When Nick Saban retired, he was widely regarded as the greatest head coach in college football history. After Saban left his seat in Alabama, it is only to be expected that the fallout will be ugly.
Paul Finebaum, an ESPN analyst, described how Saban’s exclusion from the SEC hurt the entire program this season, making it impossible for them to even compete in the College Football Playoffs.
“From 2009 to 2020, Nick Saban played, was in the National Championship game nine times. That is a big deal,” Finebaum said on the Matt Barrie Show.
“Kirby Smart was supposed to take the sport over. He didn’t. And now that we look at it, the Nick Saban era in College Football. I think it was more about Nick Saban than it was about the SEC. It was really about Saban.
It’s only been a year and ten days since Saban retired but it does feel like a lifetime.”
Interestingly, Finebaum’s co-analyst Matt Barrie pointed out how crucial it is for the program to move on from Saban, no matter how much they miss the “Bama Standard” greatness.
“It’s year two of DeBoer. Now the aftershocks of Saban are gone and now it’s Kalen DeBoer’s program. How will College Football sit in this new world order post Nick Saban for the next ten years, to me that’s one of the more fascinating storylines in this game,” Barrie said.
Keeping the best head coach in the history of college football comparison aside, DeBoer did pretty well for a first-year head coach in a storied program like Alabama.
The Crimson Tide was right on the edge of the College Football Playoff. Their not having a spot in CFP created a huge controversy even after all the losses to mid-level teams Alabama had this season.
The fact that DeBoer stood up so well should speak for itself. However, especially when considering the whole picture, it was insufficient to cut.
DeBoer still has a lot of work to do to build a team that can compete at the National Championship level while adhering to the “Bama Standard.”
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