LSU football coach Nick Saban survived a scary submersion in a lake near his vacation home in Georgia roughly two weeks ago, The New Orleans Times Picayune reported Friday.

According to the paper, Saban told WWL radio reporter Kaare Johnson that he momentarily was knocked unconscious when he fell from the ski deck of his boat and hit his head against the dock. Saban said he woke up at the bottom of the lake and paddled toward the surface, where one of the two friends he was with pulled him out.

The coach suffered cuts in his ear and the back of his head that required 25 stitches, which have already been removed.

"I hit my head on the dock. I slipped and fell. I split my ear open. I knocked myself out." Saban said to the radio reporter. "I said 'What am I doing here?' I paddled my way to the top."

Saban, entering his fourth season at LSU, and the Tigers begin practice Aug. 6 in preparation for the season opener Aug. 30 against Louisiana-Monroe at Tiger Stadium.