It’s no secret that Paul Finebaum is the king of hot takes.

Finebaum is good at his job, and he’s great for college football, but sometimes his takes are so out there that it’s clear he’s just trying to bait people into reactions.

On Thursday, while appearing on ESPN’s First Take, Finebaum dropped one of those takes about Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer.

Finebaum took issue with DeBoer saying at SEC Media Days earlier this week that he’s not focused on winning a national championship at Alabama.

“I certainly know that’s an important part of what’s happened in the program, so I wouldn’t doubt if that’s the case,” said DeBoer. “I’m not focused on that. I’m focused on just helping our program be the best and trying to bring out best and raise the level of everyone around me. … We always want to have that expectation that you’re referring to.”

Finebaum went off on DeBoer with a wild nonsensical tangent on Thursday.

“He doesn’t think words matter at Media Days, but they do matter, for this reason,” said Finebaum. “Because, you’re trying to raise money to buy players nowadays. You need momentum. You have to ultimately win, but the problem that Kalen DeBoer created yesterday is that he’s not going to have momentum from people he really needs. I spoke this morning to a former Alabama football player, a prominent player, who played for Nick Saban and won championships. National championships, not CFP road wins.

“I’ll tell you what he said. This isn’t my opinion. I’m a pundit. This guy played at Alabama and knows the pulse of Alabama. He said, ‘what Kalen DeBoer said yesterday is the reason why he will not succeed, nor will he ever win a national championship.’ You have to have the DNA to do it. I know how fans think, I know how former players think, and I know what the money people think. They did not like what he said yesterday.

“It may sound cruel because Kalen DeBoer has won all these games and he has all these great things, but he doesn’t have a championship. What I heard yesterday is that he’s not thinking about a national championship. If you’re not thinking about a national championship at Alabama, you don’t need to be there.”

I don’t know what former player Finebaum talked to, but I’d be surprised if it was a key player from the Nick Saban era.

Because here’s the thing: Finebaum is totally missing that what DeBoer is saying is exactly what Saban’s approach was while at Alabama.

Saban was all about the process. He wasn’t waking up every day thinking, “I’ve got to win a national championship at Alabama.” Nope, Saban was waking up every day thinking about that day’s process. Saban was in the moment, and he wanted his players to be in the moment, too.

For Saban, it was never about the outcome, it was about the process.

“There’s probably one really memorable game that changed the whole dynamics of the psychological approach we use to motivate teams, and it happened when we played at Ohio State in 1998. They had been number one all the way through, and we were 4-5 and not a very good team. We decided to use the approach that we are not going to focus on the outcome. We were just going to focus on the process of what it took to play the best football you could play — which was to focus on that particular play as if it had a history and life of its own.” — Nick Saban

If you’re actually going to be a championship coach, you can’t think about outcomes (national championships, etc). You have to be consumed with winning that day.

DeBoer clearly understands that. And he understands that if he sticks to his process, and if his players win the day each and every day, then they’ll end up getting a positive outcome.

That’s what coaching is ultimately about.

DeBoer isn’t running from championship expectations — he said he wants those expectations. But that’s not what he’s going to wake up every day thinking about, and it wasn’t what Saban woke up every day thinking about.

I understand Finebaum is all about soundbites and hot takes, but that’s not how championship coaches operate.

It feels like the gap between some talking heads in the media and understanding what it actually takes to be successful in competition has never been bigger.