You can count his national championship and SEC trophies. You can list all the NFL players he produced. But what made Nick Saban great, what made him the best college football coach of all time in some experts’ estimation, is he didn’t have Saturdays like Kalen DeBoer and Alabama just suffered through.
He didn’t lose games he was supposed to win, at least following that trying first season in Tuscaloosa when the Crimson Tide went 7-6 way back in 2007. He didn’t follow up exhilarating victories like the one over Georgia the previous Saturday by losing as a mammoth favorite to perennial SEC punching bag Vanderbilt , 40-35. In fact, this was Alabama’s second loss to an unranked opponent since 2007, the other time coming at Texas A&M in 2021.
Saban liked to use the phrase “rat poison,” as a way to get his players not to feel too good about themselves, to avoid letdown performances like the one we just saw from the Crimson Tide. It was frequently mocked, but it also worked. This isn’t to hammer DeBoer, a quality coach who is now 30-4 at power-conference schools.
The expanded playoff lessens the significance of this setback, as long as Alabama responds. But it is a reminder of Saban’s greatness. It is ironic that Saban said on ESPN’s “College GameDay” that Vanderbilt is the only easy place to play in the SEC.
Saban the coach must hate Saban the announcer. DeBoer probably isn’t too fond of him at the moment after Alabama lost to Vandy for the first time sin.
