It’s been nearly two full years since Nick Saban roamed a sideline with a headset on, but that doesn’t mean the legendary college football coach isn’t above taking some shots at a former SEC rival.
During an appearance on Thursday, Dec. 18 on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the longtime Alabama coach and current ESPN college football analyst said he’d often complain to the SEC office about Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, claiming the stadium pipes in noise to an already loud, boisterous crowd inside a venue that seats more than 100,000 fans.
Two days later, with “College GameDay” broadcasting live outside the Aggies’ stadium in College Station, Texas ahead of their Dec. 20 game against Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoff, McAfee asked Saban about his comment earlier in the week.
The seven-time national champion didn’t exactly walk his words back.
“No, I think it’s real,” Saban said of the crowd noise while turning to the crowd of Texas A&M fans gathered behind them. “But, y’all still pipe in noise to make it difficult, I don’t give a [expletive] what you say.”
Saban followed that up with a compliment of the stadium, calling it “the hardest place to play in the SEC.” Kyle Field is widely regarded as one of the best home-field advantages in the sport. With a capacity of 102,733, it’s the fourth-largest stadium in the country, with the Aggies’ devoted fans, famously referred to as The 12th Man, regularly making their presence felt.
After Texas A&M joined the SEC ahead of the 2012 season, Saban coached at Kyle Field six times, going 5-1 in those matchups. The lone loss, a 41-38 loss in 2021, is the one that has stayed with him the most, though.
“The momentum swings in this place are just unbelievable when you’re trying to coach against this crowd, and The 12th Man is real here, 100%,” Saban said.
Despite the praise Saban cushioned his accusations with, Aggies coach Mike Elko wasn’t going to let it go unaddressed. When the second-year Texas A&M coach joined the “GameDay” crew for a pregame interview, he took the opportunity to playfully fire back at Saban.
“We’ve always had the crowd noise,” Elko said. “We’ve always had the fan base. None of that is actually piped in. I want to make sure I throw that out there real quick, coach. What we needed to do was build a program that matched it, to play meaningful games in December in the playoffs. It’s a great moment for our program. It’s a great first step. We have to go out here today and take advantage of it.”