Paul Finebaum on Alabama's SEC Championship hopes: 'Book it'

At this point, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is ready to book his trip to Atlanta alongside Alabama for the SEC Championship Game.

The veteran SEC commentator called the Crimson Tide one of Nick Saban’s most resilient teams after losing to Texas earlier this year. After a win over Tennessee, Alabama can basically lock it up with a win over LSU to keep a perfect conference record.

What looked like a down year for the Crimson Tide turned into business as usual.

“Book it. Book your reservations for Atlanta,” Finebaum said on SportsCenter. “This Alabama team is one of the most resilient I have seen under Nick Saban. In fact, since that Texas game, I think Nick Saban, this may be one of, if not his best coaching job. This is not the talented Alabama team we’ve seen in the past. 

“They don’t have past Heisman Trophy winners like Bryce Young (or others like) Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Hurts, Mac Jones. It’s a completely different operation but they (dug) deep. They looked lost at halftime, down 13 came back, they stormed back. I think Nick Saban has this team in a very good place. A bye week now and LSU in two weeks, that’ll be for the SEC West.”

The 34-20 win for Alabama came at a great time and kept momentum going into the off week.

“Obviously, a pretty fun second half,” Saban said postgame. “Really proud of our players. I walked in at halftime after they scored right before the half, I said, ‘Everybody here’s got a choice to make. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do? Everybody’s got to choose what they want.’ And we went out and scored in two plays in the second half in the first drive on offense and changed the momentum of the game and played really well from that time on …

“I just can’t tell you how pleased and proud I am with everybody in the organization who puts a lot into it so that we can have games like this, have atmospheres like this and have the opportunity to compete like this for our players. Really, really proud of our team, and it was a great team win. I mean, 27-0 in the second half was pretty good offense and really good defense.”

As Finebaum pointed out, Alabama is rolling at the right time and has the all important matchup with LSU in two weeks. Get your popcorn ready.