7x champ Nick Saban shares honest advice on how to prepare for the CFP national championship

If anyone knows how to win a College Football National Championship, it's Nick Saban. The now-retired coach won seven of them during his legendary career.

The 2025 edition of the game will be held on Monday evening, between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Ahead of the big game, Saban spoke to 'The Pat McAfee Show' and gave some advice on how to prepare for this matchup. It was short and sweet.

"It's still, keeping it simple. I have these coaches calling me and saying, 'How do you get your team ready to play a national championship game.' Well, you just played the big game last week, how did you get your team ready to play that game?

"Because if there was a better way to do it, you would've done it last week. Players like routine, you like routine ... So, if you change that routine, you are just acting and making the players think that they don't have confidence in the way they did it before."

Nick Saban on what Notre Dame has to do to win

As well as giving advice on how to coach a team going into a national championship game, Saban also gave some specific advice to Notre Dame on how they should play.

“I think it’s who can play their game. Which team allows the other to play their game. If Notre Dame is going to win, they have to play ugly. Ohio State has too many weapons.

"If (Notre Dame) can make the game ugly, like Michigan did … if they can get some turnovers, play some defense, I think anyone can win the game. I think the team that’s going to win is going to play their game, their identity.”

On paper, the Buckeyes are, by far, the stronger team. This is especially seen on offense. What the Fighting Irish have in their corner is a good defense that can make the required stops when needed.

According to Saban, Notre Dame is going to need to use this defense from the start. They need to constantly shut down a high-scoring Ohio State offense in order to keep themselves in the hunt for the championship.

If they can do this and make life hard for Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, there is a chance that the National Championship Trophy will be heading to South Bend on Tuesday morning.