Nick Saban Trolls Texas Longhorns In A Way Only He can

Alabama's legendary head coach, Nick Saban, retired following the 2023 season and has since transitioned into an analyst role with ESPN, but clearly, he is a bit biased toward the program where he won six titles.

When attending his first SEC media days where he was a part of the panel asking coaches questions and not the other way around, Saban did field one question that turned a few heads. When asked who he felt would play for and win the SEC title, he went with Georgia and Texas .

A take that many people across college football took as somewhat of a slap in the face for his former program. Going with their SEC rivals and the biggest threat to the Alabama dynasty in the Georgia Bulldogs, and the program that beat them at home last season in the Texas Longhorns.

However, on Friday, we learned that Saban was using a bit of reverse psychology, or as he called it on The Pat McAfee Show, "reverse rat poison."

"It's kind of reverse rat poison," Saban told McAfee.

"I always hated it," Saban said. 'I'm going to hate it on this show. I might as well say it right off the bat. This show, any show, or GameDay. Having to predict and make hypothetical decisions about who's going to win a game, who's going to win the championship, who's going to win what conference. I've always hated that.'

He also admitted that he was using the prediction as a way to provoke and motivate his former team.

"I picked Georgia and Texas because it's reverse rat poison for Alabama. It's a motivating factor for them not to get picked because I hated to get picked first or second because you don't know how that's going to impact your team psychologically.

"These kids are affected a lot by what they read, what they hear, what they see," Saban added. "I didn't want them to see anything too good."

So, does Saban actually think Texas will make it ? Or is it the Bulldogs he is doubting? Regardless of which team he is less confident in, now we know he was just getting in one final lesson for his former squad.

The new-look Crimson Tide opens up the Kalen DeBoer era and their quest to prove Saban wrong on August 31, against Western Kentucky.

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