How Nick Saban voted in final coaches poll of 2023 football season
The 2023 college football season ended Monday night with Michigan defeating Washington in Houston. The Wolverines finished as the unanimous No. 1 team in the final US LBM Coaches Poll of the season, which was released Tuesday, but the rest of the ballots did not agree, even on No. 2, although the runner-up Huskies ultimately claimed second place.
The rest of the top five teams consisted of No. 3 Georgia – which did not make the playoff but annihilated No. 6 Florida State in the Orange Bowl – No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Alabama. The Crimson Tide finished the season with a 12-2 (8-0 SEC) record and lost to two top-five teams, but it being ranked behind the Bulldogs, which it defeated in the SEC Championship Game, raised some eyebrows despite Georgia finishing with a better record (13-1).
Head coach Nick Saban ranked Alabama at No. 4, keeping the Tide in the same spot as it was ranked in the final College Football Playoff Top 25 – an understandable move shared by a lot of coaches that voted in the final poll. Saban’s top four teams were the four playoff teams followed by No. 5 Georgia, No. 6 Oregon, No. 7 Missouri, No. 8 Florida State, No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 10 Ohio State. Alabama defeated two of those teams during the 2023 season.
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The highest the Crimson Tide was ranked in the final coaches poll of the season was No. 2 by Arkansas State’s Butch Jones, who served on the Alabama staff from 2018-19 and was seen in California before the team’s final practice. The lowest the Tide was ranked was No. 8, which came from the ballot of current UCF and former Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn.
Below is Saban’s full ballot for the final poll. CLICK HERE to see how all 63 coaches voted.
Nick Saban, Alabama
1. Michigan
2. Washington
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Oregon
7. Missouri
8. Florida State
9. Ole Miss
10. Ohio State
11. LSU
12. Arizona
13. Penn State
14. Notre Dame
15. Oklahoma State
16. Oklahoma
17. Tennessee
18. Clemson
19. Louisville
20. NC State
21. Kansas State
22. Oregon State
23. SMU
24. Iowa
25. Liberty
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