Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has not been shy with his criticism of Ohio State fans and their treatment of Ryan Day’s program since the Michigan loss, and he continued those harsh words on Friday.
Appearing on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” Saban called out the Buckeye faithful for their lack of support and enthusiasm for Day and the program in this year’s College Football Playoff, one which he believes stems from the team’s “psychotic obsession” with beating archrival Michigan.
“We’ve kind of gotten on their fans a little bit, but these Ohio State fans, 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. “Because they have a chance to win the national championship, and here you are — nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play because they lost to Michigan, which was a tough game. They lost the game, probably, by some of the mistakes they made. Those are correctable things.”
Saban’s comments are a common critique of Buckeye fans in recent weeks. Just one week ago, the legendary Crimson Tide head coach said that Ohio State fans need to support Day and the program in their chase for a national championship and “quit all this negative bullsh–t” that stems from the Michigan game.
Then, one day later, former Ohio State quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit poked fun at some factions of the Buckeye faithful who are critical of Day and are eager to call for his job.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the lunatic fringe,” Herbstreit said during ESPN’s live broadcast of the Ohio State-Tennessee game. “I’m not sure how they operate. The lunatic fringe at Ohio State is as powerful as anywhere in the country … I don’t know. I’m sure they’ll be happy tonight. They’ll be fired up about what the Ohio State team did. But God forbid they lose to Oregon. They’d want to fire (Day) again.”
Despite all of this noise, Day and his team still have the opportunity to leave this season as national champions with three more wins in the College Football Playoff, a quest that started with an impressive 42-17 win over the Volunteers and continues with a rematch against No. 1 Oregon at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The opportunity to win their first national title since 2014 and the first in the Day era that could very well be in reach for the Scarlet and Gray if they can continue to play at their full potential and avoid all the distractions, according to the seven-time national championship-winning head coach.
“I think they are the most talented team, but you mentioned ‘A’ game — how consistently do they play to their capabilities,” Saban asked. “I think that’s the consistency and the performance that you’re looking for to be successful. I think if they play like they played against Tennessee, they’re going to have a really good chance to have a chance to win the championship.
“It’s so hard to deal with success, and when you have a successful team, success is not a continuum,” Saban added. “People who think what happened in the past is going to affect what happens in the future, it’s just human nature. But when you have something bad happen, and the criticism they had after the Michigan game, there’s a psychological motivation to go out and prove yourself and prove everybody wrong and have the disposition to go play great football, and they certainly did that (against Tennessee). Now, can they continue it through the playoffs?”
