BATON ROUGE - ESPN’s College Gameday is in Baton Rouge for Saturday’s Alabama-LSU football game, and as a result, so is Nick Saban.

Saban, the former Alabama and LSU head coach, is part of Gameday’s coverage after retiring from coaching at the end of last season.

Saban had a 48-16 record in five seasons at LSU from 2000-2004 and won a National Championship in 2003.

The man who helped build the football operations building while at LSU finally gets to see it pic.twitter.com/gB65mHmF2h

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) November 9, 2024

Saban then won six national championships at Alabama from 2007-2023. 

The College Gameday crew met with local media on Friday and discussed Saban’s lasting influence on the LSU football program.

“We just went into the LSU football building to tape “The Film Room,” it's one of the few segments other than features that we shoot in advance and don't do live and as we were walking into the football building, he (Saban) said, ‘You know, I designed this, and I've never been in it,’” said College Gameday Host Rece Davis “So, we walked in, and he, I think he was going to see BK (Brian Kelly) and he was going to get a tour of the building, and I know they've remodeled and added on some things since then, but the building was his (Saban’s) brainchild. And, you know, the thing is, and I hope I don't get things thrown at me, of the multitude of things that make him the greatest coach in the history of college football, obviously, the championships are on the top of the list, because nobody's ever won more, but, and I don't mean this disparagingly at all, he fixed this place. I grew up in the South, LSU never consistent, could never sustainable, for 50 years, it was a coaching graveyard, and he fixed it, and to me, right there with the championship is the fact that he built a foundation here that has been sustainable for other coaches.”

ESPN’s College Gameday begins at 8 a.m. Saturday morning on The Quad on LSU’s campus.

LSU and Alabama kick off at 6:30 Saturday evening on WBRZ.