Paul Finebaum: Jimbo Fisher 'likes this fight' with Nick Saban

The public feud between Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher and Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been ongoing for a couple of weeks now. Now, all eyes are on the two coaches at the SEC Meetings in Destin. Ahead of the meetings, which begin on Tuesday, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum joined Get Up to preview how the situation between Fisher and Saban could unfold.

The feud began when Saban said the Aggies “bought every player on their team” by using NIL in recruiting. Fisher had a strong response to that accusation, denying the comments and later calling Saban a “narcissist,” leading to a public reprimand from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey to both coaches.

Now, with all of the attention sure to be on Fisher and Saban in Destin, Finebaum isn’t sure if the feud will be coming to an end anytime soon. In the end, Finebaum thinks that only one of the two coaches wants to move on.

“I think with Jimbo Fisher it is real,” Finebaum said on Get Up. “He is a very proud guy. Both he and Nick Saban are from West Virginia and they take things like that very seriously. I think Saban wants to move on, I think Saban will admit privately that he made a mistake. He said something that in context was accurate but it sounded very badly.”

Finebaum on Saban/Fisher: Jimbo ‘likes this fight’

Texas A&M brought in the top-ranked 2022 recruiting class, adding nine five-star recruits and 19 four-star recruits, according to the On3 Consensus team rankings. Finebaum previously spoke about the Fisher and Saban feud, saying that the Aggies coach “predicted” this would happen.

After Finebaum said that Fisher went “DEFCON One” on Saban, this week in Destin could prove to be an interesting one. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Finebaum doesn’t believe Fisher wants to move on in the first place.

“Jimbo Fisher I don’t think wants to move on because his fan base is behind him, he thinks this is a big moment for him,” said Finebaum. “He stood up to the biggest bully. And not only has he stood up to the biggest bully here, last October Jimbo Fisher beat Saban on a football field. He’s the first assistant to ever do that.”

“I don’t think he wants to move on, but I think he’ll follow the proper decorum today and tomorrow. But deep down, he likes this fight.”