SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

HOOVER, ALA.—It’s been almost nine years, but Nick Saban still remembers his last game at Williams-Brice.

The Alabama coach with eight SEC championships and six national titles remembers taking his Crimson Tide team into Columbia riding a 19-game win streak and left on a losing streak after the Gamecocks upended his Tide 35-21.

“I remember a lot. We got lining kicked out of our britches in the game over there,” Saban said. “We had won 19 games in row leading up to that game and they really played a great game against us and took advantage of a lot of situations and exposed us in a lot of different ways.”

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Now nine years later, Saban will bring Alabama back to Columbia for the first meeting between the two teams since that day in October, the Gamecocks’ only victory over a No. 1 team in program history.

He won’t be squaring off with Steve Spurrier this time, instead coaching against Will Muschamp, someone who he’s very familiar with.

Muschamp spent the 2002-04 seasons working with Saban at LSU where the two won a national title in 2003 and then again as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator under Saban in the NFL where the fourth-year South Carolina made a positive impression early.

“I remember we were practicing in the run up for a game my first year there and he came up and watched practice. I got to know him and talked to him and liked him. I think soon after that we had an opening and somebody recommended Will,” Saban said.

“Because I had a good feeling about the meeting we had in Atlanta, we interviewed him. he’s an extremely hard worker, a very knowledgeable guy, he has great leadership and players respond well to him. He’s got toughness about him, which I think is important to instill, especially on defense with your players. he did an outstanding job. Within a year or two he was the coordinator and went on to Miami with us. I never had any doubt that will would be extremely successful as a coach.”

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This year’s Sept. 14 matchup at Williams-Brice will be the third all-time matchup between the two with the first two coming in Muschamp’s time at Florida.

Saban won the first two matchups and is a perfect 16-0 in games he’s coached against former assistant coaches in his time at Alabama.

It’s a trend Muschamp will try and buck this season and Saban knows, similar to 2010, it won’t be a cakewalk for his team this season.

“We have a lot of respect for Will and what he’s done at South Carolina and the team they have. It’s always a challenging place to play and it’s going to be a difficult game for us. Our players need to be ready to go.”