$80M worth Nick Saban points to Ryan Day's "mismatch" weapon as Ohio State cruises to CFP semifinal

Nick Saban, the former coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, was on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday to talk about college football. Saban won seven national championships as a coach, once with LSU and six times with Alabama. In Saban's appearance on the show, he discussed Ryan Day and the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes' dominant 41-21 win over top-seed Oregon on Wednesday.

The victory secured OSU a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinal against the No. 5 Texas Longhorns on Friday, Jan. 5. This would be Day and Ohio State's second successive appearance in the Cotton Bowl.

In one segment, Nick Saban, who is worth $80 million per CelebrityNetWorth, delved into Buckeyes wide receiver Jeremiah Smith having mismatches with his opponents and how that helped the Buckeyes come out on top.

"When you have a mismatch player like this, when you're a coach and you have a go to guy and they can't guard the guy, from a quarterback standpoint. I mean who makes who better?" Saban said (2:05). "The receiver makes the quarterback better, the quarterback makes the receiver better.

"You know when you have a mismatch guy like this that he's going to make plays in critical situations and he's a mismatch for everybody."

Nick Saban thinks the loss to Michigan in the regular-season finale could have helped Ohio State

Before discussing Jeremiah Smith, Nick Saban talked about the Ohio State Buckeyes in a broader sense. He spoke about their loss to Michigan in the regular-season finale and how that loss might have given them the freedom to play to win rather than play not to lose to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal.

"I think that having teams that have high expectations externally like we sometimes did at Alabama creates an anxiety on your team," Saban said (0:32). "Players play tight they play not to lose, I actually think you hit the nail on the head when you said when they lost the Michigan game it's the worst thing that could ever happen.

"Now these guys are just playing free and easy and going out there to play and win. Everybody's making plays, quarterbacks playing better, everybody's relaxed and playing confident.

"I actually picked Ohio State because when I saw how they played against Tennessee which was a dominating performance, I said these guys are going to be hard to stop if they continue to play that way. And I thought they would gain that momentum in the playoffs."

After defeating Oregon, the Ohio State Buckeyes have moved on to the CFP semifinals, where they will compete in the Cotton Bowl against the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 39-31 in double overtime on Wednesday.

Will the Buckeyes prove "hard to stop," as Nick Saban says? Have your say in the comments section below!