Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher feud: Explaining relationship between Alabama, Texas A&M coaches

There are inextricable bonds that connect Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher.

They’re from the same state, growing up in towns only about 20 minutes apart. For five seasons, they worked together on the same LSU coaching staff and helped lift the Tigers to the kind of glory they hadn’t enjoyed in a generation. They now coach in not only the same conference, but also the same division, with Saban at Alabama and Fisher at Texas A&M.

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On a more fundamental level, they’re both deeply competitive, driven and even obsessive individuals who have reached some of the greatest heights their profession has to offer. It’s those similarities, though, that have created and exposed some of their greatest differences.

College football coaches, like other figures in sports and entertainment, are prone to the occasional feud. While Saban and Fisher have never gone so far as to release their own personal versions of “Hit Em Up” or “Ether,” the two haven’t always gotten along, with those disagreements sometimes opening themselves up for the whole world to watch in amusement.

As No. 10 Alabama prepares to face off against Texas A&M on Saturday at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, let’s take a closer look at the complicated history between the coaches:

The origins of Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher’s relationship

Saban and Fisher are both natives of West Virginia, with Saban from Fairmont and Fisher from Clarksburg, both of which are in the northern part of the state not far from the Pennsylvania border.

That proximity didn’t do much for them when they were growing up, as the 71-year-old Saban is 14 years older than Fisher, but eventually, the two found their way into each other’s lives.

Shortly after being hired as LSU's coach in 2000, Saban was in the process of filling out his staff when he turned his attention Fisher, then a 34-year-old coach who had just finished up his first season as offensive coordinator at Cincinnati. Fisher’s scheme was predicated on short, precise throws that ate up clock and helped his team control possession. In that, Saban saw a natural complement to his defense and what he wanted to implement at LSU.

Together, they excelled. By Saban’s second year, a program that won just three games the season before he took over went 10-3 and won the Sugar Bowl while Fisher’s offense started to blossom, averaging 28.5 points per game in 2001 (more than a touchdown better than the offense he inherited). In 2003, behind a ferocious defense and a much-improved offense that averaged 33.9 points per game, the Tigers won the national championship, their first since 1958.

In December 2004, Saban left LSU to coach the Miami Dolphins, while Fisher stuck around Baton Rouge for two more years, serving as offensive coordinator for Saban’s successor, Les Miles.

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The early stages of Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher’s feud

Lurking beneath all of LSU’s achievements was smoldering, often unseen (at least publicly), friction between Saban and Fisher.

Some of the reasons for that acrimony were relatively minor. Fisher, according to a 2022 report from The Athletic, was frustrated with some of the ways in which Saban ran the program, like mandatory recruiting meetings on Saturday mornings that required every assistant to be present, even if they were calling in from the road.

Much of it, though, stemmed from opposing philosophies and inherently oppositional goals.

Fisher believed Saban’s preferred style of play limited his offenses, a maddening reality for a 30-something coordinator eager to prove his offensive prowess on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Former LSU linebackers coach Mike Collins told The Athletic that for practices, Fisher would have to hand over his offensive script to Saban so that the Tigers’ offense ran its entire series while its defense knew exactly what it was going to be doing.

Ever the competitor, Fisher would do whatever he could to overcome those seemingly insurmountable obstacles and have his offense come out on top.

“There was (friction) all the time,” a former LSU staffer told The Athletic. “Will (Muschamp) and Kirby (Smart) and all the defensive guys all bowed down to Nick, but Nick depended on Jimbo a lot. But Nick is so hard on his (offensive coordinators). They were always at each other’s throats.”

Fisher would often contrast Saban’s style with the Bowdens, as Fisher had previously played and coached under Terry Bowden at Samford before serving as his quarterbacks coach at Auburn for six seasons. Soon enough, he got his chance to work for a Bowden. After a deal to become the UAB head coach fell apart late after the 2006 season, Fisher was hired by Bobby Bowden to be his offensive coordinator at Florida State.

When Bowden stepped down following the 2009 season, Fisher took over as head coach.

In February 2012, in what would be perhaps the most consequential move in his tenure with the Seminoles, Fisher signed five-star quarterback Jameis Winston, a Hueytown, Alabama, native who became the rare elite in-state player not to end up with Saban and the Crimson Tide. Two years later, as a redshirt freshman, Winston won the Heisman Trophy and led Florida State to its third national championship in program history.

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How Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher's feud intensified

Even with their occasional head-butting at LSU, Saban and Fisher had a largely cordial relationship, at least publicly, in part because they could exist in separate spheres, with Saban in the SEC and Fisher in the ACC.

During an April 2017 news conference, and with Alabama set to play Florida State in its season opener that September, Saban even said Fisher was the best offensive coordinator he ever had at the college or professional level. That détente was destined to only last for so long.

In December 2017, Fisher left Florida State and signed a 10-year, $75 million deal to become the Texas A&M coach, placing him right alongside Saban and the Crimson Tide in the SEC West, meaning the two would square off every season.

For several years, it only affected things so much. The Crimson Tide won each of its first three matchups against the Fisher-led Aggies by at least 19 points. Even when Texas A&M upset the top-ranked Crimson Tide 41-38 in 2021, making Fisher the first former Saban assistant to ever beat their old boss as a head coach and snapping Alabama’s 100-game win streak against unranked opponents, there were no indications that the result caused any sort of pronounced rift between mentor and mentee.

The following year, that changed. Whatever sense of calm there had been in Saban and Fisher’s relationship quickly disappeared. In 2022, Texas A&M signed the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class, finishing ahead of No. 2 Alabama. By a number of measurements, the Aggies’ 30-player haul was regarded as the best in college football history. It also marked the end of the first recruiting cycle in which players could capitalize on NCAA rule changes from the previous summer and profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Speaking at a fundraiser in Birmingham in May 2022 that had been billed a “fireside chat,” Saban addressed concerns about recruiting with NIL suddenly a major consideration for athletes. In the process, he fired a direct jab at Texas A&M.

“I know the consequence is going to be difficult for the people who are spending tons of money to get players,” Saban said. “You read about it, you know who they are. We were second in recruiting last year. A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for Name, Image and Likeness. We didn’t buy one player, aight? But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to sustain that in the future, because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”

His comments, understandably, made news. In a single public appearance, the most famous and accomplished coach in the sport lashed out not only at a conference rival that had just bested him on signing day, but a former assistant coach who he had spoken of glowingly in the past.

Fisher wasted little time issuing a rebuttal. He called a hastily scheduled news conference the following day and came after Saban as pointedly and aggressively as anyone in the coaching profession ever has.

Fisher called Saban a "narcissist" and repeatedly described his comments about the Aggies’ recruiting class as “despicable,” while seemingly encouraging reporters to delve into his former boss’ past.

“Some people think they're God," Fisher said. "Go dig into how God did his deal. You may find out ... a lot of things you don't want to know. We build him up to be the czar of football. Go dig into his past, or anybody's that's ever coached with him. You can find out anything you want to find out, what he does and how he does it. It's despicable."

Fisher later defended Texas A&M’s recruiting practices, claiming that his program “never bought anybody.” He added that Saban had called him, but he chose not to answer.

"Not going to. We're done," Fisher said. "He's the greatest ever, huh? When you've got all the advantages, it's easy. ... You coach with people like Bobby Bowden and learn how to do things. You coach with other people and learn how not to do things. There's a reason, people, I ain't back and worked for (Saban). Don't want to be associated with him. You can call me anything you want to call me. You can't call me a cheat. I don't cheat and I don't lie. I learned that when I was a kid. If you did, your old man, slapped you upside the head. Maybe somebody should have slapped him."

The exchange left many in the college football world stunned, including Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who told reporter Bruce Feldman that he was “speechless for the first time in my life.”

Later that day, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey issued a reprimand to both coaches, whom he said went against the conference’s “established expectations for conduct and sportsmanship.” Sankey even referenced three specific league bylaws that Saban and Fisher had violated.

"A hallmark of the SEC is intense competition within an environment of collaboration,” Sankey said in a statement. “Public criticism of any kind does not resolve issues and creates a distraction from seeking solutions for the issues facing college athletics today. There is tremendous frustration concerning the absence of consistent rules from state to state related to name, image and likeness. We need to work together to find solutions and that will be our focus at the upcoming SEC spring meetings."

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The aftermath of Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher's feud

On the same day as Fisher’s explosive news conference and Sankey’s statement, Saban apologized in an interview on SiriusXM radio, saying that he erred by specifically referencing Texas A&M.

"I should’ve never really singled anybody out," Saban said. "That was a mistake, and I apologize for that part of it."

For his part, Fisher said at that year’s SEC Meetings in Destin, Florida, that he and Saban had moved past their squabble.

“It’s over with,” Fisher said. “We’re done talking about it. We’re moving on to the future and what goes on and try to fix the problems of what we have in college football. We have a lot more pressing needs than our argument.”

Following Alabama’s 24-20 victory last season against Texas A&M in Tuscaloosa, the two shared a handshake near midfield that appeared neither brisk nor contentious.

As Saban and Fisher prepare to meet again on Saturday, the tone between them is significantly warmer than it was 18 months ago.

"Jimbo's a good coach, he's a good guy,” Saban said Thursday in his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “We come from the same part of West Virginia. I've known him for a long, long time. He's done an outstanding job there. I respect him as an offensive coach as much as anybody we play against.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Explaining feud between Alabama's Nick Saban, Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher