Nick Saban defends comments made about 2021 being 'rebuilding' year

Alabama head coach Nick Saban previously stated that the 2021 Crimson Tide football team was one that was “rebuilding” despite quarterback Bryce Young capturing the Heisman Trophy – the first quarterback in Alabama history to do so – winning the SEC Championship and coming within one victory of winning the 2022 College Football Playoff.

With criticism of the comments coming from all corners of college football, Saban defended his comments, following up on the discussion when asked during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand,” Saban said. “We were young, and [this year], we should have nine starters back on offense and nine starters back on defense. That’s the point I was trying to make … So – as we usually have to do – we have lots of rebuilding to do again this season. That’s the point that I was trying to make.

“I don’t think our standard is like everybody else’s standard, but when you have a lot of young players playing, you’re actually trying to rebuild so those guys get the kind of experience you need so they can play at the level you need to play.”

Paul Finebaum responds to Nick Saban calling 2021 season a ‘rebuilding year’ for Alabama

Nick Saban calling Alabama‘s 2021 season — a season where Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young captured the Heisman Trophy and Saban’s team came close to being national champions — a “rebuilding year” has Paul Finebaum heated.

Simply, Finebaum is fed up with Saban feeding the college football world a bevy of excuses for not capturing a title last season, which he explained passionately on ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday morning.

“This is very predictable if you follow Nick Saban closely. Whenever he loses a game, like a national championship game, here comes the excuse. Here comes the ‘Nick Saban Grievance Tour.’ I mean, sometimes I don’t know if whether Nick Saban is trying to continue to be the greatest head coach of all time, or he wants Jimmy Kimmel’s job. I don’t really understand it,” explained Finebaum. “Quite frankly, at some point it’s not a great look. I know that’s not a popular thing to say where I live, because Nick Saban can do no wrong. But first it was NIL that he was complaining about over and over, and now he’s quibbling about what happened last year. 

“By the way, in the past — you can go back into the record book — every time he loses one of these games, he called the Sugar Bowl a couple of years ago a consolation game. He blamed the NFL Draft on the loss to Ohio State when Ezekiel Elliott was there. There’s always something with Nick Saban, but we still love him, don’t we?”

Evidently, Paul Finebaum doesn’t want to hear any more excuses from Nick Saban as to why Alabama wasn’t the kings of the college football world last season. NIL, transfer portal, “rebuilding year” and everything in between be damned — Saban is the greatest coach of all time in the minds of many, and Finebaum wants him to act like it.