The Crimson Tide’s first four appearances in the College Football National championship game had a distinctly Alabama flavor — on both sidelines.
Pelham’s Dabo Swinney, a member of Alabama’s 1992 title team, led Clemson against Nick Saban in championship games following the 2015, 2016 and 2018 seasons. And Montgomery’s Kirby Smart, who was raised in Georgia but spent nine seasons on Saban’s staff at Alabama, coached the Bulldogs against Saban following the 2017 season.
This year will be different.
Ohio State busted up the chance for a fifth title-game meeting between Alabama and Clemson by dismantling the Tigers, 49-28, in last week’s Sugar Bowl. That will give 41-year old Buckeyes coach Ryan Day his shot at his first national championship.
Saban, seeking his seventh national title as a head coach and sixth at Alabama, has little shared history with Day. The only time Day has coached against Alabama came when he was a graduate assistant under Urban Meyer at Florida in 2005 — a 31-3 rout by the Tide.
“I don’t know Ryan well,” Saban said Monday.
Unlike native sons Swinney and Smart, Day is probably less familiar to most Alabama fans. He was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire — a city that has produced three Power 5 coaches in Day, UCLA’s Chip Kelly and Florida’s Dan Mullen despite pro football’s dominance in the New England region over the college game.
Day played for Kelly at New Hampshire before spending 12 of his next 13 seasons coaching for Northeast schools in Boston College and Temple. His one season at Florida was Day’s only taste of the SEC.
After two seasons (2015 and 2016) coaching for Kelly in the NFL, Day reunited with Meyer in 2017 at Ohio State as co-offensive coordinator. Day took over head-coaching duties for the first three games of 2018 when Meyer was placed on leave and has been the permanent coach the past two seasons.
“I’ve met him before,” Saban said of Day. “I think he’s an outstanding coach. I think they do a fantastic job with their team, the way their team competes, the way their team plays, the discipline, the togetherness that they have, the way they execute. And offensively he does a good job of trying to manage and control the tempo of the game on offense. And they do a really good job of executing, which is all about coaching your players to know what to do, how to do it, and why it’s important to do it that way, and they do it extremely well.
“They present lots of problems with the system and the scheme that they run, but they do a good job of executing it, which is really probably the most important thing you like to see as a coach. And Ryan has certainly done that there at Ohio State, really with his entire team, but I know he’s probably a little bit more involved with the offense, and they do an outstanding job.”
Ohio State’s place in the College Football Playoff did not come without debate. The Buckeyes playing only six games — including the Big Ten championship game — compared to as many as 11 for SEC and ACC teams created an imbalance that some felt should have warranted a more battle-tested team qualifying.
Swinney made his feelings known when he placed Ohio State at No. 11 on his final coaches poll ballot last month. Buckeyes fans made their feelings known in New Orleans on Friday night when they serenaded Swinney with “Da-Bo!” chants in the closing minutes of the Sugar Bowl.
Saban, too, left Ohio State out of the top four of his Dec. 20 coaches poll ballot. In the No. 4 spot instead was a more familiar foe in Texas A&M and former Saban assistant Jimbo Fisher. Ohio State, though, was directly behind the Aggies on Saban’s ranking at No. 5 — a far cry from the statement that Swinney’s ballot made.
“Until you just said that I wasn’t aware,” Day said Monday of Saban’s vote. “We don’t look at those things too much. I respect everybody’s opinion, but what matters is playing in the game.”
It will be the biggest game of Day’s coaching career to this point. His first season as Buckeyes coach ended with a Fiesta Bowl playoff semifinal loss to Clemson.
“Unbelievable opportunity to play a great program,” Day said Monday. “So much respect for Coach Saban and his staff and the players and their tradition of winning there.
“Nothing but the utmost respect for Coach Saban and his staff. Anytime you get to this level, you know you’ve got to be on your game. You’re going against the best in the world, and certainly Alabama is. Coach Saban’s career speaks for itself.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
