Alabama coach Nick Saban took offense to the comments his former assistant made earlier in the week, calling the words "very disappointing."
Tim Davis, Florida's offensive line coach, on Tuesday called his former boss "the devil himself" at a booster club meeting. Saban responded on Thursday.
"I try to do right by the people that work for me," He said. "It's a tough, demanding job. And at the same time, if anybody had an issue or problem with me, I would want them to just tell me."
Davis wasn't the first SEC coach to compare Saban to the devil. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin spoke four months ago during a high school sports banquet and referred to the Alabama coach as "Nicky Satan."
"It's just disappointing. If somebody has a problem with me, I'd appreciate it if they'd tell me," Saban said. "If I'm doing something to offend somebody, I'd certainly like to do whatever I have to do to fix it. It's not our intention. It's not what we try to do.
"We're in a tough business. It's very competitive. Sometimes you've got to demand that people do things that maybe they don't want to do, but it's not personal," he said.
Davis worked for two seasons with the Miami Dolphins as an assistant under Saban. He briefly joined Saban again in 2008 at Alabama as the director of player personnel. In 2012, Florida coach Will Muschamp, also a former Saban assistant, hired Davis as the team's offensive line coach.
"I've always wanted to work with Will [Muschamp]," Davis said Tuesday at the booster club meeting. "Will's got a plan. Will coached under the devil himself for seven years. I only did three. He did seven. And his DNA is not any different than Nick."
The Alabama coach doesn't harbor any animosity toward Florida.
"I know it's not representative of Will Muschamp and the University of Florida and the way they do things," Saban said. "I know that, because I'm close enough to Will to know that."
