Nick Saban, as he does every week, joined the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and dropped another pearl.

Undoubtedly one of the best parts of Saban’s foray into the media world has been his willingness to loosen the tie, unbutton the collar, and be a little more colorful. His relationship with McAfee in particular has blossomed into something special, and it has set the table for Saban to pull the curtain back a little more than he used to.

Sitting inside Sanford Stadium on Friday, Saban was discussing his preference for road games over home games when the conversation shifted briefly to Ohio State.

Saban turned to AJ Hawk (an Ohio State alum) and asked if he was worried about Northwestern, whom the Buckeyes play at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Saturday.

“When I coached at Ohio State, just to show you how the culture has changed, and we played them the week before we played Michigan, we never even practiced,” Saban said. “I was the secondary coach and I couldn’t sleep at night because Dennis Green was the coach at Northwestern and they had all kinds of formations and stuff and I’m saying, ‘We’re not going to be able to get lined up.’ We practiced for Michigan the whole week. Won the game 69-0. That’s how the culture at Ohio State has changed.”

McAfee, in all his journalistic wisdom, made sure to follow up with Saban.

“What do you mean you didn’t practice? You were practicing for Michigan?” McAfee asked.

“Yeah, we practiced Michigan’s plays. We didn’t practice Northwestern’s plays in practice all week,” Saban responded.

To be fair to the Wildcats, the final score of the game Saban is referring to was 70-6, not 69-0. Though that doesn’t make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

That game took place Nov. 14, 1981. It happened a week after a ranked Ohio State team lost by 4 points on the road to Minnesota. The Buckeyes followed up the Northwestern win with a 14-9 upset over then-No. 7 Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Northwestern enters Saturday’s matchup with the Buckeyes at 4-5. While the Wildcats are struggling in Year 2 under David Braun, the program is in a much better place than the one Saban encountered decades ago.

That 1981 squad finished 0-11. It was shut out 5 times, averaged 7.5 points per game, and allowed 45.9 points per game. It became Northwestern’s second consecutive winless season. From 1976 through 1981, the Wildcats went 3-62.

Probably wouldn’t have needed to practice much for that anyway.