Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave some insight on the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry on College GameDay Saturday morning and took a bit of a shot at Auburn in the process.
The Crimson Tide roll into Knoxville to take on the Volunteers Saturday afternoon with both teams looking to bounce back after a few tough weeks. But while this game has the Third Saturday in October pageantry that one would expect, this year’s contest has direct playoff implications come Sunday morning.
Saban won’t be coaching against the Vols on Saturday but shared his thoughts on preparing for his 17 contests against Tennessee during his career.
“For our players, this was a bigger rivalry than any other game that we played,” Saban said on the broadcast. “I’m talking about rivalry games. Even bigger than Auburn to our players. It was almost difficult for me to get our players up for the Auburn game, it was never difficult for the Tennessee game.”
Saban went 16-1 against Tennessee in his career and 12-5 against Auburn.
Nick Saban said Tennessee was always Alabama’s biggest rival. Sometimes he had trouble getting them up to play Auburn. That was never an issue for the Tennessee games. pic.twitter.com/qKkzBbN3Qv
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 19, 2024
More from RTI: Where CFB Analyst Joel Klatt Is Putting His Trust for Tennessee-Alabama Game on Saturday
No. 11 Tennessee will host No. 7 Alabama at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage from the Third Saturday in October clash.
