Notebook: Nick Saban On Respect For Harbaugh, Michigan
The Michigan Wolverines drew the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day (1 PM on ABC). This will be the first meeting between the two teams since Alabama took down U-M, 41-14, in the 2012 season opener.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban is familiar with playing the Wolverines, dating back to his days as the head man at Michigan State, but has never faced a Jim Harbaugh coached U-M team.
"I have a lot of respect for Jim," Saban said of Harbaugh. "I think he’s been a great coach and done a great job at Michigan. Did a great job every place he's been prior to that. We have a lot of respect for the University of Michigan, their program, their tradition, the job that he's done as a coach. I don’t really know Jim Harbaugh all that well, but I do have a tremendous amount of respect for him.”
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This is the first year since the College Football Playoff began in 2014 that the Tide will not be playing for a national championship at the season's end. Sunday evening, Saban stressed the importance of the opportunity this game presents.
"It’s certainly a privilege and an honor for our team to be in the Citrus Bowl, playing a great team like the University of Michigan, with great tradition, a great coach in Jim Harbaugh," Saban said. "This is a challenge that we certainly look forward to. Our team is a little disappointed in how we finished the season, so this is an opportunity for us to sort of show who we are, and to get back to playing to the ‘Bama standard.
"I think when you play against a great opponent, that certainly enhances that opportunity."
Saban said that this game will be important in building toward the future, for his program.
"I think it's an opportunity for a lot of players on our team to ... practice and prepare for the future, and that's certainly what we're focused on right now, is the future. So this is an outstanding opportunity for that.
"This is a very important game to us, because it's the next game that we play, it's a good opponent."
Saban gave no word whether or not several of his top players will play in the bowl game or not, saying he will focus on the players who will take the field on New Year's Day. Harbaugh shared similar sentiments in his conference call Sunday night, as well.
"Well, I'm sure that guys are going to make individual decisions based on their circumstance and their situation," Saban said. "What we want to focus on is the guys who want to look to the future and look to try to improve themselves as players and improve our team and getting back to the standard that we want to play to. This is something that's been a bit of an issue in the past, with other programs, other teams. We haven't experienced it for a while. But we'll see what happens with this group."
Saban was asked if his players that will participate in the Citrus Bowl will be playing with a chip on their shoulder, following a close loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl.
“Well I would hope that would be the case with something to prove relative to the disappointments that we had in the season,” he said. “But I think we’ve played in seven championship games in the last 10 years. We’ve won five and we’ve lost two. So there is a high standard for the program, and you’re a little disappointed when you’re not in that position."
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