While admitting to admiring Nick Saban for years, even Tony Kornheiser has limits to what he’s willing to defend.

During a recent episode of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, hosts Michael Wilbon and Kornheiser could not believe that Saban would “beef down” as they described it, and concern himself with UCF. You have to wonder if the two hosts even read what Saban had to say, as he didn’t even address UCF specifically when asked about the school’s claims to the national championship recently by George Schroeder of USA TODAY Sports.

If you missed what Saban said, here it is:

“If you honor and respect the system that we have, (despite) some of the imperfections that you understand that the system has, then you wouldn’t do something out of respect for the system that we have. I guess anybody has the prerogative to claim anything. But self-proclaimed is not the same as actually earning it. And there’s probably a significant number of people who don’t respect people who make self-proclaimed sort of accolades for themselves.”

That was apparently enough to make the two PTI hosts seriously question the Crimson Tide coach. In fact, they both called him “petty” following his comments.

“This is so small and so petty to beef down like this,” Kornheiser said on PTI. “You coach Alabama for God’s sakes. What are you worried about Central Florida? You are the only person Wilbon, who knows what conference there are in. It doesn’t matter what they claim. Nobody north of Jacksonville is paying attention to what they claim, so let it go. You are Alabama! Let it go.”

His co-host responded with his own thoughts.

“He can’t, we know this Tony. He is a petty man in so many ways,”Wilbon commented. “He’s demonstrated that over the years, so you know he’s not going to let it go. When they said Central Florida, he should have said, ‘What? Who?’ You just ignore it. This is an enormous beef down that he would pay any attention to this.”

Kornheiser then added his final thoughts on the subject.

“I would like to tell you this is beneath Saban, but nothing apparently is beneath Saban,”Kornheiser said. “Saban wrings the joy out of every single thing he is involved with, he is, as the kids say, a buzzkill. Let this go. If UCF is such a powerhouse, their coach wouldn’t have left — he went to Nebraska. Let it go.”

Wilbon finalized the segment with one final thought.

“I love that Central Florida has gotten under his skin,” Wilbon added. “How great is that?”

It’s hard to imagine UCF is really “under Saban’s skin” considering these are the first public comments the Alabama coach has made regarding the Knights since the end of the 2017 season. Whereas UCF seems to come up with a way to bring attention to itself on a weekly, if not daily, basis since that time.