A lot’s changed in 137 days.

Go back to the morning of May 19 and the whole sports world was transfixed by a good old-fashioned West Virginia feud. A few hours after Nick Saban’s comments on Texas A&M’s 2022 recruiting class lit the match, Jimbo Fisher grabbed the gas can.

What followed was one of the most incendiary news conferences, one that redefined scorched earth between former coworkers who rose to coaching fame from the same corner of the Mountaineer State. Hearing Saban say A&M “bought every player on the team” at a Birmingham speaking engagement set the stage.

Fisher called Saban a narcissist who probably should’ve been slapped more as a child. Then there were the vague allegations of wrongdoing that Fisher insinuated built the foundation of Saban’s empire.

At the time, Oct. 8 was penciled in as not just the SEC game of the year, but a national headliner. CBS would later use its one primetime broadcast of the season on the Saban-Fisher reunion set for Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Since then, the haymakers became handshakes as the personal attacks quickly turned to reconciliation. From a firework-free SEC spring meetings in Destin to continued assurances the beef was dead at July’s league media days, if any hard feelings linger, they haven’t seen the light of day.

That and Texas A&M’s fall from No. 6 in the preseason polls to currently unranked with losses to Appalachian State and Mississippi State sucked all the oxygen from the ultimate hype machine. The injury to Alabama quarterback Bryce Young consumed Saban’s news conference Monday to the point not one question about the Fisher situation was asked.

In College Station, there was more talk of the nine minutes and 30 seconds spent at the mic May 19. A few side-by-side comments illustrate the difference in tone from Fisher in regard to Saban.

• May 19: “We’re done.”
• Oct. 3: “We’re in good shape.”

And both times, Fisher offered unsolicited evaluations of where Saban stands among the coaching legends of college football.

• May 19: “He’s the greatest ever, huh? When you’ve got all the advantages? It’s easy.”
• Oct. 3: “Nick is just a tremendous coach, arguably — people say he’s one of the best ever or the best ever. That could very well be. No doubt. There’s a huge argument for that …”

Later in his Monday news conference, Fisher even joked by paying homage to an answer Saban gave twice in the past three days when asked about the quarterback gameplan. Texas A&M has a similar mystery shrouding the health and availability of starter Max Johnson and when asked about it Monday, he went to a Saban favorite.

“What do you want me to do, call Nick and tell him?” Fisher said with a grin. “I mean, guys, come on man.”

Otherwise, it was business as usual for Fisher ahead of guiding his 3-2 Aggies into Tuscaloosa to face top-ranked Alabama. Fisher punted when asked about his intent during the fiery May 19 take-down of Saban.

“That’s over with,” Fisher said. “He and I are in great shape, we’re great things and we’ve moved on.”

That’s the tone answers have taken in the aftermath of the one-day flash fire that drew public reprimands for both Fisher and Saban from the SEC.

Alabama linebacker Will Anderson over the summer said the Crimson Tide locker room took note of all the talk, saying “everything will be addressed” when A&M visits in October.

He was measured when asked about it Monday.

“I come here to play football. I don’t come here to write tweets,” Anderson said. “I don’t come here to go back and forth. People may try to make it a big thing, but at the end of the day, I have a scholarship to play football. Coach Saban brought me here to play football, he bought us all here to play football.”

It was a feud that found the perfect soft spot in the calendar to make not just the lead story on SportsCenter, but the network evening news.

Fast forward four and a half months and ESPN College GameDay is heading to Lawrence, Kansas instead of Tuscaloosa.

The underlying recruiting issues that set the stage for Saban’s comments and Fisher’s response are far from settled as the sport wrestles with the high-dollar, high-stakes world of recruiting.

But long after any visions of a Saturday night, midfield fist fight between two of the sport’s highest-paid coaches faded, unranked Texas A&M will visit Bryant-Denny Stadium a long way from its No. 6 preseason ranking.

And instead of front-page news, memories of May 19, 2022 will be more of a subplot on the primetime broadcast on network television.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.