Nick Saban is still complaining about the 2022 college football season and it's partially Tennessee's fault
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban sure likes to complain a lot these days. It seems like every few weeks this offseason there's a been a quote from Saban that makes the legendary college football coach sound like Frank Costanza from Seinfeld (Saban has no problem airing his grievances). Throughout the offseason, Saban has […]
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban sure likes to complain a lot these days.
It seems like every few weeks this offseason there's a been a quote from Saban that makes the legendary college football coach sound like Frank Costanza from Seinfeld (Saban has no problem airing his grievances).
Throughout the offseason, Saban has been vocal in expressing his discontent, ranging from critiquing up-tempo offenses to objecting to a nine-game SEC schedule (it seems like Saban's engagement in silly debates has reached an all-time high).
The latest complaint from Saban is something that has nothing to do with the 2023 college football season.
Saban is apparently still peeved that Alabama didn't reach the College Football Playoff last season.
The Crimson Tide finished ranked No. 5 in the final playoff rankings. Plenty of folks, however, felt like Bama should've been ranked No. 6, below the Tennessee Vols (Tennessee and Alabama were both 11-2, but UT beat Bama head to head and the Volunteers also beat LSU in Baton Rouge while the Tide lost to the Tigers).
“The problem with the way the whole system is, there’s no accounting for that, right,” said Saban to Fox Sports' Joel Klatt. “So all we do is take the teams that win the most games at the end of the year, put them in the playoffs. But do you really get the best teams? When they told me that we would be favored against three out of the four teams that got in the playoff, I’m like, why aren't we in the playoffs?”
“Does that mean they have a better team,” asked Saban. “Or does it mean that those people don’t know what they’re talking about? I really don’t know that. But I’m not being critical of anybody. But if you’re going to have parity, you have to have a better way of figuring out who has the best teams, not just because you lose two games on the last play of the game.“That knocks you out when you may be better than somebody else who didn’t have the same circumstances that they had played.”
I don't think there's any doubt that Alabama would've given Georgia a better game than TCU. And we already know that Tennessee would've given the Bulldogs a better game (the Vols lost by 14 to Georgia in Athens while TCU lost 65-7 in the national championship game).
If anyone deserved to be in the playoff, though, over one of the four teams that made it, it was Tennessee — the Vols had better wins than Alabama.
But Tennessee knows they blew their shot by losing to South Carolina by 25 points. And that's why Vols head coach Josh Heupel hasn't gone on a national media tour lamenting the fact that Tennessee was left out of the playoff.
Saban, meanwhile, sounds like a petulant child who didn't get his way.
And he sounds this way in large part because of the Tennessee's win against Alabama last October. If not for that game, the Crimson Tide make the playoff and Saban is probably a lot less vocal this offseason.
Saban hasn't had to coach in a world where he plays a Tennessee team every year that's a threat to beat him. And it's clear that Saban is not handling the Vols' resurgence very well.
If Tennessee fans want a sign that the program is on the right track under Heupel, just take a look at the tone coming from Saban. He suddenly doesn't look at the Vols as the lovable little brother anymore. And that's thanks to the headaches that Tennessee has caused Saban over the last year.
How Josh Heupel showed his brilliance and stumped Alabama players in Tennessee’s win
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is known for his up-tempo offense that keeps defenses off balance. The Vols' offense typically runs at an extremely fast pace which often puts the defense in conflict and creates favorable matchups for Tennessee. Heupel, however, isn't a one-trick pony. He's shown this season that his offense can be […]
Featured image via Gary Cosby-USA TODAY Sports
