Cover your ears, SEC fans. Nick Saban is optimistic about his own team.

Saban, the famously hard to please head coach, seems to be unusually upbeat about this season’s Alabama iteration, at least according to SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum.

“Spending the night in Birmingham the last night, being around a lot of Alabama people at this event, people that were at practice the other day. There’s a high optimism there, and I think sometimes you can hear that, but I’m hearing a specific improvement,” Finebaum said, via On3 Sports. “And I did speak to some people that are involved with the university in a significant fashion at this gathering yesterday. This is not just hype, this is legit. The word is — Saban is about as upbeat on this team as he’s been on any team in a number of years.”

That’s the last thing SEC fans want to hear. The discussion arose with Finebaum and Stephen A Smith discussing the chances of an undefeated Alabama team in 2022, to which Finebaum retorted with the above statement.

If Saban truly is excited about what he has in returning Heisman winner Bryce Young and company, watch out.