HOOVER, Ala. -- Nick Saban has won two consecutive national championships at Alabama and three overall in his first six seasons. It took Bear Bryant eight years to get that many titles.
But Saban stressed at Thursday's SEC Media Days that there's no comparing him to the Hall of Famer.
"I don't think I have any reason that anybody should do that," he said. "I think Bear Bryant is probably the greatest coach in college football in terms of what he accomplished, what his legacy is."
Saban has been the most successful coach in the BCS era, winning a title at LSU in 2003, but he still trails Bryant by two championships, though his Crimson Tide are expected to open the season atop the polls.
But the two-time Associated Press National Coach of the Year and the SEC's top coach three times doesn't believe he comes close to matching the longevity of Bryant, who won 323 games during 38 seasons and had just one losing season.
"There's no way that we have done anything close to what he's done in terms of his consistency over time, how he changed what he did to impact the times," Saban said. "They threw the ball and won. They ran the wishbone and won. I mean, he changed tremendously to do what he needed to do to be successful. I don't think that it would be fair that anyone really be compared to what he was able to accomplish, the way he did it, and how he impacted other people."
