The Nick Saban - George Lucas mutual appreciation society is in full Force.

The Force was strong with Nick Saban Monday night.

The Force was apparently with the Alabama Crimson Tide last night as they won the BCS title by beating LSU. The night before the game, the team took in an advanced screening of the George Lucas produced film Red Tails, which tells the story of legendary African-American combat aviators the Tuskegee Airmen.  Alabama head football coach Nick Saban took time during the post-BCS title game interview session with the media to praise the film, and discussed how it inspired the team.

"We went to see the move Red Tails last night, which I would reccomend to anybody. But, you know, those guys' motto was "to the last plane, the bullet, the last man, the minute we fight and we always stay with the mission." And I think that kind of described the spirit of that group extremely well, but it also describes the spirit of you know the group of players that we have on our team this year. "

Apparently George Lucas took notice of Saban's comments about the film, and released a statement thanking the coach for his mention of the film during the press conference and on ESPN while being interviewed by the College GameDay crew.

"The cast and crew of 'Red Tails' are together in New York for Tuesday's world premiere so you can imagine the excitement when we heard Coach Saban reference 'Red Tails' at the forefront of his postgame comments after winning the national championship. Everyone associated with the film was so honored that Coach Saban elected to have his entire team screen the film on the eve of their championship game. And then to have 'Red Tails' and its inspirational message of overcoming adversity, never giving up, self-sacrifice and ultimate teamwork so deeply touch the Alabama team is personally very gratifying. I want to congratulate the Crimson Tide on their tremendous victory...the Tide truly rolled on Monday night."

There's no word if Lucas saw the game, but he probably appreciates the publicity for the film, which is one of his rare non-Star Wars or Indiana Jones related films.

(via USA Today, The Huffington Post)