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Feathers were ruffled by the final USA Today coaches poll from Nick Saban — specifically those of Saturday Down South’s Matt Hayes, who took the Alabama coach’s final vote of the Crimson Tide at No. 2 as evidence Saban is acting like a petulant child who’s unwilling to accept the reality of where his team stands in the current college football landscape.
Saban listed Alabama above College Football Championship runner-up TCU (who he put at No. 3) and a one-loss, Big Ten champion Michigan (who he put at No. 4). That had Hayes fuming. “Honestly, this is the stuff of petulant children,” Hayes wrote. “This is a temper tantrum of the highest order, a statement so shameless, he may as well have held a press conference to explain the vote.”
Saban’s reaction to the 45-20 Sugar Bowl win on New Year’s Eve should have tipped us all off that this could happen, so says Hayes. “We should’ve seen this coming all along,” Hayes wrote. “Saban stood at the podium after Alabama’s meaningless bowl win over an equally meaningless opponent and declared that the game proved Alabama should have been selected to the Playoff.”
Nick Saban Criticized for 2022 Losses and Recruiting Shortcomings
Saturday Down South’s Matt Hayes didn’t want to hear the excuses Nick Saban peddled about the College Football Playoff committee choosing incorrectly when it came to the final four teams in the field. Instead, he wanted accountability for the team’s two 2022 losses and recruiting shortcomings that happened before that.
“Alabama should have not blown 4th-quarter leads to both Tennessee and LSU, which both came back on the last play of their respective games to get critical wins,” he wrote. “Alabama should have recruited and developed and coached better in the secondary, where it couldn’t consistently cover in nearly every game that mattered. Alabama should have recruited and developed better on the offensive line, where rare quarterback talent Bryce Young was sacked 63 times over the past 2 seasons — the same line that allowed 167 tackles for loss over that span.”
Discipline, according to both Hayes and the stats, was also an issue. “Alabama should have been more disciplined in losses to Tennessee and LSU, where it committed a combined 26 penalties for 222 yards.”
SEC Coach Can’t Believe Nick Saban’s College Football Playoff Plea
Nick Saban saying that Alabama deserved to be in the College Football Playoff ahead of teams that lost fewer games, to higher ranked opponents no less, didn’t only offend the media. An unnamed SEC coach relayed to Saturday Down South’s Matt Hayes a feeling of confusion at his statement.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” an SEC coach told Hayes. “What, is he trying to tell the (Playoff selection) committee I told you so? Is he trying to show them up?”
Saban and the Tide’s grip on the college football world has loosened in recent years, but with the No. 1 recruiting class in 2023, it may not take long for Alabama to return to the College Football Playoff — especially with the field expanded to 12 in 2024.
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