Former Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t pull any punches this Friday when talking about Ohio State’s fan base on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Saban has made it known on “College GameDay” that he’s not very fond of social media trolls. With that said, his latest rant about negative football fans might be his best work yet. The seven-time national champion claims a decent portion of Ohio State’s fan base has a “psychotic obsession” with Michigan. He thinks it’s so bad that some fans need therapy just to get over the rivalry.
“These Ohio State fans, you know, they’ve got a psychotic obsession with Michigan and they need to go get therapy or something to try to get it fixed,” Saban said. “They have a chance to win the national championship and here you are, you know, and nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play because they, you know, lost to Michigan, which was a tough game and they lost the game, probably, by some of the mistakes that they made. Those are correctable things.”
In a matter of minutes, Saban’s comments about Ohio State fans having a “psychotic obsession” with Michigan went viral on social media.
“Ohio State has a chance to win the National Championship..
This team has it all and they have a chance to continue to prove everybody wrong”
Coach Saban #PMSLive https://t.co/g6GaDz0Gwf pic.twitter.com/voZDhyI2sM
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 27, 2024
Before Ohio State fans respond to Saban’s criticism, just know he thinks the Buckeyes have what it takes to win the national title this year.
“If they play like they played against Tennessee, they’re going to have a really good chance to have a chance to win a championship,” Saban said. “I think this is probably the most talented team if they play to the standard and the level. Offense, defense – they pretty much got it all.”
What Ohio State doesn’t have right now is a ton of support from its fans. There are a lot of them still frustrated about Ryan Day’s inability to defeat Michigan.
Day could silence some of his critics by defeating Oregon in the quarterfinals next Wednesday. However, that won’t be enough to satisfy everyone. He needs to win a national title in order to shut down all the outside noise.
Ohio State has a championship-caliber roster. That has never been up for debate this season.
Will the Buckeyes finally get over the hump with Day at the helm? Only time will tell.
Related: Nick Saban Has Advice For Ryan Day After Upset Loss To Michigan