Goodman: Nick Saban responds to his detractors.
The holiday season is almost approaching. After Alabama’s 49-21 thrashing of Kentucky on Saturday, Alabama coach Nick Saban will keep quiet for the time being, at least until the Iron Bowl.
Stop-talking season, as in all the “naysayers” can do now after questioning this Alabama football team in weeks two and three.
Shut-up season, as in it’s time to put a stop to the debate over Saban’s standing atop college football’s mountaintop.
After all these years of success, I didn’t think Saban had anything further to teach us. It turns out that this is his best teaching moment ever. Let that cake dough bake, Saban advised at the start, and it’s finally starting to take shape. No one can ever dispute the king after what we saw in 2023, when Alabama went from losing to Texas to winning the final SEC West division title with games to spare.
And so Saban took a little bite out of his critics after this one. His postgame news conference from Kentucky’s Kroger Field was an all-timer. In one sentence, Alabama’s coach decided it was time to dunk on clowns like me. In the next breath, 72-year-old Saban was wondering aloud if quarterback Jalen Milroe took “Geritol” during the off week before playing LSU.
Saban said there were “a lot of naysayers out there,” but that he “always believed in this team that they would develop into something special.”
Not everyone had the same kind of faith in this Crimson Tide.
Did I doubt this Alabama team? Oh, heck yes. Hand raised. Guilty. Throw all the stones and rotten fruit you can find right this way. I questioned Saban’s hiring of defensive coordinator Kevin Steele and I then questioned the heart of the entire operation. What a dope. To its great credit, Alabama responded to the challenges of turning a team that seemed lost in the wilderness to one on a new path towards the SEC championship game.
