Ad Disclosure
What Nick Saban said about Ohio State in first press conference of championship week
Published:
During the first press conference of the run up to the national championship game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban kept it textbook, praising the opponent and emphasizing the scope of the challenge ahead for his program and players.
While Saban, like Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, has inherent respect for a football that plays a full slate of games, he did nothing as outrageous as Swinney, who ranked the 6-0 Ohio State Buckeyes the 11th best team in the country the week before being blown out by them in the College Football Playoff semi-final in New Orleans. Saban did, however, rank the Buckeyes 5th, which would have left them out of the playoff entirely as well.
Now Saban, like Swinney before him, will get a chance to pit his number-one ranked team against (in his mind) the fifth-ranked team in the country with the national title on the line. No doubt he is ready to do this. Swinney got embarrassed over the course of a 49-28 thumping in the Sugar Bowl, while Saban’s squad rolled to an easy 31-14 victory in Arlington during the re-located Rose Bowl Game.
A few of Saban’s comments from the presser have been catalogued below. The national championship kicks off next Monday, January 11, at 8 pm ET on ESPN.
The first press conference of national championship game week is underway starting with Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Says playing Ohio State “will be a very challenging game for us all around, but these are the kind of games, if you're a competitor, you look forward to playing in.” pic.twitter.com/xKB1IdLyvm
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) January 4, 2021
Alabama coach Nick Saban on Ohio State: “They’re very impressive on the line of scrimmage.”
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) January 4, 2021
Nick Saban described Ohio State's defense as elite. Said Buckeyes were physical in the front seven and its secondary played "well enough."
— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) January 4, 2021
Saban said he doesn't know Ryan Day well. "I think he's an outstanding coach." Followed by a lot more superlatives.
— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) January 4, 2021
Saban on the 2014 OSU game: "That was a great game. They had a great team. We had a very good team."
— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) January 4, 2021
Nick Saban on Ryan Day’s hand in the Ohio State offense: “He does a good job of trying to manage and control the tempo of the game, and they do a really good job of executing, which is the most important thing.”
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) January 4, 2021
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.