Nick Saban shares how going from transactional to transformational changed his entire career trajectory

Nick Saban shared a personal story on the set of College GameDay today of a decision that changed his entire career trajectory.

Back in 1998, Saban was in his fourth season as the head coach at Michigan State and was sitting (by his own admisson) on the hot seat at 4-5 heading into a match up with #1 ranked Ohio State.

Saban, who was 32-22-1 as the head coach of the Spartans and with a season as the head coach at Toledo under his belt, admitted he didn't think the Spartans had a chance to win the game.

On the GameDay set, Saban looked back at that turning point in his career when he was asked about the concept of losing the locker room.

"I think you have a greater chance of losing your team when you are transactional as a leader, which is the way that I was until 1998. In other words, everything was about winning or losing. When we won I patted people on the back, but when we didn't win I was probably too harsh, didn't use it as a teaching moment, and negative experiences without teaching kills morale."

Heading into that daunting matchup with the top ranked Buckeyes, Saban shared that he had to change his approach.

"I had to change into being a transformational leader. Somebody who players could emulate, who cared about the players for their benefit, not my benefit, and had a vision for what we were going to accomplish and how we were going to do it, and had value-based principles that were going to help them be successful in life."

"Play one play at a time. Everything is about the process. Nothing is about outcomes.

Saban says they became a different type of team after that, and they went on to upset the Buckeyes. After that turning point Saban mentioned, he would go on to put together a record of 260-49.

"My coaching career actually changed 360 during that time as well."

Saban goes on to share that everything in college football right now is transactional, using the transfer portal as a prime example.

Hear Saban's full thoughts in the clip.