Never mind the doubters, Nick Saban is still Nick Saban and Alabama is still Alabama

Nick Saban is done. Haven’t you heard? He’s 72 years old. He lost two regular-season SEC games last year for the first time since 2019. Alabama didn’t even win the West Division. Georgia has supplanted the Crimson Tide as not only the best program in the conference, but the best program in the nation. Saban is sliding, so went the preseason narrative.

“Is the era of dominance over for the greatest coach in college football history?” asked Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde in July.

Those whispers reached an audible pitch when Alabama lost to Texas 34-24 in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 9, then followed with a sleep-inducing 17-3 victory over South Florida in Tampa.

Oh, but two months later, Nick Saban is still Nick Saban and Alabama is still Alabama. In fact, the No. 8-ranked Crimson Tide arrive at Kroger Field on Saturday to face Kentucky for a noon ESPN game having won seven straight games to go 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the SEC.

“Alabama is a team that you can see is getting better and better,” said UK coach Mark Stoops on Monday. “A typical Nick Saban team that is very big, very physical, very talented, and extremely well coached.”

In fact, the Tide is fresh off its most impressive win of the season, a 42-28 triumph over LSU that avenged last year’s loss to Brian Kelly’s Tigers. Before that, Bama handled Lane Kiffin and now 10th-ranked Ole Miss 24-10 on Sept. 23 and outscored Tennessee 27-0 in the second half to silence the Volunteers 34-20 on Oct. 21, avenging a loss to Josh Heupel’s team last season.

So what happened? How did Saban and Alabama prove the doubters wrong?

Jalen Milroe is the obvious answer. First, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound sophomore quarterback from Katy, Texas, had to compete with holdover Ty Simpson and Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner in training camp for new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. Then after being the opening-game starter, but playing poorly in the loss to Texas — a season-high two interceptions — Milroe sat the bench for the entire game during Bama’s unimpressive win at USF.

Since then, Milroe has been in Stoops’ words, “a monster.” Re-installed as the starter against Ole Miss, he has climbed to No. 8 nationally in pass efficiency with a 171.09 rating. He’s also rushed for nine touchdowns. Last week against LSU, Milroe completed 15 of 23 passes for 219 yards while rushing 20 times for 155 yards and four more scores.

“He obviously is tough to defend,” Stoops said Monday. “When he is off-schedule, just like last week, you can see his confidence is getting better and better. He throws a very pretty ball down the field, very strong arm and getting better and better. You can tell they are gaining a lot of confidence and he is as well.”

Defensively, Bama is, well, Bama. Maybe not quite to the level of some Saban defenses, Alabama still ranks 25th nationally in total defense, 18th in scoring defense and 13th in sacks per game. Edge rushers Dallas Turner (0.78 sacks per game) and Chis Braswell (0.72) have developed into troublemakers under veteran defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

“They do a great job of mixing up their looks and subtle things that maybe not everybody sees,” Stoops said. “They are very complicated on the back end, they do a great job.”

As does Saban, of course. Former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart may be on top of the hill right now with his back-to-back national titles at Georgia, but Saban is the GOAT. He’s 288-70-1 all-time as a college coach, including a 197-28 record at Alabama. In 17 Tuscaloosa seasons, he’s lost 18 regular-season SEC games. Four of those losses came in his first season.

“When I think of Nick, the first thing that comes to my mind is respect,” said Stoops, whose brother Mike worked for Saban for two seasons before joining Mark at UK as inside linebackers coach. “He has been successful for a long, long time. He has his methods and his way. . . . He is like a machine.”

One not close to quitting.

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