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Nick Saban identifies common X factor for 12-team Playoff field
By Crissy Froyd
Published:
Nick Saban knows what it takes to win a national championship, and he provided that experience to ESPN’s Selection Show on Sunday.
The College Football Playoff rankings have now been fully revealed in their final form, and the first team out was none other than the Alabama Crimson Tide. The team just has not been the same ever since the retirement of the legendary head coach.
Saban recently gave his thoughts on the teams that did make it in, which included Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, Arizona State, Clemson, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio State, SMU, Penn State, Indiana and Notre Dame. The teams that will prevail the strongest are those who engage well in trench warfare, according to Saban.
“If you look at this Playoff, the teams that match up better up front are going to have the best chance to be successful,” he said.
“I hate to bring this up, but the last time we put a team in, and I’m not comparing this to SMU or anyone else, I got up on TV and said, hey look, we lost 2 games on the last play of the game, and somebody else was 12-1 and lost to Kansas State and we beat Kansas State by 25 or 28 points, and we would’ve been favored by that last team by 13 points, and we didn’t get in.”
That is a reference to the 2022 season when TCU made it into the Playoff in spite of a loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship. Alabama did not play in the SEC Championship that season and would beat Kansas State 45-20 in the Sugar Bowl.
Meanwhile, TCU would beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl during the semifinals before suffering one of the worst losses ever witnessed in the national championship game with a blowout loss to Georgia.
Physicality played a large role in how things shook out.
“They got in, and then the outcome was not (great) because the other team was so much more physical than them. No disrespect to them, they had a great season, but I’m saying that kind of physical play is going to be what dominates this Playoff,” Saban said. “Regardless of how they ranked them, put them in order, who’s playing who, easy path to get to the end. The teams that are most physical in the trenches are going to have the best chance to win.”
It will be interesting to see which team shows to be the best up front as the postseason continues to roll with serious implications now. That will culminate in the national title game, set to be played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, Jan. 20.
Crissy covers SEC football news for Saturday Down South.
