Nick Saban admits he 'hated' playing Texas, warns Georgia

Nick Saban confesses why he hated playing against Texas when he was at Alabama, and the ex-Crimson Tide coach gave a friendly warning to Kirby Smart in the meantime.

The legendary ex-college football coach shed some light on Texas as the school joins the SEC this season. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama and Texas gave us two of the most exciting games of the last two college football seasons, splitting the series, 1-1, with the road team winning each time, and we can expect more to come as the Longhorns become members of the SEC.

Both times, it was a matchup that ex-Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban didn't exactly look forward to, and it was because of Steve Sarkisian's offensive game-planning.

"I always hated playing against Texas," Saban said at SEC Media Days.

And he offered a friendly warning of sorts to another of his former coordinators, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, saying: "And Kirby has got some of the same issues that we had."

Sarkisian's offense would employ subtle maneuvers that would get the best of a defense, and used it to effect in their most recent two games.

Related: Nick Saban predicts SEC football title game

"I kind of always hated playing against Sark," Saban added.

"In practice for several years, as well as when we played them the last couple years. Because they do such a good job with what I call squeeze-splits. We play in this day and age where people take these huge splits like Tennessee, which, that's a problem, too.

Saban added: "But players are not used to — especially DBs — are not used to playing when you have squeeze-splits. Because you put them in unfamiliar positions, whether it's run support or how they cover. When you're in squeeze-splits, how can this guy get to that side of the field quickly, which messes up your pattern matches."

Alabama won the first of a home-and-home against Texas, taking a 1-point decision in Austin thanks to quarterback Bryce Young's late heroics and a last-second field goal.

But the Longhorns avenged that defeat with a 10-point win in Tuscaloosa last season in a matchup advertised as a litmus test for how well the team could fare in a road SEC environment.

Now, Texas looks ahead to upholding that standard as it heads into college football's toughest conference.

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