Nick Saban Says He Was Fired as an Ohio State Assistant

The veteran coach told Pat McAfee he accepted blame for the 1981 dismissal, a candid moment that frames the episode as an early setback on his path to later success.

Overview

Saban told The Pat McAfee Show that he was fired from his job as Ohio State’s defensive backs coach and said he could not blame anyone else for the dismissal.
He served on Earle Bruce’s staff in 1980–1981, having been hired to replace Pete Carroll, and left the program after the 1981 season.
Contemporary accounts link the firing to events after the Dec. 29, 1981 Liberty Bowl when Bruce convened a meeting that resulted in multiple assistant coaches being dismissed.
Reporting differs on the proximate cause: one account says the decision followed a recruiting dispute while another emphasizes poor pass defense and a rocky Liberty Bowl showing.
The episode is presented as an early-career setback that Saban accepted publicly and that did not prevent his rise to long-term success as a head coach at Michigan State, LSU, the NFL and Alabama.