Wishful thinking has led to Nick Saban, Alabama being counted out
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines wishful thinking as “the attribution of reality to what one wishes to be true or the tenuous justification of what one wants to believe”. In lamen terms, one wishes for something to be true so much that they have convinced themselves that it is reality. This is the case for many fans and media members and their perceived reality of Nick Saban and the Alabama football program.
This isn’t the first time the Saban Dynasty has been declared dead either. Some of the nation’s most respected journalists have written Saban and the Tide off several times, only for Alabama to respond with another national championship. One famous college football analyst even once declared that Alabama had a “Nick Saban problem”, after dropping a regular season game to Ole Miss at home in 2015. Alabama would proceed to win the national championship that season and Derrick Henry hoisted the Heisman Trophy.
So, why do these folks continue their doubt about the G.O.A.T.? It’s obviously not because history is on their side. On the contrary, if history has taught the public anything, it’s that the moment anyone believes Saban and Alabama are finished, they regroup and make another run.
Today, everyone is pointing to the possibility that Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have overtaken Saban and the Tide. For a brief moment, maybe they have. The Bulldogs won back-to-back national championships and continue to recruit and develop at a very high level. Once again, I will remind you of what history has taught us. Dabo Swinney and Clemson defeated Alabama two out of three years for a national championship and the voices claiming Saban had been dethroned began to get louder. Since that time, Alabama has won two more national championships while Sweeney and the Tigers are still searching for another.
For everyone to be so certain that Saban’s run with the Tide is over, there must be some sort of dropoff on the recruiting trail, right? Well, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Alabama has gone a whopping two seasons without a national championship, but somehow the washed-up Saban has brought in the No. 2 and the No. 1 recruiting classes in that time. In fact, in the last recruiting cycle, Saban went right into Kirby Smart’s backyard and grabbed the top two players from the state of Georiga Caleb Downs and Justice Haynes.
As we await the start of the 2023 college football season, folks will now point to the ongoing quarterback in Tuscaloosa as a sign that Saban is finished. So, once again, let’s look to history to see how this story will most likely be written.
In 2011, there was a quarterback battle that went into the start of the season until A.J. McCarron took charge and would lead Alabama to back-to-back national championships. In 2015, the battle between Jake Coker and Cooper Bateman lasted a handful of games and the Tide hoisted the national championship trophy. Even guys like Blake Sims and true freshman Jalen Hurts have led Alabama to a birth in the playoff. Saban has proved, more than once, that he is capable of winning it all without an uber-talented signal caller.
So what exactly is the premise behind Saban and the Tide being counted out? It’s not based on facts or historical evidence. In fact, it’s not based on anything tangible. It’s merely a longing for an end to a dynasty, a desire to see the giant fall, a yearning for an end of dominance. It’s nothing more than wishful thinking.
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