Nick Saban addresses seniors using COVID year, senior day

With the 2021 college football regular season coming to a close as just two weeks remain, many teams will be holding their Senior Day festivities either this weekend or next – or may have already played their final home game of the year and honored their seniors. Alabama will be honoring its senior class Saturday in the Crimson Tide’s home finale against No. 21 Arkansas.

The Crimson Tide – ranked No. 2 in the latest College Football Playoff Top 25 – has 13 seniors who are expected to play their final game at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday: Daniel Wright, Christopher Allen, Brian Robinson Jr., LaBryan Ray, Josh Jobe, Bret Bolin, Jaylen Moody, Joshua Robinson, Phidarian Mathis, Jackson Roby, Chris Owens, Kendall Randolph and Major Tennison.

While that group – as of now – will be playing in Tuscaloosa for the final time, there’s a chance that one or more of them could potentially take advantage of the extra year of eligibility provided by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic and return to Alabama for the 2022 season.

Does Alabama head coach Nick Saban know if anyone will be coming back next year?

“No, we haven’t discussed that. We usually don’t talk about that until the end of the season, and we’ll use the same procedure this year,” Saban said this week. “This group has been a really good group. It’s not a big group, but they’ve played a lot of games here and had a lot of success in their career here and they’ve contributed to it in a very positive way.”

Although Saban’s not sure who – if anyone – will be returning for another season, the longtime Crimson Tide head man is proud of his 2021 senior class for everything they’ve accomplished while with the program.

“I’m proud of this group,” Saban said. “A lot of these guys have graduated or will graduate either this semester or next, so I’m really pleased and proud of the way they’ve progressed. There’s a lot of guys in this group that has come a long ways, and I think they’re going to be very successful in life – which is the goal of the program.”

No. 2 Alabama (9-1 overall, 5-1 SEC) is a 20.5-point favorite coming into Saturday’s game vs. No. 21 Arkansas (7-3, 3-3). Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

Following this weekend’s contest, the Crimson Tide will then face off with Auburn on the road Nov. 27 to close the regular season.