NASHVILLE — It’s a bit ironic.

Nick Saban stepped up to the SEC Media Days podium, and he spoke on a variety of topics. He discussed his love of carrot cake, his 50th anniversary trip to Italy with Miss Terry (which he tried to get out of) and the 3-way quarterback battle. Another topic? Expectations, and specifically why he’s not a fan of that.

“I’m not here to create expectations for our team,” Saban said. “Lots of people will do that. But expectations in some way are a premeditated way to create disappointment.”

Go figure that “a lot of people” creating expectations was Alabama’s own JC Latham.

The Alabama offensive lineman took the SEC Media Days stage with a different approach. Expectations? Sure, he’ll set them — it’s national title or bust.

So how does he feel about external expectations for Alabama — fresh off a rare 2-loss season — being lower than they’ve been at any point since the Tide started ripping off championships?

“Disrespectful. I don’t appreciate that at all,” Latham said. “Understanding this group, I know we’re gonna win it all, national championship, undefeated, Joe Moore Award, I want that also.”

Yep. He said that.

Undefeated. As in, the thing Alabama did in 2020 and 2009. Those years, Alabama fed off “disrespect.” It was the preseason No. 5 in 2009 and it was preseason No. 3 in 2020. Both of those teams had new starting quarterbacks. What does this team have? A new starting quarterback.

There’s no doubt that the quarterback picture is setting the expectation at a lower level than what Latham and others believe it should be. It isn’t just that Alabama is replacing Bryce Young — the only Bama QB to win a Heisman. It’s also that Alabama added transfer Tyler Buchner after its other blue-chip QBs had an underwhelming spring game.

(Saban said they weren’t in any hurry to settle on a quarterback. That sparked a story about him being a kid and sitting by the oven, waiting for a cake to come out, but his grandma told him that it wasn’t ready and that it wouldn’t be a good cake if she took it out early.)

Add in the loss of generational defensive player Will Anderson, and yeah, it’s not lost on Latham what the outside noise is.

“Teams are already counting us out because we lost those 2 guys,” Latham said.

The irony is that the return of those 2 guys to the 2022 roster fueled Alabama’s overwhelming preseason No. 1 ranking after receiving 54 of the 63 first-place votes. We know what happened after that. Alabama had:

  • A) 2 pre-Iron Bowl losses for the first time since 2010
  • B) 5 games decided in the final minute
  • C) 6 of 9 Power 5 regular season games be within 1 score in the 4th quarter
  • D) The 9th most penalties among FBS teams
  • E) All the above

It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”

To Saban’s point, there’s something that “expectations in some way are a premeditated way to create disappointment.”

Since 2005, there have been 18 preseason AP Polls. How many times did the preseason No. 1 win it all? Once, and it was … 2017 Alabama.

The past 3 times that Alabama wasn’t picked in the media poll to win the SEC — that was 2009, 2012 and 2015 — what happened? Alabama won the SEC and a national title.

There’s a chance that by the time SEC Media Days wraps up, Alabama won’t be the pick to win the West. (They are my pick, though.) After all, LSU beat Alabama and has fewer questions to answer than the Tide, who have been picked to win the West each of the past 10 years. Even in 2015 when Auburn was picked to win the SEC, Alabama was still the pick to win the West (weird, I know).

What seems much more obvious is that Georgia, the 2-time defending national champs, will be picked to win the SEC. The Dawgs haven’t been the preseason SEC Media pick since 2004. But don’t tell Latham.

How would he react if Alabama wasn’t the pick to win the SEC for the first time since 2015?

“Fuel to the fire,” Latham said. “I know we’re gonna go out there, compete, dominate and do what we have to do to win, and I know we’re gonna win it all and go undefeated. Whatever anybody outside of our family says essentially isn’t what matters.”

But does it matter? Does it actually set the stage? There’s something to be said for that. College football is unique with an 8-month offseason. There’s more outside noise, and more time to process that.

Dallas Turner was asked about Latham’s claim that Alabama not being picked to win it all is disrespectful.

“Really, it is kinda disrespectful,” he said. “But we just keep that among ourselves.”

Well, sort of. Latham shared with the entire college football world how he feels about that.

The true sign that Alabama isn’t what it once was would be if this year didn’t yield a “see, we told you so” at season’s end. That’s the season we have yet to see since the Tide became the true force in college football in 2009. We can’t currently say that Alabama is the alpha dog of the sport, or even of the SEC. Georgia owns that title, and if it does what the Tide couldn’t — 3-peat — it’ll squash any lingering notion that Alabama is the nation’s premier program.

It would be strange if there wasn’t at least some doubt about Alabama’s upside in 2023. Most non-division champs who rank No. 125 in percentage of returning production with new starting quarterbacks aren’t then slotted to win national titles. Then again, most programs haven’t reached 9 of the past 14 national title games like Alabama.

Expectations could be lower than they’ve been at any point during Alabama’s decade-plus of dominance. A preseason ranking outside the top 3 for the first time since 2009 might just bring on something else.

A premeditated way to fuel another title run.