College Football

Steve Spurrier sides with Nick Saban in Jimbo Fisher spat

Jimbo Fisher’s next impassioned rant might be directed toward another legendary college coach.

Steve Spurrier is on Nick Saban’s side.

Because seemingly everyone has weighed in on the Saban-Fisher feud, in which the Alabama coach accused the Texas A&M coach of buying “every player” in his 2022 recruiting class, which infuriated Fisher.

“I don’t know why [Fisher] is mad at Saban,” Spurrier, the Hall of Fame former Florida and South Carolina coach, told DawgNation.com in a story published Friday. “Did Saban say something that wasn’t true?”

Fisher would argue: Yes.

On Wednesday, at an event for business leaders in Birmingham, Ala., Saban launched into a tirade about the new NIL rules that allow college players to make money. Saban, whose Crimson Tide lost to the Aggies last season, said Alabama “was doing it the right way” and that A&M, among other targets, purchased all its talent.

The next day, Fisher — a former Saban assistant coach, called a news conference and lashed out at Saban, calling him a “narcissist” and saying that it is “despicable that a reputable head coach can come out and say this when he doesn’t get his way.”

Saban later apologized for singling out Fisher. But it sounds as if Spurrier would not have encouraged the apology.

“I don’t think Saban told any lies in there, so I don’t know what [Fisher] was mad about,” Spurrier, who last coached in 2015, told DawgNation.com. “Since [Fisher] beat him last year, I guess he can talk now.

“He hasn’t beat much of anybody, but he beat Saban last year. But they haven’t won the division or anything since he’s been there.”