Josh Jacobs has been a survivor for as long as he can remember. Long before he became an NFL star with the Packers or even earned his scholarship to Alabama, Jacobs was navigating challenges most kids never face — including a stretch of homelessness and the responsibility of becoming a father while still in high school.
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In fact, by the time he arrived in Tuscaloosa, his life had already demanded more resilience than many players experience in an entire career. So naturally, he had his fair share of emotional outbursts in his early days — to the extent that his clashes with former college head coach Nick Saban made him wonder if quitting Alabama was the right move.
During a recent appearance on Bussin’ With The Boys, the former Crimson Tide RB opened up about just how much pressure he was under. So much so that he nearly walked away from Saban’s program entirely.
“I had my son in high school — literally on national signing day, February 3rd, my senior year,” Jacobs recalled. “By my junior year [at Alabama], I was like, ‘S*** is starting to get real.’ Either I’m going to go get a degree and work, or I’ve got to take this football stuff seriously.”
The pressure to perform, to provide, and to live up to expectations began taking a toll. And despite doing everything right from attending class, showing up to workouts, and simply staying out of trouble, Jacobs found himself struggling to get playing time. And naturally, it didn’t sit right with him, leading to him spilling his frustration over to his head coach.
“I used to clash with Nick Saban a couple of times,” he admitted. “I was doing everything right… and I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m not playing for real. What’s going on?'”
After a series of back-and-forth, Jacobs’ escalation finally came to a head during a game against Ole Miss in his junior year. The Packers star had just scored a touchdown and was flagged after an altercation with a defender. As expected, Nick Saban lit into him on the sideline, with Jacobs taking the first tongue-lashing in stride.
But when the decorated CFB coach came back a few drives later with more of the same, something snapped.
“We had some words,” Jacobs said. “At halftime, I took my pads off and told myself I was done. I was gonna transfer. I was talking to Oregon, Oklahoma — trying to figure it out.”
But a conversation with then-offensive coordinator Michael Locksley pulled him back from the edge. “He told me, ‘Even if you’re right, leaving won’t look good,'” the former Raiders RB recalled. “And I sat down and cried, like, ‘What more do y’all want me to do?'”
After returning for the second half and breaking off a 60-plus-yard punt return, Jacobs felt vindicated as he locked eyes with Saban on the sideline as his way of expressing silent defiance. Luckily for Alabama fans, Jacobs’ little skirmish with his coach didn’t escalate further as the duo later met privately, where the running back laid everything out.
“I said, ‘You talk about rewarding guys who work hard and stay out of trouble. That’s me. So what more do I have to do?'” he explained.
Much to Jacobs’ surprise, that conversation changed everything as his relationship with coach Saban changed massively.
“We became tight after that,” he said. “One thing I learned — Saban respects guys who talk back to him. Not disrespectfully, but guys who aren’t afraid to speak up.”
From that point forward, Josh Jacobs became a bigger part of Alabama’s offense, and the rest, as he put it, was history.
