Nick Saban, a naysayer?
In his first SEC Media Days as part of ESPN’s broadcast team, the former Alabama head coach isn’t showing any favoritism to his old program. In fact, he doesn’t even have the Crimson Tide in this year’s SEC Championship Game.
During SEC Network’s coverage of media days on Monday, Saban was asked to provide his prediction for this year’s conference championship game.
His pick? Georgia and Texas.
“I think Georgia and Texas, but I don’t think there’s any team right now or any coach that you would talk to, including myself for many, many years, that right now there’s not some part of their team that they’re concerned about,” Saban said. “And how those problems sort of get resolved, whether it’s a young player that comes in and makes an impact or an older player develops the consistency, those are the question marks that make it impossible to make predictions right now.”
Saban called Georgia a “really good” team. He went more in-depth about his pick of Texas, highlighting the Longhorns’ talent behind center.
“I think Texas, if their defense comes through and they replace some of the interior people that they lost that were high draft picks and all, they are really good offensively,” Saban said. “And even though their quarterback has missed time — [Quinn] Ewers has missed time the last couple of years — [Arch] Manning was light-out in the spring game. Arch was like 21-for-25 for 347 yards. That depth at quarterback is probably really important for them because Ewers has missed time the last couple of years.”
Saban was one of three SEC Network analysts to provide a conference championship game prediction. Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy picked Texas vs. Alabama, while former Georgia tight end Benjamin Watson selected Georgia vs. Ole Miss. Saban followed up Watson’s prediction of Ole Miss, stating that the Rebels would be significantly improved following their recent offseason overhaul.
“I think this is the first time that Ole Miss can really match up up front,” Saban said. “That’s always been their issue. They’ll win 11 games and they lose to Georgia and they lose to [Alabama] because they can’t match up front. They're going to look more like an SEC team.”
While Saban was complimentary of other SEC programs, he noted that he still had faith in Alabama in its first season under Kalen DeBoer.
“I believe in our Alabama team, too,” Saban said. “I believe Jalen Milroe. I just think the question marks in the secondary, until those get resolved, it’s hard to jump on that bandwagon.”
Earlier on SEC Now, Saban provided his concerns about this year’s Alabama team, stating that depth and questions in the secondary could serve as potential speed bumps in the Tide’s quest to repeat as conference champions.
"I think 'Bama has really got a lot of good players," Saban said. "I think they've got question marks in the secondary, especially at corner. Getting [Kadyn] Proctor back probably was important because they were a little bit weak at tackle. That's going to help them.
"I think depth of the team will be the biggest question. If Alabama can stay healthy, I think they have enough good first-line players to compete against anybody."
Alabama beat Georgia, 27-24, in last year’s SEC Championship Game. According to Vegas Insider, Georgia is currently the favorite to win this year’s conference title with +185 odds. The Bulldogs are followed by Texas (+310), Ole Miss (+650), Alabama (+950), LSU (+1,000) and Tennessee (+1,100).
