Nick Saban says he was a dumb*ss for putting Julian Sayin on scout team

Nick Saban currently works for ESPN, and Julian Sayin plays quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

But for a brief moment in time, they were both members of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Saban, of course, was the longtime head coach there, winning six national titles with the Tide before retiring two years ago. Sayin, meanwhile, was a five-star recruit who enrolled early at Alabama, spending January 2024 season on the scout team. After Saban retired, a few weeks later, Sayin entered the transfer portal and left for Ohio State.

This season, Sayin was named the starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman and has excelled, throwing for 1,872 yards, 19 touchdowns, three interceptions, and an 80% completion percentage.

Saban and College GameDay were in Columbus on Saturday before the Ohio State-Penn State game, and Saban took himself to task for not giving Sayin a shot at playing time in 2023.

“I think one point I’d like to make about Julian Sayin is, he was at Alabama. And the coach at Alabama played him on the scout team for a whole year. What a dumb***.” – Nick Saban pic.twitter.com/sBZtLVFUJd

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2025

“I think one point I’d like to make about Julian Sayin is he was at Alabama,” Saban began. “And the coach at Alabama played him on the scout team for a whole year. What a dumb*ss.”

We’ll cut Saban some slack on this one. He was actually Sayin’s coach for literally a few weeks, not a year. We don’t expect him to have magically decided to put the early enrollee in as a starter for a bowl game. And he’s obviously poking fun at himself here. But there’s no doubt that Julian Sayin has proven himself worthy of the attention and the grief he’s caused a legendary head coach.