Much like his mentor Bill Belichick, Nick Saban is not exactly known as a sentimental type. But when asked about the retirement of Bobby Bowden on Tuesday night, Saban gushed.He said that the two coaches in his profession that he had the most respect for were Bowden and Penn State Coach Joe Paterno.
Saban then told a story about how when he was a graduate assistant at Kent State more than 30 years ago. Bowden, then the coach at West Virginia, made a phone call that Saban will never forget after Saban’s father passed away.
“I don’t know him from Adam’s house cat,” Saban said. “He calls me up on the phone and says, ‘I knew your dad. Sorry he passed away. I knows your mom is struggling a little bit. Do you want to come to W.V.U. and be a graduate assistant. I’ll have a spot for you if you come home.’”
Saban added: “How many people would do that? How many coaches would do that. That’s no one else that I have more respect for.”
Saban said one of the things that stuck with him about Bowden was that when he recruited against Florida State, he never heard about the Seminoles’ negative recruiting.
“Obviously, the success that he’s had, few us will ever have the opportunity to match,” Saban said.
Related searches:
nick saban arrested, nick saban biography, lou saban, urban meyer, saban
