Nick Saban fires shot at Ohio State fans over their mindset of The Game: 'They all need to go see the doctor'

Even after a national championship, Ohio State‘s Ryan Day finds himself facing a ton of pressure over Thanksgiving weekend. The losing streak to Michigan currently stands at four, with the possibility of five coming Saturday. Or, Ohio State can get back to winning ways in The Game, something fans desperately want.

Nick Saban has given his thoughts on how Ohio State fans act in this rivalry before. Well, those were rehashed on Wednesday when previewing the game. Saban says folks in Columbus need to “go see the doctor” to fix their mindset.

“These Ohio State fans, they’re psychotic about this, man,” Saban said via The Pat McAfee Show. “They all need to go see the doctor or some place. I’d rather win the national championship than beat Michigan. That’s just me. Although, I’d love to beat Michigan, don’t get me wrong.”

This is not an outsider speaking about The Game, either. Saban coached in the Big Ten at points of his career, spending two seasons at Ohio State under head coach Woody Hayes. He was the defensive backs coach in 1980 and 1981, actually reflecting on the latter. An unranked Ohio State took down No. 7 Michigan because of the loosened mood inside the locker room.

“When I was at Ohio State, in the last year, we beat them,” Saban said. “Similar situation except in reverse. They were ranked really high, we had already lost two games. We had a terrible, negative week of practice. But Woody (Hayes) came and talked to the team and said ‘This is an opportunity for a great win.’ That was the difference in the mindset of how we played. They played tight, we played loose, and we played ass over tea kettle and won the game 14-9.”

Saban took part in plenty of rivalry games during his time as the head coach. Michigan State is not too fond of Michigan either, winning the Paul Bunyan Trophy twice in five tries. And then there is the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn, a game Saban produced mixed results in until later in his career.

In his eyes, Ohio State fans are taking things to the next level. He will not be surrounded by many of them on Saturday as the game takes place in Ann Arbor. But if the Buckeyes lose, he might hear for plenty, even as they roll into another College Football Playoff.