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Nick Saban made his usual appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday afternoon in Norman, Oklahoma.
Saban was talking about how difficult it can be to play in hostile environments like what Tennessee could be facing on Saturday night. As an aside to the conversation, Saban called out the 1 stadium in the SEC that isn’t so tough to play in.
“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play is Vanderbilt,” Saban said. “At Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have. And that’s no disrespect to them, it’s just the truth. When we played in Nashville, we had more fans, Alabama fans, than they had Vanderbilt fans.”
“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play in is Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have.”
– Nick Saban on @PatMcAfeeShow pic.twitter.com/4V0LkKf35c
— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) September 20, 2024
It’s not a surprise to see Vanderbilt be singled out like this. The Commodores are typically last in the SEC in attendance and, as Saban said, fans who are in the stands in Nashville are often cheering for the visiting team.
Because Alabama and Vanderbilt were in separate divisions for the entirety of Saban’s tenure in Tuscaloosa, his Tide program only made the trip to Nashville twice. Once in 2007 and once a decade later in 2017.
However, Kalen DeBoer and the Tide will head to Nashville later this fall for an SEC contest. Alabama and Vanderbilt will battle on Oct. 5.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
