When you’ve had the career Alabama coach Nick Saban has had, it’s probably difficult to pick just one favorite game.

However, during Saban’s Thursday night radio show this week, he was asked to do just that, and his answer was a good one.

As you can see below, Saban said the 2009 Rose Bowl against Texas — his first title at Alabama — stands out above the rest (via 247Sports):

“If I had to pick one, it would probably be the Rose Bowl game, the first national championship game in 2009 against Texas,” he said. “Only because in just the third year of being here, we took a not-so-good team, a 6-6 team, and all these players – some were here, some were new guys, some came here like Julio Jones and Rolando McClain and a bunch of guys, Mark Barron – they all came here when we weren’t good. But they were highly-recruited guys and they believed in what we were trying to do and what we were going to.

“But they came here not because we were 12-0 or we were going to win a national championship — they came here because they wanted to build something and do something special for the state of Alabama, the university and the tradition of the school. And they all bought into it and we sort of took all those guys who were here, and they bought into and we had pretty good recruits for a couple years and they were pretty young guys. And Texas had a really good team. The Rose Bowl was a great atmosphere. And that’s probably, if I had to pick one, not that all the championship games aren’t special. And the one I think about the most and the one that bothers me the most is the one that we lost. But if you want a best memory, I guess it would have to be the first one.”

That game set Alabama down the path it is currently on today, so it’s no surprise it holds a special place in Saban’s heart.

Now, he’s chasing his sixth title at Bama (seventh overall), and many think he will get it with this year’s squad.