Nick Saban has won the SEC ten times, is inarguably the greatest college football coach of all time, and is in Atlanta, Georgia, this week for the SEC Media Day circuit. He spoke Tuesday to the media following a (13-2) season culminating in his first national title game loss to a former assistant.
He talked about that loss to Georgia and Kirby Smart on Tuesday:
You know, sooner or later, these people that get these opportunities would get in situations where they had a chance to have nationally recognized nationally powerful, whatever you want to call it, top ranked teams, like Georgia, was last year like Texas will be sure, very soon, with Sark being the head coach there, on the staff that he has in the job that they’re doing. So this is not something that is surprising to me. You know, a lot of people are at really, really good schools, they’ve done a really, really good job. They’ve used, you know, their own personal imprint, to maybe take a few things that they learned that we do that helped us be successful, along with their imprint of what they want to do so that they can have successful programs. So this is not a surprise to me. It was, you know, sort of expected, you know, actually, and I’m happy to see each and every one of those guys do extremely well. Not extremely well against Alabama, but extremely well.
Expected. Saban offered a little bit of kudos to two of his former assistants, primarily Smart.
It didn’t happen overnight for Smart despite taking over a consensus Top-10 program when he arrived in Athens. Though he was on the doorsteps in just his second season in 2017 when Nick Saban handed Smart his first of four losses over the next five years. In between the first meeting and the last, Smart and Georgia have stacked top-3 recruiting class after top-3 recruiting class. And it took every bit of that blue-chip talent on January 10th, 2022. Expected? Sure, but Saban didn’t exactly make it easy.
Monday, July 18th
12:35 PM (LSU): Brian Kelly with Jack Bech, Mike Jones Jr., BJ Ojulari
2:30 PM (Ole Miss): Lane Kiffin with Jonathan Mingo, Cedric Johnson, Nick Broeker
3:55 PM (Missouri): Eli Drinkwitz with Barrett Banister, Martez Manuel, Isaiah McGuire
Tuesday, July 19th
9:05 AM (Alabama): Nick Saban with Will Anderson, Jordan Battle, Bryce Young
10:30 AM (Vanderbilt): Clark Lea with Ben Bresnahan, Anfernee Orji, Mike Wright
1:00 PM (Mississippi State): Mike Leach with Jaden Crumedy, Nathaniel Watson, Austin Williams
2:25 PM (South Carolina): Shane Beamer with Jovaughn Gwyn, Dakereon Joyner, Zacch Pickens
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Wednesday, July 20th
9:05 AM (Arkansas): Sam Pittman with Jalen Catalon, KJ Jefferson, Bumper Poole
10:30 AM (Georgia): Kirby Smart with Stetson Bennett, Nolan Smith, Sedrick Van Pran
1:00 PM (Florida): Billy Napier with Anthony Richardson, Richard Gouraige, Ventrell Miller
2:25 PM (Kentucky): Mark Stoops with Will Levis, Kenneth Horsey, DeAndre Square
Thursday, July 21st
9:05 AM (Auburn): Bryan Harsin with Tank Bigsby, Derick Hall, John Samuel Shenker
10:30 AM (Tennessee): Josh Heupel with Cedric Tillman, Hendon Hooker, Trevon Flowers
12:30 PM (Texas A&M): Jimbo Fisher with Ainias Smith, Demani Richardson, Layden Robinson
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