Steve Spurrier Defends Nick Saban’s Comments Against Jimbo Fisher

The biggest story in college football over nearly the past week has been the Alabama head coach Nick Saban vs. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher saga. Along with the many players, media personalities, and coaches that let their opinions of the feud be known, Hall of Fame football coach Steve Spurrier also spoke on the comments between the two national championship winning coaches.

"I don’t know why [Fisher] is mad at Saban," Spurrier said in an interview with DawgNation.com. "Did Saban say something that wasn't true?"

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Starting last Wednesday with Saban saying that Texas A&M "bought every player" from their 2022 recruiting class, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation, by making "a deal for name, image, likeness", Fisher came back with a fiery response in a press conference on Thursday.

"Some people think they're God," Fisher stated in reference to Saban. "Go dig into how God did his deal, you may find out a lot of things you don't want to know."

Saban has since cleared up his initial comments, apologizing for calling out Fisher and Jackson State coach Deion Sanders, but also sticking with his opinion that name, image, likeness (NIL) can have "unintended consequences" on college football and recruiting.

Spurrier however, didn't even have a problem with Saban's original comments, much less his comments after Fisher's rebuttal.

"I don’t think Saban told any lies in there, so I don’t know what he was mad about," said Spurrier. "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."

Spurrier had a 3-1 coaching record against Saban, with the latter's only win coming in his first national championship season with Alabama in 2009. Spurrier recently received the Nick Saban Legacy Award in Birmingham, Alabama, along with the late Eddie Robinson.