Before Nick Saban packed his bags for Miami in late 2004, LSU athletic director Skip Bertman pulled him aside for a gut check. Bertman asked a simple question that should have made Saban stay put: What did he actually want his coaching legacy to look like? Saban gave a confident answer. Yet years later, the legendary coach can only laugh at how quickly he did the exact opposite.

Nick Saban joined 104.5 ESPN’s Matt Moscona, recalling his time with Skip Bertman, the LSU baseball icon who passed away Friday at 88. During the conversation, the former veteran coach brought up the advice he received before his move to the NFL. Bertman basically wanted him to pick a lane. Did he want to build a legacy in college football and be remembered like Bear Bryant? Or did he want to chase a professional career and someday be compared with Don Shula?

“I said I want to be a college coach and get remembered like Bear Bryant. And he gave me great advice,” he recalled. “I guess, being a dumba–, I took the job at the Dolphins. But anyway, he asked me the question. I answered the question and did just the opposite.”

That misstep stayed with Saban for years, largely because the warning came from a man who mastered team psychology better than almost anyone in college sports. Bertman did not just give advice; he saw straight through the noise of professional temptation.

Get the Essentially CFB Newsletter. Rivalries, rankings, recruiting, coaching moves, and game action nationwide — your complete college football briefing.

When Bertman asked that question, he was speaking from decades of building champions in Baton Rouge. He transformed LSU baseball into a national powerhouse, winning five national championships across the 1990s and 2000s. By the time Saban arrived in 2000, Bertman was the gold standard of leadership on campus, making his counsel impossible to ignore without consequences.

Nick Saban and Skip Bertman worked together as LSU athletics entered one of its strongest periods. Saban led the football program to the 2003 national championship, while Bertman helped oversee the department. Their relationship went beyond two coaches sharing an athletic department.

“Skip was an icon as a coach,” Nick Saban said. “I think his knowledge of human behavior, how to motivate people, how to get the best out of people, his leadership style was unique and obviously as successful as anybody in our profession, in any sport… I had a great relationship with him. I loved him.”

Then came Nick Saban’s NFL detour. He left LSU after the 2004 season for Miami, coached the Dolphins for two seasons, and went 15-17 before resigning in January 2007. The experiment never came close to matching what he had built in college. He returned to the college game with Alabama, and that’s where his Bear Bryant-like legacy began. 

Nick Saban won six national championships at Alabama, adding to the title he had already won at LSU. He eventually retired after the 2023 season with seven national championships, twelve conference titles, and a reputation as one of college football’s defining coaches. In other words, he eventually became what Skip Bertman had asked him about.

Skip Bertman died at Baton Rouge General Hospital, surrounded by his daughters. His death closed another chapter in LSU’s history. But Nick Saban’s story gives his legacy a slightly different edge. The baseball coach simply asked him to be honest about what he wanted. Saban was honest. He just ignored himself at that point in his life.