Saban talks season opener, ACC/SEC rivalry
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Nick Saban flashed a quick, somewhat fake smile on the set of First Take Wednesday morning as part of ESPN’s Car Wash.
From there it was back to business.
The Alabama head coach didn’t appear to enjoy being swept from set to set on ESPN’s campus any more than he did watching the inevitable highlights of Alabama’s national championship loss to Clemson. Nevertheless, he managed to grin and bear it long enough to keep the Crimson Tide in the national spotlight.
Heading into his 11th year as Alabama’s head coach, Saban knows a thing or two about providing exposure for his program. Not all of it he minds.
Alabama is 38 days away from the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against Florida State on Sept. 2 in Atlanta. The game figures to be a matchup of two top-five teams and is already being billed as the “greatest opener of all time.” That kind of attention has always been exciting for Saban.
“I kind of enjoy playing in these kinds of games, the challenges of them are great,” Saban said on the Mike and Mike radio show. “I think it prepares you very well for some of the tough games you have in your conference.”
This year’s game against Florida State will be Alabama’s six straight neutral-site opener and the Tide’s eighth under Saban, dating back to a 34-10 win over Clemson in 2008 in what was the first Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
Alabama came into that game ranked No. 24 in the nation, upsetting No. 9 Clemson in what Saban credits as a defining moment in the turnaround of the program. Now nine years removed, Saban and the Tide will gear up to face another highly ranked ACC opponent.
Of course, that has created some waves of its own, particularly given the ACC's entry into the discussion of the nation’s premier conference. At least that’s what Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher said during ACC Media Days earlier this month.
“We’ve established ourselves as, I think, the premier conference in college football,” Fisher said.
Fisher went on to point out the facts behind his argument: The ACC has won two of the last four national championships, played for three of them and is 8-3 in College Football Playoff games.
Saban is plenty familiar with the ACC after playing Clemson in the national championship game the past two seasons. However, sitting back uncomfortably in his chair, he didn’t deem Wednesday to be the time to present his conference’s argument no matter how much he was pressed on the topic.
“There’s a lot of good conferences and and a lot of good teams,” Saban said. “I think to make those evaluations, I don’t look at every team, I look at the teams that we play. I’m concerned about the team from the ACC which is Florida State. The last team we played, we played against a very good team from the ACC in Clemson.
“We have a lot of good teams in the SEC. I think the SEC stands for itself in terms of what it has been able to accomplish the last 10 years, but I’m not here to evaluate that.”
Saban was then reminded that his team has beaten SEC opponents 17 straight times by an average margin of more than 20 points per game. ESPN’s Bomani Jones even joked that he was hoping Saban would make fun of the ACC.
“But I’m not,” Saban said. “I respect the players in the league, and I respect the coaches in the league. I respect what they have accomplished. I respect the fact that they beat us last year in the national championship.”
It was also pointed out to Saban that this year’s opener will have more at stake than just conference pride. Alabama and Florida State’s campuses are roughly five and a half hours away, and the two schools often battle over the same recruits. Could a loss by either serve as a black mark on the recruiting trail?
“It’s not really where they’re from that ever is a concern of mine,” Saban said. “It’s a good game for our fans, it’s in a location where we recruit and it’s going to bring exposure to the program.”
That’s the goal of all of this — exposure. It’s why Saban spent the day in front of television cameras instead of a projector analyzing plays. Now, with distractions all out of the way, expect things to go back to normal.
He’s got to get ready for the Tide’s next appearance in the limelight, a much more fitting one inside of the newly-built Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a little more than a month. He’ll let Alabama answer the questions then.
“It is every bit the challenge that you say it is,” Saban of the season opener. “I think it does things that affect your offseason. I think the players are more focused. They work a little harder, they prepare a little better. They understand the challenge of the first game, and they’re not really looking past that because it’s such a huge challenge for them.”