Nick Saban calls Gus Malzahn 'very stubborn' in offensive plan, reveals how he created issues for Alabama

Nick Saban is undisputedly the greatest college football head coach to ever live. Over his prolific career, Saban compiled a 292-71-1 record with seven National Championships (one at LSU, six at Alabama) and 11 SEC Championships (two at LSU, nine at Alabama).

One of the biggest thorns in his side, however, was always former Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn. Malzahn was one of Saban’s biggest rivals, as he went 3-5 against the Hall of Famer in eight Alabama/Auburn matchups.

During Friday’s edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ Saban delved into why exactly his teams are so hard to play against. Malzahn, who is now the offensive coordinator at Florida State, helped the Seminoles to a 31-17 win over the Crimson Tide in this year’s season opener.

“Gus always gave us the most problems when he had a running quarterback, which is what he has now at Florida State,” Saban said. “He is very stubborn and committed to running the football. When you add the extra element of quarterback runs to all the zone options and zone reads, it adds a whole other element to the offense. And then they have a really good play-action pass system that goes with that.

“Not a great drop-back team, but when they have a great running quarterback, it creates a huge advantage to me for Gus in terms of what he loves to do. That’s when he gave us lots of problems. Couple of those games were crazy games, man. Crazy games where they beat us. Kick six. One time, we were gonna get the ball back with a minute and something to go and we had 12 guys on the field. Just crazy stuff, but good coaching on their part.”

Malzahn heads No. 1 offense in the country at Florida State

With Malzahn running the offense this season, Florida State ranks first in the country in both yards per game (600.0) and points per game (53.0). Transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos has excelled as well, passing for 848 yards and four touchdowns through four games. He also boasts 217 rushing yards and four more scores on the ground.

Castellanos played for Malzahn at UCF briefly before the two parted ways. This has been a major reason for the success the two have enjoyed together so far this season.

“He’s already familiar with the big picture stuff we did,” Malzahn said in August. “Obviously, being with me a couple years ago. I think the challenge — our defense presents so many challenges. There’s some unconventional things with the things that we do, which makes it really tough on offenses with IDing things. So, when you’re installing, sometimes you’ve got to take that into account with everything. But he’s done a really, really good job up to this point.”

No. 18 Florida State looks to bounce back from last Friday night’s loss to Virginia this weekend against No. 3 Miami. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.