ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith makes no apologies when it comes to his love of Alabama football and head coach Nick Saban.
Smith has praised Saban in the past for his coaching and how good his team is. Smith even came to Tuscaloosa a few years ago to speak to the team. So, when Saban appeared on his show First Take before last week’s NFL Draft, he had nothing but high praise for the Crimson Tide.
https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/1520804260753125378
Smith even said he thought, had the Tide been healthy, they would have won the national championship, saying that injuries cost the Tide the title game, something Saban agreed with.
“Georgia had a great team, had a great defensive team. Kirby does a great job there,” said Saban. “We had success against them in the SEC Championship Game, but we didn’t really have the same team and it changed the dynamic of the game tremendously.”
The Tide was missing their two top receivers in Jameson Williams, who was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Detriot Lions, and John Metchie who was drafted in the second round by the Houston Texans.
Lions GM Brad Holmes explained how the team made the trade with the Vikings to get Jameson Williams.
Great stuff from @davebirkett: https://t.co/Hg3xzKgJo2
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) May 2, 2022
Alabama WR John Metchie III is off the board at No. 44 to the Houston Texans 🔥 pic.twitter.com/T599wfzORB
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) April 30, 2022
Smith’s biggest compliment came when praising how good the 70-year-old head coach looked.
“Dammit, you look young,” fawned Smith. “You look better than most of us. What’s the secret?”
To which Saban said what keeps him young is the challenge of a new year.
“Every year is a new challenge. A new team,” said Saban. “It’s almost like taking a new job, actually, in terms of guys having new roles on the team, new people in the organization. It’s always a challenge. I like the challenge.”
“I think that there's always sort of a lot of lessons that you can learn to use to develop your team from a loss and I think that’s something that hopefully we’ll be able to help this year’s team develop.”
-Nick Saban on what Alabama can take from the National Championship loss pic.twitter.com/1RQKUIIC8a
— First Take (@FirstTake) April 28, 2022
(AL.com)
