As a coach, Nick Saban famously hated making predictions or comparisons or speculating on hypotheticals.
But as an ESPN college football analyst, doing so is a big part of his job.
SEC Now host Laura Rutledge put Saban on the spot on the first day of SEC Media Days Monday in Dallas, asking Saban — along with fellow panelists Greg McElroy and Benjamin Watson — who they were picking to play in the SEC championship game. With Oklahoma and Texas joining the league, the SEC has done away with divisions, meaning the top two teams in the final regular-season standings will play for the title on Dec. 7 in Atlanta.
Saban’s answer might surprise you.
“I think Georgia and Texas,” Saban said. “… Texas, if their defense comes through and they can replace some of the interior people that they lost, that were high draft picks and all that, they’re really good offensively. And even though their quarterback has missed time, (Quinn) Ewers has missed time in the last couple of years, (Arch) Manning was lights out in the spring game. Arch was like 21-for-25 for 347 yards.
So that depth at quarterback is probably really important for them, because Ewers has missed time the last couple of years, a game or two, which could really affect where you end up.
“So I really like Texas. I think Georgia’s got a really good team.”
As for his old team, Saban said Alabama has at least one notable potential liability that might keep it out of the championship hunt.
“I believe in our Alabama team too and I believe in Jalen Milroe,” Saban said. “… I just think the question marks in the secondary, until those get resolved, it’s hard to sort of jump on that bandwagon.”
McElroy, who won a national championship as Alabama’s quarterback under Saban in 2009, picked Alabama and Texas to play for the SEC title. He said Georgia’s schedule — which has been ripped for being soft in the past — is sneaky tough this year.
“It’s no enviable task to make this pick on the first day; I plan on changing it tomorrow,” McElroy said with a grin. “But I think it’s going to be Texas and I think it’s going to be Alabama. A lot of people are kind of overlooking Georgia’s schedule. I mean, they have three road games — to Texas, to Alabama and to Ole Miss.
“I know that it was ‘a lot to a little’ when they played Ole Miss last year, but I just look at that schedule … man, and possibly losing one and you lose the head-to-head and … basically that game’s worth a game-and-a-half, relative to getting the conference title game, that I think could be a challenge. I just think we need to pay a little more attention to how difficult that schedule is.”
Watson, the former Georgia and NFL tight end, went with Georgia and Ole Miss. The Rebels are a popular College Football Playoff pick this season after landing the standout defenders Walter Nolen (Texas A&M) and Princely Umanmielen (Florida) through the transfer portal.
“I’m gonna take Georgia, while also understanding how tough their schedule is gonna be,” Watson said. “… It’s gonna be a gauntlet for them to go on the road to these top programs, if they can survive it. Obviously, I think that they can.
“… I think Carson Beck, the continuity with him and (offensive coordinator Mike) Bobo is key offensively and then defensively while they may not have, as we talked about, some of the guys up front, I think their secondary is one of the best in the country.
“And I like Ole Miss. This is now never for Ole Miss. You remember that game against Georgia last year. Lane Kiffin talked about becoming the team that could beat Georgia. He goes out in the transfer portal. He gets a great edge rusher who had seven sacks last year at University of Florida. He goes and gets Walter Nolen, a defensive lineman from Texas A&M. I think, offensively and defensively, Ole Miss is put together in a way that can challenge a whole lot of teams.
Saban agreed with Watson’s assessment of Ole Miss’ potential.
“I don’t think there’s any team right now or any coach that you would talk to — including myself for many, many years — that right now, there’s not some part of their team that they’re concerned about,” Saban said. “And how those problems sort of get resolved, whether it’s a young player that comes in and makes an impact or an older player develops consistency – those are the question marks that I think, make it impossible to make predictions right now.
“But to your point about Ole Miss, I think this is the first time Ole Miss could really match up up-front. That has always been their issue. They’ll win 11 games. They lose to Georgia, they lose to us, because they can’t match up up-front. But they can this year. They’re gonna look more like an SEC team.”