How Big of a Nemesis, Benchmark was Michigan for Nick Saban in Big Ten?

It was fitting in a way that the final loss of Nick Saban's coaching career came against Michigan, even though the 27-20 overtime loss in the Rose Bowl CFP Semifinal will forever be controversial as the Wolverines were subsequently penalized by the NCAA scouting and recruiting violations with a four-year probation, significant financial penalties, a reduction in official visits and recruiting communication, a public reprimand, and show-cause orders for the coaches including 10 years for head coach Jim Harbaugh (who has since gone to the NFL).

Fans can forever argue about whether a program that failed “to create a culture of compliance” should be able to display the 2023 national championship banner, but at least on the Alabama side they can claim that's the kind of extremes it took to beat the Crimson Tide under Saban (and trust me, they do).

In a way, though, Saban's career as a prominent college football coach came full circle because similar to how Auburn gave him trouble at Alabama, Michigan was just as problematic during his first major coaching job at Michigan State. — and in the Big Ten that's the way it's supposed to be.

During those years (1995-99), the SEC was in the process of starting its domination of the national championship, although Lloyd Carr's Wolverines did go 12-0 for a share of the split 1997 title with Nebraska during Tom Osborne's sendoff season (this was obviously well before the Cornhuskers left the Big 12 for the Big Ten in 2011). Charles Woodson captured the Heisman Trophy two years after Ohio State running back Eddie George, and two years before Wisconsin's Ron Dayne.

Those who received the conference's Dave McClain Coach of the Year award, which is now the Hayes–Schembechler Award, included Northwestern’s Garry Barnett, Purdue’s Joe Willer, Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez, and Minnesota’s Glen Mason. John Cooper was still at Ohio State, with Penn State's Joe Paterno still going strong in his late 60s, early 70s.

While Saban went 26-17-1 against conference opponents during those five seasons, the closest he got to the conference title was 1999, when his final Spartans team finished in a tie for second in the Big Ten and No. 7 in the final Associated Press poll. Michigan State defeated Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in the same year for the first time since 1965, and recorded six wins at home for the first time since 1912.

The Spartans led the Big Ten in rushing defense (77.0 yards per game) and total defense (299.0 yards per game) while ranking fifth nationally in rushing defense and 11th in total defense. The offense averaged 31.0 points per game.

But Saban was 2-3 with the Spartans against Michigan before leaving for LSU (he went from $697,330 a year at Michigan State to getting a five-year deal for approximately $1.2 million annually, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football). Had he stayed, who knows how different that might have been.

Michigan State vs. Michigan, 1995-99

Year, winning team, score, location
1995    Michigan State            W 28-25 East Lansing 
1996    Michigan                     L 45-29 Ann Arbor 
1997    Michigan                     L 23-7     East Lansing 
1998    Michigan                     L 29-17 Ann Arbor 
1999    Michigan State            W 34-31 East Lansing

The 1996 game especially will forever bother him.

“We were ahead like 14-3 and we had the ball,” Saban explained. “I always used the ‘When are we going to go two-minute before the half,’ based on the field position. We didn’t have very good field position. So it was third-and-5 and we threw an incomplete pass. There was about thirty seconds to go in the half and we’re going to punt, we were happy to punt and be ahead 14-3. Well, they called roughing the passer on the quarterback. We got a 15-yard penalty and that put us up right at about the 45-yard line, so we said let’s try and steal a field goal out of this. So we go two-minute right out of the box, the quarterback throws a slant, the safety runs it down from a cover two in a three-deep zone, picks it off and runs 45-yards for a touchdown. So now there’s like 25 seconds (left) and its 14-10. They kick off to us, they pooch-kick, we fumble, they recover it. Woodson was still there because I still remember this, they line up, after the scramble for the ball there’s about 15 seconds to go, they run two plays, don’t score, there’s like seven seconds to go and they put Woodson in at receiver, he runs a post and they throw him the ball, he scores a touchdown. So in like 40 seconds, 35 seconds in the game, we go from being ahead 14-3 to behind 17-14 at Michigan. That was the worst story.

“The best story was the last year I was at Michigan State, when (Tom) Brady was playing, and we won (34-31). That was probably one of the better wins because they had a really good team. That was a really good team that we had too. I just remember we were 5-0, or 6-0, and we were ranked, and we couldn’t live with success, we went and played Drew Brees (and Purdue) the next week and he drilled us. I remember that too.”

When Saban stopped coaching he was 4-4 against Michigan, including 2-1 at Alabama. The Crimson Tide easily won the 2012 season opener at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and won the 2020 Citrus Bowl matchup in Orlando, 35-16. Alabama was 28-14 all-time against teams from the Big Ten, including 3-3 against Michigan. It also won the only matchup with the Big Ten in the national championship, 52-24 against Ohio State at the end of the 2020 Covid season.

Of course, the Crimson Tide lost the rematch with the Wolverines in the ReliaQuest Bowl at the end of last season, 19-13, under Kalen DeBoer. However, last Saturday the Crimson Tide completed the sweep of a home-and-home with Wisconsin, winning 38-14 at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. With the victory, Alabama improved to 42-19 (.689) all-time against the current member teams
of the Big Ten, including a 42-10 win at the Badgers on Sept. 14 of last season.

Trivia question: What four current Big Ten teams played in Alabama in Tuscaloosa before they joined the conference? Answer at the end.

Wisconsin was just the second Big Ten school to ever visit the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. The other, of course, was Penn State, the Big Ten program Alabama has faced the most as they often played during the Paul "Bear Bryant" era. When Saban had Penn State visit in 2010, and invited Bobby Bowden to the game, it was the Nittany Lions' fourth appearance at Bryant-Denny Stadium. They're 2-2 in those games, 0-2 at Legion Field, and Alabama has a 10-5 edge in the overall series. A year later at Beaver Stadium, Saban handed Paterno the final loss of his career.

Alabama has never faced Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern or Purdue. It has home-and-home series with Ohio State (2027-28) and Minnesota (2032-33) scheduled.

Trivia answer. Washington in 1975 on the 50-year anniversary of the 1925 Rose Bowl; Rutgers in 1981; UCLA in 2001; and, the tricky one, Maryland. The Terrapins made three tips in 1905, 1906 and 1907 and football games were played in the location now known as the Quad. Alabama famously hosted Southern California twice, in 1970 and 1978, but both games were played at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Alabama Crimson Tide/BamaCentral regularly publishes articles and columns putting Nick Saban's coaching career into perspective. Some of the information was also used in the book "Nick Saban vs. College Football," by Christopher Walsh, Triumph Books, 2014.