Nick Saban’s Evaluation Of His 2022 Team Doesn’t Bode Well For The Rest Of College Football

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Alabama football, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, is going to be very good again in 2022. The Crimson Tide, though rebuilding and reloading, are going to be back in the College Football Playoff, barring an unforeseen catastrophe.

And based on Nick Saban’s first report of the new season, they might be even better.

Alabama opened its spring practice on Friday and the greatest college football coach of all-time spoke with the media after it wrapped. He said that there is undeniably some work to do.

There always is.

“I think the most important thing about the first practice is — I don’t care what grade you’re in, how long you’ve been here, whether you’re an early enrollee, whether you’re a senior. Everybody has got to focus on what they need to do to improve. So, this is a good starting point for us. We’re not disappointed in where we are, but we’re certainly not satisfied with where we are, where we want to go and how we’re going to get there. But everybody has to have the ability to self-assess, because I think that’s the best way to improve. There’s not one player out there that’s playing for us right now that doesn’t have something that they can improve on. Obviously, it’s a new team. You’re looking for new leadership. There’s guys that have opportunities at several positions and there’s competition at those positions. It’ll be interesting to see how some of that stuff shakes out for us.”

However, despite the kinks that need to be worked out, Saban is thrilled with how his team is looking. He said that they had a phenomenal offseason.

“We’re really excited about the offseason program that we’ve had, the attitude that this team has presented, the work that we’ve been able to get done, the conditioning level that we’ve been able to achieve with a lot of the guys. I think the commitment has been good. We had a really good offseason program.”

That’s a scary thought. Not only is Alabama, well, Alabama, but they’re in remarkable shape. If the best team in college football is also in great form, it doesn’t bode well for the SEC.

Here are Saban’s full comments: