Nick Saban's injury comments could reflect an issue for Alabama football | Toppmeyer

The healthier team won the college football national championship, and Nick Saban knows it.

That doesn’t cheapen Georgia’s 33-18 triumph over Alabama on the big stage. Injuries and how a team combats them are part of football, and Alabama failed to adequately respond to injuries to top wide receivers John Metchie III and Jameson Williams.

Alabama won a previous matchup between the teams, 41-24, at the SEC Championship in December. Metchie got hurt in that game, and Williams was lost in the second quarter of the rematch.

Saban explained after the season how the absence of those stars affected Alabama in the national championship.

“We're playing with some guys who didn't have a lot of experience, and it eventually got us in the fourth quarter," Saban told the Alabama Football Coaches Association in January. "And we had the kind of team where we had a really good quarterback, and we wanted to have skill guys that they couldn't guard, so we had two, (Metchie and Williams), that were really, really good, and they both got hurt.”

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Their backups, Saban told his audience, were ill-suited for a role increase against Georgia.

"They never made themselves the best player they can be, and when they got the opportunity, they couldn't do it,” said Saban, who also noted injuries to Alabama's starting cornerbacks.

I didn’t interpret Saban’s comments as him trying to diminish Georgia's achievement or exonerate Alabama. Rather, I think he wanted to impart the importance of the next-man-up mentality and backups being ready when their moment arrives.

Interestingly, I think his remarks might touch on a long-term stumbling block for Alabama, as it pertains to building quality depth.

When the NCAA changed its rules last year to allow immediate eligibility for first-time transfers, Saban pondered whether the new landscape would allow the rich to get richer.

In other words, would college football’s elite gobble up transfer talent, in addition to signing the best high school prospects?

On the top end, Alabama did just that.

The Crimson Tide have added three transfers this offseason in cornerback Eli Ricks, running back Jahmyr Gibbs and wide receiver Jermaine Burton. They’re among the most talented players who transferred this winter.

But Alabama also lost 17 players to the transfer portal.

None of the exiting players is as talented as any of the players Alabama brought in. But I wonder whether this might be a case of losing 17 $20 bills and gaining three $100s – a net loss.

Alabama will always sign highly rated prospects and attract top transfers as long as Saban is its coach, and probably even after he’s gone. However, there are only so many snaps to go around, and it’s more tempting than ever for reserves who are dissatisfied with their spot on the roster to seek another option.

Alabama cannot add an endless amount of newcomers. Typically, teams are allowed to add up to 25 newcomers per year. That number increased to 32 this year, after an NCAA waiver created a one-year change.

Even if the cap remains at 32, that maintains a ceiling so that Alabama cannot sign 25 four- or five-star prospects and also add the best 15 transfers. The Tide must decide how to allocate its spots. Likely, it will continue to preserve most of its openings for high school talent.

That gives programs like Ole Miss, South Carolina and others the opportunity to gobble up a dozen or more impactful transfers and perhaps level the playing field a smidge.

In the portal era, Alabama’s starting lineup will be as talented as ever. The challenge will be roster retention further down the depth chart and ensuring that its second- and third-string players will be capable contributors, when called upon.

That will require speedy development of young talent.

A veteran backup is going to become a unicorn. More and more of those players will transfer in pursuit of more playing time.

Saban didn’t specify which reserves he was referring to with his January criticism. But the injuries to Metchie and Williams meant true freshmen Ja'Corey Brooks and Agiye Hall and sophomore Traeshon Holden each logged a season-high in snaps against Georgia. Second-string junior tight end Jahleel Billingsley, who later transferred, also saw more playing time in the season’s final games.

Alabama’s backups not performing to Saban's standard is an issue he must resolve. That’s a tricky challenge in an era when nobody wants to be a backup in the first place.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Nick Saban's remarks on injuries reflect an issue for Alabama football