Nick Saban takes blame for only time he had to fire an assistant coach: ‘It was my fault’

Nick Saban spoke about the experience of firing a member of his coaching staff during his weekly Friday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show this week.

Saban said he only fired 1 assistant during his entire tenure as a head coach. He didn’t clarify if it was at Alabama or one of his other stops, but Saban took full responsibility for that partnership not working out.

“I only fired 1 guy in the whole time that I was a head coach,” Saban said. “And that was my fault. Because I hired a guy to do a job that he really wasn’t qualified to do. Does that make sense? It was like the guy was an offensive line coach and I hired him to be the special teams coach. Well, that’s not really what he was. And it didn’t work out very well. But it wasn’t his fault, it was my fault.”

Here’s video of Saban’s comments, which also includes some philosophical insight into how Saban tried to build his staff when he was a head coach:

"I only fired one guy the whole time I was a coach and it was my fault..

I hired a guy to do a job that he really wasn't qualified to do" ~ Nick Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/dwMpYV60Zn

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 25, 2024

Saban was most recently the head coach at Alabama for 17 seasons, but he also had stints with LSU, Michigan State, Toledo and the Miami Dolphins during his head coaching career.

Saban, McAfee and the rest of the College GameDay crew will be in Bloomington on Saturday morning.

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Spenser Davis

Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.