Nick Saban opens up on lessons Alabama took from national championship loss to Georgia
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Nick Saban and Alabama finished the 2021 season 1 win shy of becoming the first back-to-back national champions since the Crimson Tide themselves did it in 2011 and 2012. Instead, they were forced to watch Georgia hoist the trophy in Indianapolis on Jan. 10.
While many would say that Saban reloads rather than rebuilds, the legendary head coach said himself that despite the Tide advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, he considered last season a “rebuilding year”. There’s certainly a long list of programs nationally that would be happy to have a “rebuilding year” like the one Saban had in 2021.
But the focus is now on 2022 for the Tide, as they seek a 19th title and 7th in the last 14 seasons.
“Lessons,” Saban told FOX’s Tom Rinaldi when asked what a team that plays in the national championship game but doesn’t win receives. “There’s always lessons to learn…Sometimes, it’s much more difficult to deal with success, because culturally, we think we should be rewarded for success and we should be able to relax. And you can never relax as a competitor. You’re kinda only as good as your last play.”
Alabama is in Austin to take on Texas on Saturday, a noon ET kickoff on FOX.
“You can never relax as a competitor. You’re only as good as your last play.”
Tom Rinaldi sits down with Nick Saban and looks at how the team has handled its national title game loss and the lessons they took from it ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/WWqbLR6qa0
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 10, 2022
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
