Nick Saban names 3 teams who are ‘a cut above’ everyone else before Week 12
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Nick Saban knows what elite looks like in college football.
The legendary coach won 6 national championships at Alabama and 1 title before that at LSU, and so the 74-year-old man who’s now a college football analyst for ESPN has a special eye for special college football teams. We’re heading toward the time of year in the sport where those special teams separate themselves from the pack, and on Friday during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Saban placed 3 teams above everyone else in college football heading into Week 12.
For Saban, the best trio of teams right now are the 3 teams who reside atop the College Football Playoff rankings and the AP Poll. It’s Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M, and then there’s everybody else behind them as we hit mid-November.
“I think there’s 3 teams that’s kind of proven they are a cut above — (Texas) A&M, Ohio State and Indiana. Those 3 teams have kind of shown they are a cut above the other teams,” Nick Saban said.
Those 3 elite teams are beatable, Saban said, but the rest of the pack of good teams below them would have to overcome something.
“The other teams are good enough to beat them, but they all have a little flaw or something that they all need to overcome,” Saban said. “It’ll be interesting to see how this works out down the stretch.”
There’s still 3 weeks left in an already crazy regular season, so a lot can change between now and then. But at least for now, this is how Saban sees the breakdown at the top of college football.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
