Paul Finebaum weighs in on whether Jim Harbaugh-Nick Saban game is either coach's last

The Rose Bowl between Michigan football and Alabama will pit two of the most successful college football coaches of the modern era against one another.

Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban square off for the second time in their coaching career, this time in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Saban won the first matchup in the 2020 Citrus Bowl, U-M's last non-CFP bowl game.

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, a longtime college football analyst and talk show host focused on the SEC, said it very well could be the final matchup between Saban and Harbaugh. On the latest episode of "Hail Yes!" the Free Press' podcast about Michigan sports, Finebaum said the situation around the two coaches has created a matchup with fascinating story lines.

“To see Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh on the same sideline for the Rose Bowl is pretty exciting to me ...” Finebaum said. “This is one of the most intriguing matchups I’ve ever seen. You just don’t know what’s on the other side of this game for Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh. So I’m glad to see it.”

[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Hail Yes!" your go-to Michigan Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

He went on to explain he believes this could be the final season for Harbaugh as coach at Michigan because of “baggage” Harbaugh has accumulated with multiple NCAA investigations and three-game suspensions in the last year. While comparing him to a dinosaur, Finebaum said Harbaugh’s best decision, in his estimation, would be to move on from Michigan.

“I do believe that there are at least some people at the University of Michigan with integrity, and who believe what he has been accused of is probably not — he’s not going to be able to get away with it,” Finebaum said. “I also have very little faith, if any, in the NCAA, but these two just seem to be on a collision course.”

On the other sideline, the question surrounding Saban is his age. The 72-year-old coach has sat at the top of the college football world for the past two decades since his return from the NFL, but questions about his retirement have swirled during the year as Alabama climbed back from an early loss to go undefeated in the SEC and reach the CFP as the fourth seed.

Finebaum said Saban’s retirement is the looming “unanswered question” right now, and it’s hard to say if he will walk away as Alabama resides as a powerhouse frequenting the CFP — the Crimson Tide has eight semifinal appearances in 10 seasons — and wrangling top-three recruiting classes annually.

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“This is not a man who is going to be happy tomorrow if he retires,” Finebaum said. “I don’t care how big a check he gets from ESPN, or Aflac or some corporate board, that’s not enough to satisfy Nick Saban.”

He said that 2023 will go down as Saban’s best year as a coach after Alabama finished the season with 11 straight wins and quarterback Jalen Milroe developed into one of the best quarterbacks in the country after getting benched earlier this season. When talking about the specific coaching matchup, he said Saban’s ability to adapt is what sets him apart.

“The thing about Saban is he learns,” Finebaum said. “He lost to Auburn to 2013 in the famous kick-six game, he’s lost a couple of other ones. What’s happened the last two times Alabama has gone to Auburn? They’ve literally won on miracles. Both games were 99% chance of losing and he pulled them out. How do you do that, is that luck? To a degree, but it's also occasionally making the right call.”

“And I’m not sure I’ve seen a lot of that from Jim Harbaugh. He either overpowers you or used to lose those big games — he hasn’t quite lost as many as he has in the past.”

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Saban has a long history with Michigan, though not necessarily Harbaugh, dating back to his time as Michigan State’s coach in the 1990s. Finebaum said he has received the impression Saban isn’t a fan of the Wolverines and has shown that in the past. The last time these two teams played in the Citrus Bowl, Alabama punched in a last-second touchdown with the game far out of reach.

“This is not a normal opponent (for Alabama/Saban),” Finebaum said. “I have seen Saban do a few things like that, but during most of his tenure, he would never score like that at the end of the game. I don’t know if it’s really personal with Harbaugh, I can’t answer that. But when you’re the Michigan State coach for five years, I’d say you spend plenty of time having your face rubbed in the dirt by Michigan folks.”

Harbaugh and Finebaum have a long, tenuous relationship dating back to when he first arrived in Ann Arbor. Finebaum is one of the main ESPN personalities to cover Harbaugh and Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal and has long been critical of Michigan’s lack of success until recent years. In 2017, the two traded barbs on Twitter, with Harbaugh calling Finebaum “the unabashed SEC water carrier” after Finebaum called him a cheater.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Paul Finebaum breaks down Jim Harbaugh-Nick Saban Rose Bowl matchup