I’ll start this article by stating the obvious: Alabama is a college football powerhouse. But it seems (to me, at least) that the dynasty is reaching its endpoint. When Nick Saban took over as Alabama‘s head coach in 2007 after a less-than-stellar stand with the Miami Dolphins, he mentioned his excitement to be a part of the team in such an integral way.
That excitement has led him to multiple national championships, and he is regarded as one of the best coaches ever to grace college football’s vast landscape of coaches.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Keep in mind, though; we are talking about Nick Saban. The rough, tenacious, and no-nonsense head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. He won’t want to see his landscape crumble in totality under his tenure. He definitely has a reason for concern from being beaten by Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Georgia just in the past few seasons alone.
I wouldn’t say he lost his mojo, however, as he still knows how to reel the top college football recruits to play for his university. Let’s face it Alabama is the holy grail of college football. From capitalizing on NIL and possessing multiple national championships, Alabama is the standard for success that many programs wish they could be.
Nick Saban is essentially Thanos in a world full of Avengers, meaning that he has all the power and watches teams around him crumble.
He is essentially the king in a land full of peasants. He has been heralded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, along with the Bear Bryant in Alabama history. Alabama, in essence, is his kingdom, while all other coaches are subservient to him.
He makes them aware of that in the games where Alabama has beaten teams without giving them a fair shot.
For example, at the beginning of the season, Alabama usually faces lesser-known teams such as Utah State by a score of 55 to 0 just this past season. This is also a regular occurrence with the bigger teams, such as Kansas State in the 2022 sugar bowl, beating the Wildcats by a score of 45 to 20.
Saban’s Success
Another aspect that makes Nick Saban so beloved is his desire for success, having made the college football playoff every year, except in 2020 and 2023, as they were not selected by the committee. When confronted with this, Nick Saban was less than thrilled.
In an interview with Fox Sports the night of the Big Ten championship game, he was quoted as saying the following: “ I would say to the committee if we were playing any of the four teams that were in (the college football playoff) would we be the underdog or would we be the favorite?” certainly a rather frustrated quote from one of the greatest coaches of all time.
To end this article, I know that most of what I said is common knowledge and mainly redundant for a writer like me. Nick Saban is the greatest of all time, and there’s no doubt about that. He must make a few tweaks to cement his college football legacy.
