Nick Saban Reveals 'Easiest' School He Recruited to During Historic CFB Coaching Career

College Football Hall of Fame coach Nick Saban says LSU, not Alabama, was the easiest program to recruit players to during his college football career.

Saban said in a Friday appearance on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show he learned while working with Bill Belichick on the Cleveland Browns' coaching staff in the '90s Louisiana produced the most NFL players per capita of any U.S. state.

"That's the reason I took the job," Saban said about joining LSU as head coach ahead of the 2000 season.

Saban continued, "Let me tell you what— it was right. It was 15 to 18 really, really good football players that you could get out of Louisiana every year, and you've got a good enough national reputation to recruit some really good players from other places.

"That was about the easiest place I ever had to recruit to."

Saban highlighted his second season at LSU by putting together an iconic 2001 recruiting class featuring players like Joseph Addai, Michael Clayton, Marquise Hill, Rudy Niswanger, Marcus Spears and Ben Wilkerson. That group ultimately led the program to a BCS national title in 2003.

He left LSU after the 2004 season to return to the NFL. A team still shaped by Saban's recruiting efforts went on to win another national title in 2007 under head coach Les Miles.

It is now Lane Kiffin tasked with taking advantage of in-state recruiting as he prepares for his first season as head coach of the Tigers. Saban told McAfee he felt Kiffin has "done a really good job building a good roster" at LSU this offseason.