Alabama Returned to Glory by Becoming the Thing That Nick Saban Hated Most

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He famously asked: “Is this what we want football to be?” At the time, I thought Saban was just scared. He seemed worried that the sport’s offensive revolution could derail his defensive dynasty. But now that rant comes across differently. I don’t think Saban was fearful; I think he was issuing a threat. He was asking the rest of college football, Are you sure that you really want this? When the answer came back with a resounding “Yes, yes, of course we want more points,” Saban set out to revamp the Process that had brought him a fistful of championships. Eight years after lamenting the rise of high-octane offense, Saban now coaches the highest-octane offense of them all.

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This iteration of Alabama was a brilliant team that broke football. It had more touchdowns (84) than field goals, punts, turnovers, and turnovers on downs combined (62). It never trailed in the fourth quarter of a game, and trailed in the second half only once, against Georgia. (It won that game by 17 points.) Nobody could keep up. Brian Fremeau’s website calculates two unique efficiency-based stats, points per drive and offensive yards available percentage; the Tide appear to have set the records in both. And they did this while playing the sixth-toughest schedule in college football, according to ESPN’s FPI. Because of this season’s unique schedule constraints, all 13 of Bama’s games came against power-conference opponents, none of whom ranked lower than 70th in ESPN’s SP+. This group has a strong case to be considered the best offensive team of all time.

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It takes genius to build the best offense or best defense in a sport. Saban has now built both, which takes more than genius. It takes adaptability and a willingness to accept advice from others—things that the average genius often lacks after a lifetime spent being a genius.

What’s funny is this isn’t what Saban wants football to be. “Good defense doesn’t beat good offense anymore,” he told ESPN in October. “I don’t like it.” But more than anything, Saban wants football to be a sport in which he wins the national championship. He did that Monday, and then smiled. He knew that he had turned Alabama into the thing he once seemed to fear.

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