Nick Saban shares his view of Bear Bryant as he seeks to join him in rare championship class
By Keith Farner
Published:
Nick Saban and Bear Bryant are often mentioned in the same conversation about the greatest coaches of all time, and while Saban has more national championships, he’s seeking Monday night to join Bryant as the only coaches to win back-to-back titles twice.
Saban last year passed Bryant for most national championships with 7, including 6 at Alabama alongside the 2003 BCS title at LSU, while Bryant had 6 himself.
“I still think in my mind, he’s the greatest coach of all time. I still look up to him just that way,” Saban said on ESPN. “And if it wasn’t for the legacy of what he did at Alabama, there would be no way that we could have the success that we had at Alabama. Because he established a tradition and a standard that helped us just emulate it to a degree, so that we could have success in the program. But he was really the pioneer that set the foundation for a lot of things in our profession.”
Alabama and Georgia are set to kick off on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Bear Bryant. Nick Saban.
Two @AlabamaFTBL legends.
“I still think in my mind, he’s the greatest coach of all time. I still look up to him just that way.” —Coach Saban@MartySmithESPN #MartyAndMcGee pic.twitter.com/SZYzmhe2WC
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 10, 2022
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
