Nick Saban speaks the truth about Vanderbilt

Alabama coach Nick Saban looks on. Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Saban is not sugarcoating things in his role as an analyst. He’s being truthful.

Saban appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday for his usual guest spot. He was talking about playing on the road in difficult venues, like he experienced with Alabama in the SEC.

Saban discussed how difficult some of the venues are due to crowd noise, such as at LSU or Tennessee. About the only place Bama didn’t have it tough in the SEC was at Vanderbilt.

“We’re at LSU and we go right down the field when Tua (Tagovailoa) is playing and we get down on the 20-yard line, where the student section is, we got four straight false starts,” Saban recalled. “The players are all going, shaking their heads like, ‘I can’t hear, I can’t hear,’ so it forces you to go on silent. Huge disadvantage, because the defensive line can watch the ball, the offensive line has to watch the ball, so you have no advantage in cadence, and it’s — you’re sitting there saying, ‘This is tough.’ When we played at Tennessee a couple of years ago and got beat up there, that was about as wild as a situation as you’re ever going to get in.

“But the only place you’re going to play in the SEC that’s not hard to play, Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have, and that’s no disrespect to them, it’s the truth. When we played in Nashville, we had more fans — Alabama fans — than what they had Vanderbilt fans.”

Just like he said, Saban isn’t being disrespectful, just truthful. The SEC has some of the most dedicated fans in the country. Those road environments are tough — except when you play at Vandy. And if you ask some other players, there’s another school that’s not all that tough.

“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play in is Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have.”

– Nick Saban on @PatMcAfeeShow pic.twitter.com/4V0LkKf35c

— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) September 20, 2024