Jacob Hester shares how Steve Spurrier trolled Nick Saban after LSU's 2003 national championship
LSU had a special season in 2003, going 13-1 and winning its first national championship since 1958.
The Tigers took down top teams such as Oklahoma and Georgia (twice) that season. However, their one loss came on Oct. 11 in their sixth game of the season, as they fell to Florida at home, 19-7.
Because the season ended with a national title, it’d be easy to think that loss wouldn’t matter and that nobody from LSU had thought about it again. But that wasn’t the case for Nick Saban, who was the Tigers’ head coach at the time. And that was because of former Florida coach Steve Spurrier.
On WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge on Monday, former LSU running back Jacob Hester shared an amusing story about how Spurrier trolled Saban following the Tigers’ national championship win that season.
“2003, Florida beats LSU, the year LSU wins the national championship, and I can remember Coach Saban coming in in ’04 Florida week and talking about how mad he was that the job didn’t get done against Florida,” Hester recalled. “And Steve Spurrier, how he called him and was like, ‘Congratulations on the championship, but you still couldn’t beat the Gators.’ And that got after Nick Saban.”
"Congratulations on the championship, but you still couldn't beat the Gators."#LSU great Jacob Hester says former head coach Nick Saban was heavily bothered by the fact the Tigers didn't beat Florida during the 2003 national championship season. pic.twitter.com/Gl4XlSHRXe
— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) October 14, 2019
Of course, Saban could be happy that he led the Tigers to the national championship. But knowing how the current Alabama coach strives for perfection, it’s not surprising in the least to hear about how he was still bothered by that loss to Florida the next season.