Nick Saban: 'I always hated playing against Texas'

For two straight years, Texas and Alabama faced off in heated battles that stood out among the best college football games of the season. Both teams captured victories on the road, and both games were absolutely riveting contests in true cauldrons of college football stadiums.

It turns out that all that intensity, while fun to watch, was hell on Saban and his Alabama staff.

Per Saban's commentary at SEC Media Days, as captured by Sports Illustrated's College Football Nation, the former Alabama coach found Texas to be a particular headache to face because of Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian's offensive systems.

And it wasn't just game planning and play calling. It was Sarkisian's broader system that gave the Alabama defense headaches.

"I always hated playing against Texas," Saban said at SEC Media Days. ...

"I kind of always hated playing against Sark.

"In practice for several years, as well as when we played them the last couple years. Because they do such a good job with what I call squeeze-splits. We play in this day and age where people take these huge splits like Tennessee, which, that's a problem, too.

"But players are not used to — especially DBs — are not used to playing when you have squeeze-splits. Because you put them in unfamiliar positions, whether it's run support or how they cover. When you're in squeeze-splits, how can this guy get to that side of the field quickly, which messes up your pattern matches."

Saban's comments are a fascinating inside look at what makes Sarkisian's offense so difficult to match up against. The former BYU quarterback has made his mark by being a savant at spacing and movement, and the ability of that positioning to create offensive mismatches apparently was a key factor even against the likes of Saban's Alabama defenses, among the best college football has seen.

Whether Sarkisian will have similar success against the rest of the SEC remains to be seen, but is something we'll get to witness play out firsthand in the months ahead.