Former LSU Star Didn’t Like Nick Saban’s Attitude During Recruiting Visit

Getty Former LSU star Jarvis Landry was critical of Nick Saban's attitude on a recruiting visit at Alabama back in 2009 (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

While speaking on the October 5 edition of the Truss Levelz podcast, former LSU star Jarvis Landry — now a member of the New Orleans Saints following stints with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns — told a story of how Nick Saban rubbed him the wrong way during the NFL wide receiver’s recruiting visit with Alabama.

According to Landry, Saban was simultaneously self-aggrandizing and dismissive of the Lutcher High School sophomore when the (then) Louisiana kid first stepped foot onto the University of Alabama’s flagship Tuscaloosa campus to discuss joining the Crimson Tide:

“I go to the school (Alabama), we walk up in there. Man, Nick Saban comes walking right past me, looks at me, puts his head down and walks into the room and goes into – not like a meeting or anything – but like, ‘Coach, this is Jarvis Landry from Lutcher High School, he’s a sophomore’ or whatever it was. Man, he kinda like (eyes up and down). I was like, yo. I toured the school and then went back up there to talk to him and he was pretty much kinda saying like ‘he built this’ (Alabama) and I ain’t like that. I ain’t like that persona, know what I mean?”

Jarvis Landry Didn’t Want Alabama After Meeting Nick Saban

Nick Saban has won more recruiting battles for 5-star prospects than any of his peers over the last decade, though his specialty has often been in the trenches as opposed to the wide receiver position. LSU has sent more wideouts to the NFL than Alabama has during that time span, and the Crimson Tide could have had their shot at Landry during his high school recruitment.

As it turns out, though, that fateful meeting with Saban cost Alabama the Lutcher product. Landry didn’t consider Tuscaloosa after they met, as he told the Truss Levelz panel. “I respect him as a coach and as a disciplinarian and all that stuff, but as someone that was young and I’m from the hood, I’m from the projects, you know what I’m saying…I didn’t like that,” Landry said. “And from that point on I wasn’t even trying to talk to Alabama ever again.”

Landry was under heavy consideration by both LSU, his eventual choice, and Texas A&M, who was still a few years away from joining the SEC at that point, was also in on him — though things never progressed much. The Aggies were struggling in the Big 12 at that point under head coach Mike Sherman.

Jarvis Landry Still Put Respect on Nick Saban’s Name

Back on an impromptu press conference May 19, 2022 — one that was put together a day after he was accused by Nick Saban of buying Texas A&M’s 2022 recruiting class — Jimbo Fisher alluded to Saban being a college football ‘God,’ or at least appeared angry that the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach is portrayed that way.

From the sounds of Jarvis Landry’s backpedal after calling out every facet of the time he met the man, Saban still is revered enough in the college football world not to be disrespected publicly. “No cap, but I still have major respect and love for Coach Saban,” Landry said on the Truss Levelz podcast.

Of course, it’d be hard for Landry to have too much negatively to say considering Saban’s Crimson Tide beat his Tigers 3 out of the 4 meetings, one being for the BCS National Championship, between Alabama and LSU during the receiver’s 3 years on the Bayou.