Nick Saban explains why he continues to look up to Steve Spurrier

Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban are two of the greatest college football coaches of all-time – and there’s no denying that. With a combined 502 wins and eight national championships between the two of them, they are both worthy enough to be on a Mount Rushmore of college football coaches.

As Spurrier put together a highly successful 26-year career as the head coach at Duke, Florida and South Carolina, Saban – who’s now entering his 27th season – has done nothing but win over his time at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama.

While Spurrier is 77 years old and Saban now 70, they’re both well-respected by everyone involved in the sport. With that said, the two coaches – even though they were rivals – have plenty of respect for each other, and Saban recently explained why he continues to look up to Spurrier.

“Steve was always sort of an icon, in terms of great scheme offensively, really great playcaller, really hard to defend ’cause he was really kind of unpredictable – but not unpredictable in a bad way,” Saban said of Spurrier. “Always very well-prepared. His offensive teams were very well-coached. Really hard to defend what he did.

“To be honest with you, we never had a whole lot of success against him if you really want to look at the records. He was someone that I thought was someone that I always looked up to, in terms of the success that he had, the program that he ran, the things that he did, the relationships that he created with players. I had the utmost respect for him – and still do.”

While Spurrier – known as ‘the Head Ball Coach’ – is now retired from coaching, Saban is still going full-speed in Tuscaloosa as he heads into his 16th season at Alabama in 2022.