Corey Clark

Tallahassee Democrat

In early December of 1999 there was an interview in East Lansing, Michigan that would forever change the landscape of college football.

An up-and-coming head coach, who had just been hired at LSU after a 10-2 year at Michigan State, talked ball for hours with a young offensive coordinator from Cincinnati.

Even though they were both from West Virginia they didn’t know each other before that meeting.

They know plenty about each other now.

Some 17-plus years after joining the same staff in Baton Rouge, Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher are about to take part in the highest-ranked season-opening game in college football history.

Saban’s Alabama program has won the most games in the country over the past seven years. Fisher’s FSU program is second. Their teams could very well be ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country when they meet in Atlanta in early September.

But before they won a championship at LSU together, before they won national titles at their respective schools, there was that memorable meeting in East Lansing, Michigan. Between the newly hired LSU coach and the Cincinnati coordinator.

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“I guess some people had told him about some southern guys who had been down there,” Fisher said when I asked him how he got hired. “I was recommended highly by some people. And that year (at Cincinnati) we played Wisconsin, who won the Big 10 and had Ron Dayne, we were a 32-point dog and we beat them.

“And the next week we went to Ohio State and had them down 17-0 ... They beat us by like three or seven points.”

It was actually 14 points because of a late Buckeyes' touchdown, but at any rate this is when Jimbo went into full Jimbo mode, which is always a sight to behold.

“We ran a crossing route on about the 10-yard line to either tie it or put us up,” Fisher said. “I’ll never forget this ... Our guy comes off the butt of our guy, and we score on a crossing route and they called an illegal pick. It wasn’t a pick. We couldn’t get off the line of scrimmage. The guy was jamming him so dadgum good we couldn’t get off.”

Although the Bearcats didn't win the game, Fisher's offense put up 525 yards on the Buckeyes. Which was certainly impressive to the new LSU coach, who was not only looking for a strong offensive mind to bring to Baton Rouge with him, but someone who could recruit the south. Someone who could help him build a national championship caliber program.

“He saw we could move the ball, you know what I’m saying?” Fisher said. “I had been in the South. I had been at Auburn before. Been in the South. He had heard of me. We were both from West Virginia and all that. He had heard good things.”

So Fisher flew to Michigan for the interview.

He had the job offer before he left Saban’s house.

“I said let me make sure I talk to my wife,” Fisher said. “So I went home and she said, ‘What are you waiting for?’ But yeah, he offered me right then. We interviewed for a couple of hours at his house. Terry (Saban) was at his house, too.

“I was actually the first guy he hired.”

Turns out, the Saban guy has a pretty decent eye for talent.

"Very knowledgeable, very direct," Fisher said of his first impression of Saban in the interview. "Knew what he wanted. You could tell he was an in-charge guy. A guy who knew what he wanted and how he wanted it. Was very set in his ways, as far as I know what I want, this is what I want, but communicated very well. Was very similar to what I grew up with, believe it or not.

"I felt very comfortable with him. All the time. Always did."

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The two went on to win 48 games together over five years at LSU, including the 2003 national championship.

And we all know what’s happened since they got to Alabama and FSU, respectively.

But how much different would college football be if Saban had hired another offensive coordinator? Would Fisher still be in Tallahassee anyway or would his career have gone down a completely different path? Would Saban have had so much success early in Baton Rouge? Would he still have taken the Miami Dolphins job and then wound up at Alabama regardless?

It’s impossible to say.

All we know is what did happen.

A month before Peter Warrick made Virginia Tech defenders look hopeless in the 1999 national championship game, two up-and-coming coaches were talking ball in a sprawling house in Lansing, Michigan.

With no way of knowing – or even dreaming – where their lives would be 17 years later.