Nick Saban slams the Big Ten’s depth, calls out Illinois for Indiana loss: ‘Beat like a redheaded stepchild’
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Nick Saban was critical of the Big Ten’s depth during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday afternoon.
Saban believes there are only a handful of teams in the Big Ten who could challenge Ohio State on any given week, as opposed to the SEC where there are “8 or 9 teams” who can beat the league’s best.
Saban used Indiana’s 63-10 beatdown of No. 17 Illinois from last month to prove his point with some rather colorful language.
“I don’t think the Big Ten is really that deep,” Saban said. “I think Illinois does have a pretty decent team. It’s not like the SEC where you got eight or nine teams that can beat you. There might be 3 or 4 teams in the Big Ten who can beat you.
“I mean, you think USC is going to beat Ohio State? You think that would be a game if they played, really? … You have Oregon, Indiana, legit so far. And we’ll see how legit Indiana is probably tomorrow. I mean, Illinois got beat like a redheaded stepchild down at Indiana, so are they legit? I mean, c’mon.”
Here’s a clip from the show:
Week 7 is a particularly important week for the Big Ten. In addition to a top-10 matchup between Oregon and Indiana, there are 2 other games of note. Ohio State will be on the road at Illinois in a top-25 showdown. Michigan is also set to make the trek west to face USC on the road.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
