On a recent podcast, former Florida State and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher talked about what it was like to work under former Alabama and LSU head coach Nick Saban.
Fisher worked with Saban while he was at Saban and was one of the few assistants that had beaten Saban while he was at Alabama, although he didn’t have a winning record against him.
“He was a defensive guy that took care of the defense and he wanted to play a certain way on offense,” Fisher said. “He and I had a great relationship, and I have great respect for him. Learned a lot of football from him. Learned a lot of organizational things.
Fisher was with Saban for six years while he was at LSU from 2000-2006 and was the offensive coordinator before he left to become the head coach of FSU where he won his only national championship. Before Fisher became the head coach of FSU, he worked under another great head coach, Bobby Bowden.
He said that despite the different personalities each coach had, they were basically the same.
“I had Bowden and I had Nick,” Fisher said. “They were two different people entirely… As I always say, there’s two different ways to skin a cat. You could do things a different way. But I kind of took the best, I thought, of both. But I always had to make it my own. “
Fisher added, “What made both of them unique and successful? They were themselves. They weren’t fake. Bobby did it one way, Nick did it another. Kids and people won’t follow people who are fake or try to be somebody else because it eventually it bites you.”
Even though their relationship may not be as close as it once was, Fisher clearly has much respect for Nick Saban.