President Donald Trump again endorsed former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville on Monday night ahead of Tuesday’s second-round special election in Alabama.
In doing so, however, he may have severely offended all Crimson Tide fans in the state.
Trump, trying to praise Alabama coach Nick Saban, repeatedly called him “Lou Saban.”
“Really successful coach,” Trump said of Tuberville in a conference call, via Alabama.com. “Beat Alabama, like six in a row, but we won’t even mention that. As he said … so maybe we have Lou Saban … And he’s great, Lou Saban, what a great job he has done. “
Now Lou Saban was a longtime NFL and college coach. However, it was not as successful as Nick Saban.
In fact, far from it.
Lou Saban was a professional soccer coach from 1960-76 in both the NFL and AFL for the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos, finishing with an overall record of 95-97-7. He also compiled a 94-99-4 record as a college coach, though he constantly jumped from job to job as he spent time at 10 different schools, including Northwestern, Miami, Army, Central Florida, and Maryland.
Lou Saban also served briefly as president of the New York Yankees, and was the athletic director for Cincinnati, although he held that position for just 19 days. He died in 2009 at age 87.
Nick Saban, on the other hand, has compiled a tremendous record of 248-65-1 in his 24 years at the college level and made Alabama football a national power in the process.
Trump has been to multiple Alabama games while in the White House. He attended the 2018 national championship game when Alabama beat Georgia, and appeared for his game against LSU at Tuscaloosa last fall. Saban also met with Trump to celebrate his national title in Washington, DC.
Tuberville, who trained at Auburn from 1999 to 2008, will face senator and former attorney general Jeff Sessions in the second round of elections on Tuesday. The winner will face Senator Doug Jones (D-Al.) In November.
Knowing how passionate Alabama fans are, they are sure to be upset at least when the coach who won five national championships and built possibly the best dynasty the sport has ever seen is respected in that way.
However, it remains to be seen if that translates into Tuesday’s special election.
President Donald Trump is holding a team jersey presented to him by Alabama coach Nick Saban after his 2018 national championship victory over Georgia in 2018. (AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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