College Football

While Michigan turned heel, Nick Saban just kept winning

Updated Dec. 28, 2023 11:54 a.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Nick Saban was the first Michigan State coach to beat Michigan on his very first try — back in 1995. Saban recently beat down Michigan again in 2020 in the Citrus Bowl. He lives rent-free in the hearts and minds of Michigan men.

That's the rail. The nut graph is this: Saban has won seven national titles in the last 17 years — all while coaching in the toughest conference, in the toughest era that this perfect sport has ever seen.

Take it from the greatest living professional football coach in the world, who essentially calls Saban the Saiyan with all seven Dragon Balls.

"There's nobody I respect more in football than Nick Saban. And I don't think there's anybody that's a better coach than Nick Saban," Bill Belichick said on NFL+'s "Nick Saban: The Greatest College Coach of All Time."

No one has produced more NFL first-rounders than Alabama's head coach, who has at least one at every single position — both offense and defense.

This means, that in the words of the great babyfaced Canadian Bret "Hitman" Hart, that Saban is "the best there is, best there was, the best there ever will be."

Nobody wants to step into the ring with that Saiyan Saban man at the Summer Slam.

And yet we doubted his 2023 team — for good reason. The Crimson Tide were incredibly young at quarterback. They were incredibly unproven at quarterback. They damn near lost to an atrocious Auburn team.

They lost by double-digits at home to Texas, benched quarterback Jalen Milroe, and then squeaked by South Florida for an ugly win.

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Add to this that Saban was introducing two new coordinators — one of whom is half his age and a man he had never worked with before in offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

Yet, in a year in which we expected Georgia to win a third consecutive national title — an unheard-of feat in the modern era of football — Saban rose to the occasion. He is now two wins away from his seventh championship at Alabama and eighth of his career.

And it's on that front — number eight — that I write in awe. Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls. Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won seven F1 world titles. Jimmie Johnson won seven NASCAR Cup titles.

But eight national titles in college football? That's hard to come by.

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Oklahoma has seven. Ohio State has eight. Michigan has 11. But no program has won more national titles since 2003 than the Nick Saban Program, aka The Process.

And I am grateful to watch it, to appreciate it, to sing its praises and claim its gorgeous truth: We live in the era of the greatest coach the sport has ever seen. With this, I write to the generations to come: Children, I assure you, the stories that you have heard of Saban and his teams have been, if anything, watered down.

And while Saban chases a legacy, making his eighth College Football Playoff, No. 1-ranked Michigan has turned heel like Ric Flair, attempting to become extraordinary while choosing to personify Eddie Guerrero. Standing accused of lying, cheating and stealing, the Wolverines get to point at the scoreboard and claim, "When we fight, we win."

Still, Jim Harbaugh could coach just half the regular season on the sideline and end up winning the damn national title, and the Wolverines could become the first Big Ten program to go 15-0 in the CFP era.

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And this all while: 

• Harbaugh sat out the first three games of the season for misleading NCAA investigators over recruiting violations.
• Harbaugh sat out the final three games of the regular season after former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions was found to have led an enormous, multi-year sign-stealing operation dating back to 2021 — when Michigan became the juggernaut north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
• Michigan beat Ohio State three times in a row for the first time this century.
• Harbaugh was offered a $125 million, 10-year contract if he doesn't bolt for the NFL.
• He still might bolt for the NFL.
• The NCAA leveled more violations at Michigan just before Christmas.
• Jim's brother, John, has the best team and the best player in the NFL — and beat Jim straight up to win his first Super Bowl back in 2013.

Michigan fans will happily let their man go take another crack at his brother in the NFL if he can just bring the program its first national title since 1997.

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But the last time Harbaugh and Michigan played against Saban, Bama was on the Wolverines like Scott Summers after he heard them holler at Jean Grey. 

What I'm saying is that 2019 Bama was on 2019 Michigan like a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snowstorm. I'm telling you the Tide rolled like Max Verstappen clapping through the 2023 Formula 1 field. 

That game ended with Bama winning 35-16 — a pop knot on Michigan's head you could see clear from planet Arrakis: 136 on the ground and two TDs for Najee Harris, six catches for 204 for Jerry Jeudy, and 16-for-25 for 327 for Mac Jones.

Now, to the players, nail your marks and do not miss your lines because this game is on a bigger stage. Judgments will be made. Respect will be paid.

Hunt your glory, young squires.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

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