Nick Saban once revealed eye-opening story of salvaging Alabama from "most humiliating loss" of his career 17 years ago

Alabama's former head coach Nick Saban once discussed the most challenging moments of his career. Saban shared an experience from 17 years ago which he described as the “most humiliating loss” of his coaching career.

The defeat occurred in 2007, Saban's first year at Alabama, when the team suffered a shocking defeat to the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Saban shared this story at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet in 2014:

"I often wonder if anybody remembers the first year I coached Alabama, we lost to ULM. Do you even know what that stands for, University of Louisiana Monroe? It's one of those directional schools in Louisiana, and it was the most humiliating loss I think that we ever encountered.”

The loss took place at home in Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Alabama fell 21-14 to ULM. For a team with Alabama's reputation, losing to a lesser-known school like ULM was a major embarrassment. The defeat left players, coaches, and fans devastated. The season ended with a disappointing 7-6 record, far below the expectations for a program like Alabama.

Saban offered context for the team's struggles leading up to the game:

“I think we had five guys suspended by the NCAA,” Saban said. “We had three more guys suspended for disciplinary reasons. We played horrible in the game. I was almost ashamed of how we represented the university and the program. We fumbled the ball six times. So, we ended up getting beat in the game. Everybody’s disappointed. Fans are disappointed. Coaches are disappointed. Players are disappointed."

Despite the disappointment, Saban emphasized the responsibility of the head coach in such situations.

“When you’re the coach, you have to win the locker room after the game and try and inspire the guys when they didn’t perform very well. Then you have to go to the recruiting room and tell recruits that it’s not really going to be this way in the future,” he said.

Nick Saban felt the humiliation for the loss in a gas station

It was the need to project confidence to the players and recruits, even when everything seemed to be falling apart. After the game, Nick Saban shared a lighthearted story about how the experience stayed with him beyond the field.

After the loss, he got into his car to head home. That's when he realized he was running low on gas. Saban stopped at a gas station, where he encountered an employee who noticed his LSU national championship ring.

“I went in and paid for the gas, and I had my LSU national championship ring on. And, you know, I'm paying to the guy, the self-serve, and he says, 'What's that?' I said, 'Well, that's a national championship ring from LSU.' And I said, 'we're going to do the same thing here at Alabama.'"

The response, however, wasn’t what he expected:

“We'll never do it as long as that Nick Saban is the coach.”

Despite this setback, the following years proved those doubters wrong. Over the next 17 years, Nick Saban led Alabama to six national championships and turned the program into a dynasty.