Revisiting Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh's feuds ahead of Alabama Rose Bowl Game vs. Michigan

Last Wednesday, shortly after their respective teams arrived in Southern California for Monday’s Rose Bowl, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh took a second to pose for a photograph.

While on a visit to Disneyland, the two stood next to Mickey Mouse. The photo made the rounds on social media because, how could it not? Given the history between the two coaches, though, it might be for the best that a perpetually smiling cartoon mouse stood between them.

Saban and Harbaugh are two of the most successful and decorated coaches in modern college football, with each standing at the helm of one of the two winningest programs in FBS history and each guided by a hard-headed, hyper-focused and ruthlessly competitive personality.

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Though they have only faced off once as head coaches, the two have occasionally been at odds with one another, their feuds commanding the attention of the sport. In recent days and weeks, the two have been complimentary of one another, expressing respect for the other. But beneath that is a history that hasn’t always been harmonious.

As Saban’s Crimson Tide and Harbaugh’s Wolverines prepare for their meeting on Monday in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl, here’s a look back at their previous run-ins:

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Nick Saban criticizes Jim Harbaugh, satellite camps

In 2015 and 2016, there were few issues or subjects that loomed larger in the broader college football landscape than satellite camps.

At the time, and through a loophole in NCAA rules, college coaches were able to travel to work as guests at camps and clinics hosted by other institutions. If a camp was being held at a small college or clinic, a college coach from hundreds or even thousands of miles away could show up as an instructor and get valuable face-to-face time with recruits.

No college coach embraced the legal wrinkle quite as much as Harbaugh, who frequently appeared at the camps, including at Prattville High School outside Montgomery, where he famously went shirtless while still wearing his patented khaki pants.

While technically permissible, the camps drew criticism and ire from those around college football, particularly in the SEC. Eventually, Saban jumped into the fray. At the SEC’s annual meeting in Destin, Florida in May 2016, Saban — whose Alabama team won the national championship the previous season — said the camps were “bad for college football.”

“I don’t know how much it benefits anybody because all the people that say this is creating opportunities for kids, this is all about recruiting,” Saban said. “That’s what it’s about. … What’s amazing to me is somebody didn’t stand up and say here’s going to be the unintended consequences of what you all are doing.

"There needs to be somebody that looks out for what's best for the game, not what's best for the Big Ten or what's best for the SEC or what's best for Jim Harbaugh, but what's best for the game of college football,” Saban later added.

It only took so long for those words to reach Harbaugh. Later that day, the Wolverines coach took to Twitter to offer a rebuttal.

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Alabama runs up score on Michigan in 2020 Citrus Bowl

While Saban and Harbaugh’s teams have squared off just once heading into Monday’s Rose Bowl, the coaches made sure that lone meeting counted.

In January 2020, No. 9 Alabama and No. 17 Michigan met in the Citrus Bowl. The Tide came away with a 35-16 victory in which it outscored the Wolverines 21-0 in the second half.

It was how the game ended, though, that was most notable.

Nursing a 12-point lead with 30 seconds remaining, and with Michigan out of timeouts, Alabama could have knelt the ball and ended the game then and there. Instead, the offense snapped the ball on a third-and-goal from the 2-yard line, with Najee Harris plowing into the end zone to extend the Tide’s advantage to 19 points.

Though the move didn’t create any public acrimony — Saban and Harbaugh exchanged a brief but not apparently adversarial handshake after the game — it did raise questions of the Tide running up the score with the game already locked up.

Saban had at least one prominent defender in Paul Finebaum, who praised the move the following day in an appearance on a Mobile radio station.

“I’ve never heard Nick Saban say anything about another coach nor have I ever seen him intentionally run up the score on anyone until yesterday,” Finebaum said. “We all know that could’ve easily ended before it did. I think Saban was showing some of the frustration of the season and showing some of the past frustration of Jim Harbaugh calling him a cheater.

“He decided, you know what? My foot is on his throat. I’m just going to kick him one more time. I felt like the college football world cheered Saban yesterday in doing that. I know I did. Leave it to Nick Saban in a game against a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team with an additional score at the end to make a statement to end a season with most Alabama fans feeling good about themselves.”

Whether that most recent run-in between the coaches comes up in Monday's Rose Bowl Game, of course, remains to be seen.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Revisiting Nick Saban-Jim Harbaugh feud ahead of Alabama-Michigan game