Nick Saban opens up on relationship with Hugh Freeze ahead of Iron Bowl
Alabama and Auburn‘s Iron Bowl rivalry game has a lot of history, but this year’s matchup will feature two head coaches who have their fair share of history as well.
This Saturday will not be the first time that head coaches Nick Saban and Hugh Freeze have squared off before, but it will be the first time with Freeze as Auburn’s head coach, with Saban being asked this week about his relationship with Freeze as it relates to this Saturday’s rivalry game.
“I played against all kind of guys and all kind of coaches that coached for me, that I’m good friends with,” Saban said. “Whether it was [Bill] Belichick when we were together and all of a sudden I’m at Miami and he’s at New England, all the guys in college coaching that you have to play against.”
When you’ve been in the coaching game since 1973 like Saban has, a fair share of connections and relationships will be built. But Freeze and Saban’s is special, with Freeze revealing at SEC Media Days that he and his wife vacation with the Sabans and that they were some of his biggest supporters during his two years away from coaching following a controversial exit from Ole Miss.
The close friends will now square off in one of college football’s most notorious rivalry games, but Saban does not see his status with Freeze impacting the game.
“I’ve always been a guy that has a lot of respect for coaches and what we do to try to promote our game and how we try to impact young people as players. I think you can have a relationship with somebody and still compete like crazy when you play against each other, but it’s really not personal,” Saban explained. “The outcome of the game is really not personal, you’re doing the best you can to get your team to play the best and I respect that as a coach, and we’re gonna do the best we can to get our team to play their best as a coach and hopefully people respect that.”
Saban holds a 3-2 record over Freeze when the two used to square off during Freeze’s five-year tenure as the head coach of Ole Miss. And even though Freeze will now be sporting the navy and orange that Crimson Tide fans despise, Saban is sure that nothing will be personal.
“But at the end of the day, does it have to effect your relationship? I don’t think so. I don’t think you have to dislike somebody or have an adversarial relationship with somebody to actually compete against them,” Saban concluded.
Auburn hosts this year’s Iron Bowl, which kicks off this Saturday at 3 p.m. in a rivalry game airing on CBS.