Alabama football head coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher had an extremely public war of words during the offseason before the 2022 season. Saban made a comment about the Aggies buying their recruiting class and Fisher responded by calling a press conference where he blasted Alabama’s coach, calling him a “Narcissist.”

By SEC spring meetings that year, the two had moved on, at least publicly. The Crimson Tide beat Texas A&M in Tuscaloosa last season.

On Thursday, Saban was asked about Fisher during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. He had nothing but praise for the coach who served as his offensive coordinator at LSU after McAfee noted that the relation was likely a reason the Alabama-TAMU game is viewed as a rivalry..

“Jimbo’s a good coach,” Saban said. “He’s a good guy. We come from the same part of West Virginia. I’ve known him for a long, long time. He’s done an outstanding job there and I respect him as an offensive coach about as much as anybody we play against.”

Last year’s Alabama win in Tuscaloosa came after Texas A&M beat the Tide in 2021. Saban said Thursday that he’s not bringing up the two-year-old loss this week.

He also discussed how the game with the Aggies has become a rivalry in the eyes of fans.

“I think rivalries come from other teams being good,” Saban said. “LSU has always been really, really good so that became a big game. It wasn’t really a natural rivalry. And I think Texas A&M is kind of the same way. They’re really, really good. They’ve got a really good team this year. Every year we played them, this has kind of been a pivotal game for them and us, so I think the importance of the game depends on how you define rivalry I guess, but the importance of the game gets escalated because they have a really good team and I think they have a really good team so it’s gonna be two good teams playing. We gotta do it on the road in some tough environment, but I think that’s a challenge that most players really like.”

Alabama and Texas A&M are scheduled to kick off Saturday at 2:30 in College Station. The game will be aired on CBS.

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