According to one of the most prominent figures in the sport, it’s a setback that could soon be forgotten.
While discussing Ohio State and whether coach Ryan Day’s squad is the best team remaining in the College Football Playoff, Nick Saban said on ESPN’s “College GameDay” Thursday that “nobody’s gonna remember” that the Buckeyes lost to Michigan if they go on to win the national championship.
Saban cited his experience coaching in another famed college football rivalry, the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn, as proof of why he thinks that otherwise inexplicable memory lapse might occur.
“Does anybody here know that we lost to Auburn, which is like Ohio State losing to Michigan, and then we won the national championship?” Saban said inside Hard Rock Stadium ahead of Penn State’s game against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. “Nobody remembers that we lost to Auburn and nobody’s gonna remember that they lost to Michigan.”
In 2017, an undefeated and top-ranked Alabama team lost to Auburn 26-14, but still made the playoff as a No. 4 seed. From there, it defeated Clemson and Georgia to win Saban’s fifth national championship at the school.
Saban’s comment didn’t go uncontested, as fellow “GameDay” analyst Desmond Howard, a former Michigan standout, jumped in to disagree.
“That’s not true,” Howard said. “That’s not true. They’re going to remember they lost to Michigan.”
It’s not the first time that Saban, who was a defensive backs coach at Ohio State for two seasons in the early 1980s, has downplayed the importance of the Buckeyes’ most recent loss in “The Game.” In a Dec. 27 appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the legendary coach said Ohio State fans have “a psychotic obsession” with Michigan and that “they need to get therapy or something.”
It’s quite possible that the Buckeyes will go on to win the national championship given how impressive they’ve looked in lopsided playoff wins against Tennessee and Oregon. It’s much less likely, though, that scarlet-and-gray-clad fans in Ohio and throughout the country will forget about the loss to Michigan because of it, even if a title takes some of the sting away from it.
Ohio State will look to continue its push for a national title and potentially prove Saban’s theory correct Friday when it faces off against Texas in the Cotton Bowl, with the winner advancing to the playoff championship game.
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