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Nick Saban has ‘tremendous respect’ for Jim Harbaugh, family of coaches
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The Harbaugh family has been involved in coaching for a long time, at a lot of different levels. Throughout his career, Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been around and learned from the Harbaughs.
On New Year’s Day, Saban will be across the field from another Harbaugh, as Alabama takes on Michigan in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. On Tuesday, Jim Harbaugh and Saban met with the media to preview Wednesday’s game. The Crimson Tide leader had nothing but positive things to say about Harbaugh and his coaching family.
“I’ve always had a tremendous respect for Jim and his family as coaches,” Saban told reporters. “His dad Jack kind of 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.
“Jim has obviously had a tremendous career in the NFL, as well as college. And I never, ever stop trying to learn and I would certainly cherish and have tremendous gratitude for the opportunity to be able to sit down with Jim and talk with him about how he does things and how that can improve our organization.”
Wednesday will mark the first time Harbaugh and Saban have gone head to head, but will be the second time Saban has played Michigan since taking over at Alabama. The two teams played in 2012 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, a game the Tide won 41-14.
Alabama enters the game with a 10-2 record while Michigan sits at 9-3.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB