Former legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban knows a thing or two about winning games, and the No. 3 Oregon Ducks might want to listen to his latest advice ahead of Saturday’s matchup against the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes at Autzen Stadium.

During an appearance Friday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” Saban shared that the key for Oregon to beat the Buckeyes is to emphasize running the ball.

“To beat Ohio State you’ve gotta be able to run the ball,” Saban told McAfee. “The last six games they’ve lost, the other team ran for more than they did, cause they’re gonna try to run the ball. So if you can control the line of scrimmage you got a chance. Now can Oregon do that? Can they match up up front? That’s gonna be the big question.”

McAfee then brought up that some of the new Big Ten teams from the west coast have struggled to match the physicality that the conference tends to present. However, Saban thinks that Oregon is one of the teams that’s equipped to handle this ground-and-pound style.

“They’re one of them,” Saban said of the Ducks. ” … To me, that’s the big question because the big question for Oregon going into the season was is the offensive line going to be able to overcome the issues. Now, they have overcome some of the issues from the first couple of games, (not) giving up sacks, being able to run the ball more effectively. But to be able to do it against Ohio State, now that’s another question that needs to be answered. We’ll soon find out.”

Saban then pointed to the lack of “big people” on the west coast compared to the midwest and southeast. He thinks that this can sometimes give the Big Ten and advantage from a physicality standpoint.

“But I think the big thing about the west coast — and I’ve always felt this way — you got to import big people,” Saban said. “There’s not enough big people on the west coast, talking about interior linemen, unless they come from Hawaii or Samoa or someplace because they just don’t have the kind of big people that we have in the midwest and the southeast.”

If the Ducks want to come away with a massive win at home. they might have to rely on running back Jordan James, who’s tallied 88 carries for 552 yards and six touchdowns so far this season. Oregon coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks hope to upset Ryan Day’s Buckeyes on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 4:30 p.m. PT.

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