Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus discussed the time he spent with Nick Saban at Toledo In an interview with Barstools Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast.
Saban came to Toledo in 1990 after serving as the Houston Oiler’s defensive back coach from 1988-1989.
Eberflus, who was the starting linebacker for the rockets three out of his four years, said Saban set the tone early on during his time at Toledo.
“We started off with a team meeting and he said to us, ‘what you’re about to go through it’ll be the hardest thing you ever do’,” said Eberfluss. “You get up for those 6 a.m workouts and he’s got 16 stations that he does and by the time we got halfway through it we had eight scholarship guys quit and I had shin splints so bad I could barely walk down the stairs.”
The Bears coach also shared a story from spring practice.
“I stepped up on a trap play and I hit the guy for a TFL and I hit him pretty good and I look up and Coach Saban’s over top of me and he said don’t worry about that play worry about the next play,” said Eberflus. “You could certainly see in his demeanor and how he operated things and his attention to detail that he was building a champion at that point, and I’ve taken that with me all the way through because he is just outstanding. From day one from my perspective as a player, you could see that his leadership skills and attention to detail was off the charts.”
Saban led Toledo to a 9-2 season in his only season with the program before joining Bill Belichick and becoming the Cleveland Brown’s defensive coordinator in 1991
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Joe Will is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he spent a year interning at Tide 100.9 learning the ins and outs of sports broadcast journalism.
