Paul Finebaum believes 2023 season will be 'very defining' for Nick Saban

Alabama head coach Nick Saban is already regarded as one of the best if not the best, coaches in college football history. However, as ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum explained, his career is still being defined.

In particular, Finebaum thinks that the 2023 season is going to have a major impact on Saban.

“I don’t think there’s any question right now, Bama is the number two program in the country,” Paul Finebaum said. “And, forgetting record, we’re talking about if we’re at Fortune Magazine and we’re identifying programs as NFL franchises, but in terms of stock price today, that’s what we’re talking about, Alabama is behind Georgia.”

Paul Finebaum wanted to emphasize that he still thinks Alabama is a great program. However, the Crimson Tide have more questions than the Bulldogs right now.

“I don’t think it’s light years behind. I think it’s razor thin, but which way is it going, I think is the question. And is the talent in the right positions? Until this year, we knew that with everybody that has gone in the draft at the quarterback position, but now we don’t know. I think that’s really the uncertainty. Back to the conversations from a week ago, we know Alabama can win the national championship,” Finebaum said.

“We know Alabama can win the national championship with quarterback who aren’t first round picks. Hello, Greg [McElroy]…but Greg, you were a good quarterback. You had enormous talent around you and everything worked correctly. And that’s what you need.”

From there, Paul Finebaum went on to argue that Alabama hasn’t had enough talent to help out players like Bryce Young in recent years. So, Nick Saban needs to find a solution and his ability to do this could be defining for the legendary coach.

“Last year, I think, it just goes to show, that Bryce Young needed to overcome the fact that he did not have elite wide receivers, or they may have been recruited to be elite but they weren’t elite on the field when he needed them to be, and nor did he have an offensive line. These are well hashed stories,” Finebaum continued.

“So, I think there’s a question mark, Greg and Cole [Cubelic] back to your original question, and the answer is unknown at this moment. This season is going to be very defining, I think, for Nick Saban.”

Paul Finebaum was surprised no Alabama quarterbacks entered the transfer portal

As of the end of the spring transfer portal window, no Alabama quarterbacks have entered the transfer portal. That’s a fact that surprised Paul Finebaum.

“I think in some ways it’s shocking. And you guys need to help me with my math but right now I think there’s five quarter five scholarship quarterbacks on the Alabama roster. I’ll defer to Greg and anyone who’s ever played the game to tell me how that works. In just seven on sevens and ultimately in fall camp, it doesn’t seem like a great situation. And it’s really surprising. I have no earthly idea why somebody didn’t choose to go unless it just wasn’t a very good time to go. And that could very well be the explanation. There’s not a lot of great opportunities in late April, early May,” Finebaum said.

“And I guess I’m not there but when you have that many people that are still in the running, if you could, you could dig into the cliche book of having more than one quarterback and everyone knows where I’m going there. But it will be fascinating. After not having a quarterback battle in many, many years. All eyes will be on Tuscaloosa.”