Monday night in Miami the Alabama football team did what if has done all season. Dominate.
They did what they’ve done for the better part of the last 12 years. Suffocate.
But this team is different. Nick Saban told us so, with the look on his face and with the words he spoke. Following Alabama’s 52-24 drubbing of Ohio State, Saban was clearly beside himself with pride. And it had nothing to do with the personal accomplishment of winning his seventh National Championship. Don’t get me wrong, the man is proud of the accomplishment as he should be. But the joy on this night was that of a proud parent.
In this, the most unusual and challenging football season anyone can remember, Saban challenged his players in a way that not even he had done before. And they accepted. Completely.
He asked them to be more selfless. He asked them to be better teammates. He asked them to be accountable to each other even more than normal.
This is an Alabama team absolutely loaded with talent. Three offensive players were deserving of the Heisman Trophy. On any given year, Mac Jones or Najee Harris could have walked away with college football’s most prestigious individual award. DeVonta Smith won it. Anyone who didn’t vote for Smith either wasn’t paying attention or had an agenda. He’s the best player in college football.
But this team is special for reasons beyond their talent. It is rare, especially in today’s “look at me” world, for such talented players to be so supportive of each other. To buy into a common goal. To choose to put team goals above individual ones.
The Crimson Tide probably had enough talent to win the 2020 National Championship with talent alone. But they chose not to take that route. They chose to be different. They chose to be exceptional. They chose to be a team.
To be called the “ultimate team” by Nick Saban is the ultimate compliment.
The individual awards piled up at the end of the year. They could have been a distraction. They weren’t. Not for this team. Nothing was going to get in the way.
“This is just the most together, committed group I think we’ve ever had the opportunity to be associated with,” Saban said. “I think that’s special. I think all these guys on this team will remember being part of this team for the rest of their life because it’s a really, really exceptionally special experience.”
Under Saban, Alabama has won six of the last twelve national titles. One day he will retire and look back on all the accomplishments. He’ll smile. Maybe he’ll be thinking about the seven (or more) championships and the teams that won them. But that smile will be there in large part because of one group of exceptionally talented young men in an exceptionally difficult time. He challenged them to be different. He asked them to be special.
They delivered in ways that not even he could have imagined.
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Watch Nick Saban's full press conference at SEC Media Days: