HOOVER, Ala. — He rolled into town in a black sedan, two motorcycle cops stopping early morning traffic on the stacked and packed 459 in this Birmingham suburb because the peons slugging and chugging their way to another day of work can eat cake.
Only a strange thing happened when Nick Saban, king of all things SEC and the state of Alabama, arrived at the Hyatt hotel for his annual coronation at SEC Media Days: the adoring hoard of fans that showed up the previous eight years for but a glimpse of the gleam in his eye weren’t around.
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A crowd of about 20 or so stood in the lobby, and were quickly drowned out by two men who arrived in Ohio State shirts (and Auburn shorts), screaming “Here come the bridesmaids!”
Not long after that, Nick Saban began making excuses for the top-ranked Tide’s postseason collapse in the College Football Playoff.
“Somewhere between the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff we lost something,” Saban said.
Maybe it’s better to put it this way: something has happened to Alabama football.
It’s still the gold standard in the SEC, if not the nation; still the team that recruits better and is set up for success more than any other. But after all that has happened with Saban’s remarkable seven-year run since the 2008 season, it’s a strange coincidence that a lack of buzz in this one safe haven for Saban coincides with the one thing he never did before: make excuses.
Saban wants you to believe the NFL Draft, and players worrying about their future, is affecting college football. At the very least, he says it impacted his team at the end of last season.
“There’s one thing I found out about our players, and it says a little about who you are,” Saban said. “When it comes to the NFL and all this draft stuff, the guys that play great football at Alabama finish their career. Eddie Lacy played his best games against Georgia and Notre Dame the last two games of the season and went right into the league and played great.
“All the guys worrying about the draft are worrying about the wrong stuff, and they don’t play good worrying about the wrong stuff. Then they go (to the NFL) and don’t play good there because they’re worrying about the wrong stuff.”
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Saban says he’s looking out for the best interest of his players, that they need information on their NFL future — but that they need it after the season is complete to avoid distractions.
I say Cardale Jones wasn’t distracted in the College Football Playoff championship game, after he led Ohio State to an upset of Alabama in the semifinals. At that point, Jones had started all of two games, and he more than likely could have left for the NFL and been a top five pick.
You don’t think he knew that going into the Oregon game? More important, you don’t think Ohio State coach Urban Meyer knew that Jones was in that suddenly surreal position?
Yet Jones didn’t tank in the national championship game because he was worried about getting hurt. Jones didn’t avoid big hits to save himself for the NFL Combine. More telling: Meyer got Jones ready to play and kept his mind focused on the task at hand.
Saban’s job is to coach football, part of that job is to keep his players focused on playing football and not concerned about future earning potential. Is it natural to think some players will stray? Absolutely.
But here’s the key: if they’re straying, it’s on Saban to make it right. Not make excuses.
The NFL hands out grades for underclassmen considering leaving early on Dec. 22, and the CFP semifinal was on New Year’s Day. That’s one week between players hearing where they’ll likely be drafted (even though The Combine in February can change everything) and the most important game of the season.
Saban’s underlying point: what happened to his team that played so well in the SEC Championship Game, but made so many mistakes in the CFP semifinal?
Here’s the answer: they played a much better team in the CFP, a team that Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart admitted this summer they overlooked — or more specifically, they overlooked the potential of Jones.
This, everyone, is a loud and dangerous red flag.
If you’re Saban, and you have the best players in college football (after winning four straight recruiting national championships) and you lose in the CFP semifinals to a team with a third-string quarterback, there is no excuse. There is only reality:
If it’s not the players, it’s the coaches.
If it’s not the coaches on game day, then it’s the coaches in practice and preparation. And if it’s not coaches in practice and preparation, then it’s coaches recruiting and evaluating the wrong players for their system.
In 2008, after No. 1 Alabama lost to Florida in the SEC Championship Game, Saban simply said Florida was the better team. He talked about Tim Tebow making three unreal third-down throws against perfect coverage for touchdown passes.
In 2010, after defending national champion Alabama lost three games, Saban spoke later in the offseason about players not having a singular goal and looking more toward the NFL than the task at hand.
After winning back-to-back national titles in 2011-12, and after losing to Auburn on the last play of the Iron Bowl in 2013, there was no need for excuses. But after last season, after rolling into the Sugar Bowl as the No. 1 team in the nation and losing to the No. 4 team — a team many believed shouldn’t even have been there — playing a third-string quarterback, the NFL narrative shows up again.
I’d have been much happier if Saban stood at the podium and said we lost to a better team. If you want to make excuses or blame something or someone, don’t conjure up some nebulous thought process that may or may not impact a game — a process Saban is paid $7.2 million dollars a year to fix.
If you want to point fingers, point them in the mirror; admit that for some unknown reason, Alabama forgot that manchild Derrick Henry was its tailback for the final, critical quarter of the game.
It’s doesn’t take $7.2 million to figure out that.