Paul Finebaum explains how Week 2 felt different than Nick Saban's previous regular season losses
Paul Finebaum may have believed Alabama was going to find a way to get a victory on Saturday, but he’s not shocked Nick Saban’s team fell to Texas.
In the past, it felt like a seismic shift when the Crimson Time lost a game. However, Finebaum believes that the last couple of seasons have numbed the feeling, and that’s the side of the line he’s on following Alabama’s loss to the Longhorns.
“In many ways, this one just didn’t seem that surprising,” explained Finebaum, via McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “I know that’s in conflict with all the predictions, because most people had Alabama winning big, but as you watched it, it started to feel routine. Like we’ve seen this a couple of times before, and in fact, we have seen it. Five times in the last 25 games. I think that’s why it did not seem so out of the ordinary.
“The fact that Nick Saban lost to an assistant didn’t seem that shocking either. This has happened now, three times, in the last three seasons. So I came away, really feeling empty, after the game in Tuscaloosa. It just seemed like this was an inflection point, and that cannot be ignored.”
That’s a far cry from where Saban wants his team to be. Alabama used to feel like they were on a mountaintop above the rest, almost alien. Now, the Crimson Tide are mortal, able to fall to teams on any given weekend.
Additionally, Finebaum added that he doesn’t believe Saban was surprised either, as the Alabama coach had some obvious concerns entering last weekend’s showdown.
“My guess is that Nick Saban was not that surprised,” Finebaum said. “I saw him Saturday morning and you don’t have a lot of time when you’re doing these interviews, but we had a couple of minutes and he was really concerned.
“You could see it etched in his eyes, in his face. He was concerned about some of the obvious things, the depth, injuries and so many other factors and I think that’s why he probably is not going crazy this morning because he’s plenty smart. He could have seen what could have been happening and what ultimately did happen.”
Nevertheless, the magic can still return for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, but they’ll have their work cut out for them to get back to the College Football Playoff. It’ll be up to Alabama to decide if Saturday is the mark of their downturn, or a hiccup on the road to resurgence.