Nick Saban Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Over the past two decades, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has emerged as perhaps the greatest and most accomplished college coach of all time. But after a couple of down years by his standards, he now has some doubters. But College football analyst Greg McElroy thinks doubting Saban is a mistake.

During an appearance on The Hard Count with JD PicKell, Greg McElroy had a clear message for Nick Saban doubters: “be prepared to eat crow.”

“I would say if you bet against them and you doubt Nick Saban’s process, I think you need to be prepared to eat crow,” McElroy said according to On3. “I will always feel that way and maybe that’s blind loyalty. Maybe that’s just a trust in the program. But I’ve seen guys come and go. Players come and go. Coaches come and go. And the expectation and the standard remains the same. Winning a national championship is hard. I think a lot of people around Tuscaloosa and around the state of Alabama and around the South East, they look at it as, ‘if you don’t win the championship it’s a lost year.’

“Ultimately, yes, you want to win the national championship. I’m not gonna tell anybody to settle. I’m not gonna tell anyone to be happy with a 10-3. Absolutely not. You want to win the national championship, but there’s only one of 132 that can do that every year. So if your expectations and your success is determined exclusively by bring home a national championship trophy, you’re gonna be let down a whole lot more than you’re excited. I’m not trying to say that people need to reset their expectations, but I think they need to understand that a national championship is not a birthright.”

Obviously, McElroy has seen Saban’s dominance firsthand as he won the 2010 national title alongside Saban. And it sounds like he still thinks his old coach has more titles runs left in him.

[On3]