Nick Saban addressed a packed interview room at AT&T Stadium in the aftermath of No. 1 Alabama’s season-opening statement Sept. 3.
The defending national champions dismantled No. 20 Southern California 52-6 in Arlington, Texas — the Trojans' worst loss in 50 years — and it took three questions for Saban to launch into a self-evaluation of the most dominant program in college football.
"If you want to know the truth about it, I wasn't pleased with the way we played," Saban said. "If you look at your internal scoreboard rather than the external scoreboard, you say, 'What do we need to do to improve? What do we need to do to get better?' "
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Never-satisfied Saban-speak almost always prompts a look of disbelief, but that is how this works. That “internal scoreboard” casts a never-ending shadow over today’s college football landscape heading into the third College Football Playoff.
"There have been runs — Miami, USC and Nebraska — but nothing as continuous as this one," ESPN/SEC Network radio analyst Paul Finebaum told Sporting News. “To me the most-interesting stat that screams out — is if you go back to 2008 through today — when you consider that Alabama has been No. 1 at some point in every single one of those seasons. Of course, last season that wasn't until the very last poll, but I've just never seen anything like that. To me, that is the defining notation of this run.”
At this point, it's OK to wonder how long Alabama will be No. 1 and, in turn, whether that will be good for the sport. The Crimson Tide own a 118-18 record on the field since Saban's arrival and could win a fifth national championship in 10 seasons. That would be a 50 percent success rate. It's to the point where we are resigned to Tide dominance.
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Sporting News set out to better understand what that means — for Alabama, for the Southeastern Conference, for college football as a whole — in interviews with those in and around the program. Alabama will face Washington on Saturday (3 p.m. ET) in the Chick fil-A Peach Bowl, a national semifinal in which Alabama is favored by 14.5 points. The Huskies are ranked No. 4 in the country. The Crimson Tide are ranked No. 1.
ESPN’s Joe Tessitore will be calling the Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome. He knows the expected result.
“I have a son who is a junior in high school, football obsessed,” Tessitore said last week on a conference call. “We were having a conversation recently. He made some comment about Alabama, ‘Alabama has always been there.’ I pointed out to him that in 2007 when Nick Saban took over, they lost to Louisiana-Monroe late in the season. He couldn't believe me. It was unfathomable.”
Unfathomable. Alabama finished 7-6 in Saban's first season and hasn't looked back since. The how might be the most impressive part in the attention-seeking social-media age. Saban doesn’t tweet. The Crimson Tide do not break out new uniforms for special occasions. They dominate a 128-team field in methodical fashion, and the gap grows. It's not one-sided dominance on the level of UCLA men's basketball in the 1960s and 1970s under John Wooden yet, but we're trending in that direction.
Alabama is the villain, but to what degree? Are they Taiwan in the Little League World Series? Duke or Kentucky men's basketball? The Death Star? That remains an oft used comparison. The season doesn't start until the Crimson Tide lose — they have not so far, at 13-0 — and it touches off a social media celebration every time they do. They know that, too.
“I probably would say we are the bad guys,” Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster said at the Bronko Nagurski Award banquet in Charlotte on Dec. 5. “We are not the good guys. We embrace that. We are the bad guys, and we have to come in and dominate by force and take over.”
Leading by obsession
The driving force behind that need to take over is Saban.
Finebaum stood with the five-time national champion head coach — he won while at LSU in 2003 — near the ESPN "College GameDay" set at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., a few days after the 2014 Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma beat Alabama 45-31 on Jan. 2, a little more than a month after Auburn spoiled the Crimson Tide's run at a three-peat courtesy of the "Kick Six." The Tigers were preparing for Florida State in the final Bowl Championship Series title game.
"I don't know if I've seen a more miserable human being," Finebaum said. “He was talking to me and cursing and swearing. He was angry at himself. He was angry at his players, and I was beginning to wonder if he was really going to be able to last and stay over the long haul.”
Finebaum thought it might be the turning point at the time, and it was. It just went the other way.
Saban hired offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, and that helped the program evolve to another level. The Crimson Tide are 39-3 and coming off a third straight SEC championship since that loss to Oklahoma. Alabama lost the 2015 Sugar Bowl to Ohio State in the first College Football Playoff, but that only served as more motivation. Finebaum recalls another conversation with Saban on a plane in 2015.
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"At the time I remember saying, 'You've won four national championships' — he had four at the time," Finebaum said. "He said, 'Yeah, but I should've won eight.' He only looks at the ones he didn't win. The great ones do that. I think he looks at it as, 'I could've won them all.' I think that's how he views life. There's no substitute for winning."
Finebaum said Dr. Kevin Elko, a performance consultant and motivational speaker who works with Saban, told him yet another story. Elko received a call 30 minutes after the Crimson Tide defeated No. 1 Clemson 45-40 in the College Football Playoff championship on Jan. 11, 2016.
Saban had one urgent question.
"How are we going to do it again next year?"
Greatest ever?
Saban needs one national championship to tie legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who won his six titles while at Alabama from 1958 to 1982. Oklahoma's Barry Switzer competed against Bryant on a yearly basis. Those two coaches won five national titles in the 1970s. That included two AP titles apiece, and Alabama won the 1973 Coaches Poll under Bryant.
"The ’70s were dominated by Alabama and Oklahoma," Switzer told SN. "I think Alabama and Oklahoma were the only teams that won over 100 games in the 1970s. In fact, I know we are."
Oklahoma (102-13-3) and Alabama (103-16-1) dominated that decade, but other programs shared the wealth. Nebraska and Notre Dame also won multiple national titles in the decade, before the BCS was created in an attempt to unify championships.
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That's what makes the modern-age dominance stand out even more, especially in this decade. The Crimson Tide are 85-10 since 2010. Alabama could become the first team in the poll era win four AP national titles in the same decade since Notre Dame in the 1940s, and that’s with three years to spare. Miami (Fla.) won four national titles in nine years, but that stretched two decades from 1983 to 1991. Alabama matched that and could win its fifth title since 2007.
This should be considered the greatest 10-year period in college football history. How is that possible?
"At every position, they are better than everybody they play," Switzer said.
Oklahoma and Alabama had the best players in the 1970s. Switzer led the Sooners to back-to-back national championships in 1974-75 with the help of great players such as brothers Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon. He said talent evaluation and recruiting make that difference.
"All schools get some pretty good talent, but getting them at every position like they do?" Switzer asked rhetorically. "It's kind of unheard of."
Dominance is hard to recruit
Saban continued the "internal scoreboard" monologue at AT&T Stadium after that victory against USC on Sept. 3.
"If we don't get better we're going to struggle, and we play some of those teams in very tough places to play," Saban said. "So my focus with our team right now is what can we do better? How can we get better? How can every guy improve? How can we get more guys to play better?"
Assembly required, right? The Crimson Tide stockpile five-star talent. Alabama has had the top recruiting class in the nation, according to 247Sports, every year since 2011 and is fighting Ohio State for the top spot for 2017. It gift-wraps that talent for the next level. The Crimson Tide produced 55 NFL Draft picks and 18 first-round picks under Saban. That allows them to go into tough places to play such as Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU and win by an average of 18.3 points per game.
Alabama's success is good business for the NFL. Six former Alabama players — Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Landon Collins, Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, Dont'a Hightower and C.J. Mosley — earned Pro Bowl bids in 2016, a record for one college to send to the all-star event. Foster and defensive end Jonathan Allen are part of the next wave.
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Allen joined Foster at the Nagurski banquet. They sat at a table signing autographs. Allen, who won the award, could have left for the 2016 NFL Draft. He said coming back was a “business decision” and he made that pay off by becoming the centerpiece of a unit that scored 14 non-offensive touchdowns while allowing only 15 TDs. Foster and Allen take their turn, and quarterback Jalen Hurts and cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick are close behind.
The assembly line never stops. That's "The Process."
"'The Process' is real, but 'The Process' is a struggle," Foster said with a smile. "'The Process' is fun, but 'The Process' is hard."
Allen added, "It's how everything gets done at Alabama. It's about taking it one day at a time and not focusing what you want to achieve but what you have to do to get what you achieve. That's the motto we kind of live by, and it's what I live by. "
The rest of the SEC doesn't exactly live the same charmed life.
Southeastern Confidence
Alabama covered a 24.5-point spread with ease against Florida in a 54-16 blowout in the 25th anniversary of the SEC championship game on Dec. 3. That made the Crimson Tide the first team to three-peat as SEC champions since Steve Spurrier-led Florida won four straight from 1993 to 1996.
"It's good to have one of your teams participating in the College Football Playoff. Obviously from a financial impact standpoint, it's always good, (and) from a prestige standpoint, a conference-awareness standpoint, it's always good there," SEC Network analyst Matt Stinchcomb said. "But if you're talking about it being so Alabama-centric, if you're among the other constituents of the SEC — the other 13 member schools — there's got to be a little bit of fatigue by now."
That has created an "Alabama and everybody else" effect within the SEC. The conference devolved from one where four schools (three for Alabama, but also two for Florida and one each for LSU and Auburn) combined for seven straight national championships from 2006 to 2012 to one where the second-best team behind Alabama this year was a five-way tie among four-loss teams. Whose fault is that?
"If you eliminate Alabama, it doesn't change the fact that nobody else was that good," Finebaum said. "Alabama is only responsible for one loss on Florida, Tennessee, LSU and Ole Miss. In the end, most of these teams simply self-destructed. I know it's easy to blame Saban for everything in the world, but I don't think you blame Alabama entirely, nor is this the Alabama effect."
That effect is felt most in the coaching carousel. LSU's Ed Orgeron became the 22nd SEC coach hired since Saban's arrival. Excellent head coaches such as Georgia's Mark Richt (145-51) and LSU's Les Miles (114-34) were discarded. Three former Saban assistants in Florida's Jim McElwain, Georgia's Kirby Smart and South Carolina's Will Muschamp have been hired as head coaches in the SEC East. Every other coach in the SEC West spent time on the hot seat this season.
"There's kind of a center of gravity about Alabama that makes it so challenging if you are one of their division members in the west or one of their cross inter-conference rivals," Stinchcomb said. "If you're Tennessee, then it's got to be kind of a depressing thought to see the gap seems to continually widen year over year.
"This is a season where many thought it was a chance to catch Alabama with what was an unknown at quarterback and a position in running back that was as up in the air as it’s ever been," he continued.
That led to a three-word verdict: "Not the case."
All eyes on the Tide
Alabama is still made for television, and its influence on the sport is as strong as ever.
According to Sports Media Watch, a total of 10 games drew a Nielsen rating of 5.0 or higher during the 2016 season. The Crimson Tide played in four of those games, and the SEC championship game drew a 6.6. Michigan-Ohio State (9.4) was the only game with a higher rating.
Alabama's games against LSU (5.8), Ole Miss (5.0) and Texas A&M (5.0) also had a 5.0 or better rating. The rest of that list included Notre Dame-Texas (6.4), Louisville-Clemson (5.5), Penn State-Wisconsin (5.5), Ohio State-Wisconsin (5.2) and Army-Navy (5.0). The Crimson Tide still drive network ratings more than anybody else.
The next test might come in a playoff semifinal on New Year's Eve. Alabama-Michigan State drew a 9.6 in the Cotton Bowl semifinal last season, down from a 15.2 in the Sugar Bowl semifinal against Ohio State the previous year. The Alabama-Clemson (15.0) title game did not draw as well as Ohio State-Oregon (18.6) in the first College Football Playoff championship game.
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Last year’s playoff games were considered evenly matched. This year, Alabama is the only team entering the College Football Playoff without a loss. Did the Crimson Tide kill all the drama this season?
"This has been a pretty-boring year," Finebaum said. "The SEC championship was a yawner. I say this knowing that I could be made to look foolish, but I don't view the Washington game — you better do a good job of hyping that one. I don't hear people on the street saying, 'Man, what a matchup.' It's a terrible matchup in terms of intrigue."
Alabama's influence is another intriguing development, especially with how Saban pulls those strings. He was the only college football coach on Sporting News' 50 most influential people in sports, which was released in September.
"I have been around many great coaches, but none — even Paul Bryant — who impact and influence a sport like Saban," Finebaum said. "Almost every substantive conversation about the game begins and ends with the mention of his name. Jim Harbaugh may have been the most talked about coach in the off-season. But that doesn't create or build influence. Saban's stance on any major issue resonates throughout the land of college football."
That's why Alabama can push the envelope with allowing former players such as Trent Richardson to practice with the team now. That's why Saban spoke out against Harbaugh's use of satellite camps, which were briefly outlawed by the NCAA last April. That's why satellite camps became the hot-button of the past two offseasons. That's why Saban is weighing in on players skipping bowl games now. The voice — his voice — carries.
Saban can afford to take more chances. Who knew a polarizing coach such as Kiffin would be the offensive coordinator who would revolutionize Alabama's offense? It's why Saban also can take a chance on Steve Sarkisian, who was fired from USC in 2015 and dealt with personal issues off the field, to replace Kiffin at the same position.
"When you're living in the Taj Mahal of college football, and you have as many toys at his disposal, it probably makes the margin of error a little bit less," Finebaum said. "By that I mean the number of quality control analysts that he has."
That keeps Saban ahead of everybody else — at least most of the time.
A nemesis in Columbus
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer addressed a packed interview room at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Dec. 15 as part of the school’s media day for the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31 against Clemson. Meyer was asked to size up the College Football Playoff competition, and he addressed Alabama briefly in that response.
"I look at what Nick Saban does, he's a friend, and I see what he does, and we certainly evaluate how they go about their business," Meyer said.
Bryant had Switzer. Saban has Meyer. Ohio State is 111-20 since Saban arrived at Alabama, and Meyer led the Buckeyes to a 42-35 victory against the Crimson Tide in that first College Football Playoff two years ago before winning the title game against Oregon.
The Buckeyes are the team that matches up closest from a talent, recruiting and resources standpoint, and the history between Meyer and Saban dating back to their SEC matchups created a “1A, 1B” landscape in the FBS. A potential Alabama-Ohio State title matchup in this year’s championship game would draw the highest television ratings.
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Saban and Meyer have combined for eight national championships. The only other active head coaches in the FBS with national titles are Oklahoma's Bob Stoops (2000) and Florida State's Jimbo Fisher (2013).
Who else could stop the Tide? Clemson's Dabo Swinney — an Alabama alumnus — built the next best thing in the South right now, a program with double-digit wins each of the past six seasons. Washington’s Chris Petersen brought coaching lessons from Boise State and has the Huskies back on the national scene after just three seasons. Fisher, Stoops or perhaps Harbaugh could get a shot in the playoffs down the line. Alabama, however, is the heavy favorite this year and likely will be favored again in 2017. That reputation is earned through big-game conquests.
The Crimson Tide are 12-3 against ranked non-conference opponents under Saban. The losses to Utah, Oklahoma and Ohio State — all in the Sugar Bowl, the first two after disappointing ends to the regular season — are well documented. The wins are more impressive. Alabama won those 12 games by a combined score of 453-162, and that collection includes a postseason hit list of Texas, Michigan State (twice), Notre Dame and Clemson and a regular-season hit list of Clemson, Virginia Tech, Penn State (twice), Michigan, Wisconsin and USC. They get to the big stage — and thrive on it — better than everybody else. They’ve ruined a lot of other teams’ seasons in that process.
"All we try to focus on is dominating every opponent," Allen said. "Teams hate us because they want what we want or however you want to say it, but we just focus on what we can control. That's playing good, fundamentally sound football."
Hurting or carrying college football?
Saban wrapped his answer at AT&T Stadium with some appreciation for what the Crimson Tide had accomplished against the Trojans, who finished 9-3 and earned a berth in the Rose Bowl.
"I'm happy that we won, and I'm proud of our team for beating a good team," Saban said. "I don't want you to think that I'm not. At this point in the season, I'm really focused on what we need to do to get better."
Alabama got better. The Crimson Tide will not get worse unless either Saban retires or the program provokes the NCAA. That was the undoing for dynasties at Miami and USC during the BCS era. Those dynasties unraveled quickly. Saban’s model shows higher sustainability.
Don't count on Saban to stop when he ties or passes Bryant. Finebaum brought up a time when he suggested Saban had assured his place as one of the greatest college football coaches of all time.
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"He almost looked at me like, 'Why would you bring that up?,'" Finebaum said. "He has just a natural mechanism to shut down that conversation, to refuse to speculate, to refuse to deal with hypotheticals, to refuse to deal with expectations. It's a broken record."
That broken record continues to break records and struck familiar notes at the Peach Bowl news conference Dec. 12.
"We're really happy for our players," Saban said. "It's like when your children do something to make you proud; you're happy for what the guys have contributed to the team."
Foster channeled his coach at the Nagurski banquet a week earlier.
"We have lived up to that standard, and we have to continue to live up to the standard because it’s not over yet," Foster said. "It's just a new season."
It's just another chapter in this dynasty. That's good for Alabama and puts the Crimson Tide one step closer to dynasties such as UCLA men's basketball. It's not bad for college football yet — the ratings and interest in the four-team playoff reflect that — but there's a risk of Crimson Tide desensitization the longer this goes on, if we're not there already.
One loss isn't going to change the landscape. One more national title, however, would only re-emphasize the point. Alabama could become the first team to go 15-0 since 1899. The only question is how it will be viewed from inside and out down the line.
Finebaum said he's not sure Saban enjoys "The Process" — or whether he ever will. We won’t know until he retires.
"Everything ends, whether it's the Roman Empire, or it is great, great runs of political parties or kings in third-world countries," Finebaum said. "There's always a turning point. With him it's been hard to gauge. If you would've asked me three years ago, I might have said that 'Kick Six' would've been the turning point or the loss to Urban (Meyer). He's been able to turn on his brilliance, but he's also taking advantage of a landscape in college football that is a little bit weak."
That's not Alabama's fault. It's on somebody else to step up and stem the Tide. Expect this to continue until that landscape strengthens. Perhaps there will be another conversation between Tessitore and his son down the line, maybe one where Alabama isn't always there.
"I think we're right on the doorstep of all this being just so clear to everybody that tries to frame the history of the game," Tessitore said.
That conversation is always fluid in the poll era. It includes Miami in the 1980s and ’90s, Nebraska in the mid-’90s and USC in the BCS era. Notre Dame and Army in the 1940s and Bud Wilkinson-led Oklahoma in the 1950s are in there. Bryant and Switzer juggernauts in the 1960s and ’70s, along with USC, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Nebraska could make a solid claim.
This, however, is a conversation Alabama also could dominate by force and take over. It's good for ratings. Juggernauts drive fan interest. The Crimson Tide are a combination of all those dynasties in other sports. You can compare Alabama to any of them, but there simply isn't anything built quite like this. Not even the Death Star. For now, that's a good thing, unless you are in the way.
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"This, to me, understanding what the landscape of the sport is right now, would go down as the most impressive dynasty," Tessitore said.
At this point, any other viewpoint seems unfathomable.
