perspective is how are we going to fix all these things? I know there’s a kind of Twitter fun, ha ha, that’s entertainment. But to me it stinks. The sport is literally in shambles right now and here are two people who might have a shot at salvaging it and they’re punching each other in the stomach.”
Of course, that will ultimately be decided on the field when two programs with national championship ambitions meet in Tuscaloosa on October 8th.
Power 5 AD: “It should better be a night game. I think it’s going to be one of those top rated games of the year. You will both circle it. Nick will say we’ll show them. And Jimbo will say that’s what those guys said about you. Get your popcorn ready.”
Andrea Adelson, Heather Dinich, Adam Rittenberg, Alex Scarborough and Tom VanHaaren contributed to this story.