NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After Greg Sankey’s lengthy and accolade-strewn introduction, Nick Saban strode to the podium in the Grand Hall at the Grand Hyatt Nashville to the tune of Alabama’s fight song playing over pedestal speakers.
“Wow, quite the fanfare,” Saban said.
He was being sarcastic.
There was no accompanying applause and, really, not nearly the buzz that generally surrounds the legendary coach’s annual appearance at SEC Football Media Days. Some of that might’ve had to do with this year’s event not being held in the Crimson Tide’s backyard of Birmingham. More probably had to do with Alabama not being perceived as the indomitable force it traditionally has been under Saban’s leadership.
Which is not to say Bama is not still a force. The Crimson Tide remain only a year removed from their last SEC title, two years removed from their last national championship, and is predicted to be in the hunt again this season. Should Bama run down another national title this year, it would be Saban’s eighth. The seven he already owns stands as the all-time record.
Saban’s very presence on the stage Wednesday established yet another record. It was his 16th consecutive appearance at SEC Media Days as Alabama’s coach, the most since this thing started in 1985.
Informed of this by an inquisitor, Saban shrugged.
“Every season is a new challenge,” the 71-year-old coach said. “It’s like you took a new job. You have returning players that need to develop into roles on the team, whether it’s leadership or playing a new position, and you have a lot of young players that you need to develop to be able to play at a certain level so you can accomplish the aspirations that the team has and what they want to accomplish individually. So, I never look back at the past, it’s always about the future.”
The question that followed Saban and his three-player entourage through the halls of the Hyatt on Wednesday was whether the Crimson Tide was losing its stranglehold on the SEC’s scepter. It is, of course, conference-colleague Georgia that has claimed the past two national titles, and the consensus-preseason-No. 1-ranked Bulldogs are expected to contend again this season.
Should Georgia come out on top again and not Alabama, that might put a chink in Saban’s armor.
“Nothing is going to take away from what he’s accomplished,” SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum said on “First Take” this week. “But if he is in the same league as somebody who has at the end of the season won three, that’s a big hit on his legacy.”
Indeed, everywhere the Tide turned Wednesday, they were getting asked about Georgia and whether the Bulldogs overtaken them as the class of the league, as the kings of college football.
“I respect the fact they’ve won back-to-back (national championships),” junior offensive lineman JC Latham said. “I know that’s not easy. I’ve seen the work they’ve put in. At the same time, their standard is great, but I don’t think it’s above our standard.”
Latham and fellow Alabama representatives Kool-Aid McKinstry and Dallas Turner are all juniors. As such, they haven’t experienced that programs rite of passage, which under Saban has been to hoist a national championship trophy. Instead, they’ve had to watch the Bulldogs do that, and two seasons ago from the proximity of the opposing sideline.
“I wouldn’t say it’s any type of motivation,” said Turner, an All-SEC outside linebacker. “We are our own motivation. We want to get better as a team. We’re not worried about anybody else. But Georgia, they have a very good program winning back-to-back national championships. I can’t take that away from them.”
McKinstry was asked if he was tired of being asked about Georgia.
“I understand that things like that are going to happen,” the cornerback said. “They’ve been winning, so that’s part of what you’re going to hear.”
Friday’s media vote is going to be interesting. The Tide has been tabbed the SEC’s projected champion in each of the past seven years and nine of the past 10. They’ve won it five times during that span.
The early consensus for 2023 appears to be favoring the Bulldogs. There even seems some sentiment that LSU should deemed the favorite in the SEC Western Division.
None of that matters, of course. And one should count out Alabama at their own peril. The Tide will be well-represented on the preseason All-SEC teams, starting with the three players speaking to the media here Wednesday.
But as always seems to be the case with Bama, there is a lot of turnover with which to contend. The Tide lost a lot of starters from last year’s 11-win team. Chief among those is quarterback Bryce Young. Saban also is having to replace three assistant coaches, including both coordinators.
Veteran Kevin Steele returns to orchestrate the defense, and Alabama brought in Tommy Rees, who Saban called “one of the brightest young guys I’ve seen in a while in this business,” to run the offense. The Tide pulled in five players from the transfer portal, including quarterback Tyler Buchner from Notre Dame and linebacker Trezmen Marshall from Georgia.
Marshall joins former Georgia teammate Jermaine Burton on Alabama’s roster. Burton is a senior receiver.
“I think we’ve got some good, young talent on our team; I think we have got some experience on our team; I think we have a pretty good mindset on our team,” Saban said. “Our team seems to be pretty hungry this year and motivated. Like all teams, we probably have some issues that are created by graduations and people leaving the program.”
Like Georgia, Alabama’s offseason has not been without controversy. Freshman defensive back Tony Mitchell, who drew some 5-star distinctions in recruiting, was arrested in March in Florida for felony possession of marijuana and allegedly fleeing police at 141 mph. Alabama suspended him.
After pleading no contest to the charges and being sentenced to three years probation and 100 hours of community service, Mitchell was reinstated to the team in June.
“There’s probably some occasion where most of us in this room, including myself, did something in our life that probably wasn’t a great choice and a great decision,” Saban explained. “And we always want to create a path for players who have made a mistake to get a second chance.”
The get another chance at yet another national title, Alabama will have to flourish against what is considered one of the SEC’s tougher schedules. The Texas Longhorns visit Tuscaloosa in Week 2, a year after the Tide narrowly escaped defeat in Austin. In the league’s last season of divisional play, Texas A&M, LSU and Auburn remain in their path, as well as an emboldened Tennessee squad that finally broke its Alabama losing streak last season in Knoxville.
Most preseason projections have the Tide getting another crack at Georgia in December’s SEC Championship game. Saban himself is not much for projections.
“We want to stay focused on the process of what we need to do to play winning football at every position,” Saban said. “I’m not here to create expectations for our team. Lots of people will do that for us. But expectations in some way are a premeditated way to create disappointment. That’s why we’re focused on the processes and not the outcomes.”
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
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