Paul Finebaum is wrong about Alabama’s window closing

Paul Finebaum thinks the window on Alabama and Nick Saban’s dynasty is closing. He is wrong.

With a loss at Auburn capping off Alabama football’s disappointing regular season many people, including Paul Finebaum, believe the sun is finally setting on the Crimson Tide dynasty.

However, the loss against the Auburn Tigers and the Tide’s 10-2 record is indicative of the opposite. Alabama football’s future is bright and the pieces are in place to have even better teams in the future.

If a window was closing, it was when Tua Tagovailoa went down with the latest season-ending injury for the Crimson Tide. Since then, the Crimson Tide have done everything to pry that window back open and let in the cool breeze of college football dominance.

Unfortunately for Alabama, nothing was a breeze for them against Auburn, falling 48-45. But a lot of positives can be taken from the loss that proves this was merely a bump in the road, rather than the beginning of the end of the Alabama dynasty.

If Alabama had beaten Auburn, what do you think the reaction from Finebaum and anyone else would have been? Probably something like Nick Saban still manages the best program in the country and his dynasty lives on.

Alabama faced a lot of adversity and had a lot of unlucky breaks against Auburn. Despite all that adversity, Alabama still looked like a very good football team, outgaining the Tigers by 161 yards and possessing the ball for almost 36 minutes. And all that with a backup quarterback.

Finebaum implies Alabama’s defense can’t hold up against good teams. He mentions Alabama has given up over 40 points in the last three meetings with ranked opponents.

Auburn scored two touchdowns off pick-sixes. The Tigers were also given a de facto fourth timeout which they used to score a field goal before halftime. That’s 17 points you can’t entirely blame on the defense which, by the way, had four freshmen starting.

The backup quarterback and freshmen on defense are the future of the team and they still outgained the Tigers and put up a strong fight against a ranked team on the road.

If any other team in the country had done that, the talk would be about how that team has an exciting future and possibly a national championship on the horizon. But because it was Alabama who lost and will miss the College Football Playoff as a result, the talk is the Tide’s dominance is fading. If a team always makes the playoff, it’s easy to say their dominance is fading when they finally miss the playoff. But the pieces are still in place for the Tide’s dynasty to live on.

Saban is still the head coach and that probably isn’t changing anytime soon. Aside from being the best coach this decade, he’s recruited top-10 recruiting classes in each of the past three years. His recruiting class of 2020 is currently No. 3 according to 247Sports.

The program is built to sign top-five recruiting classes every year. Those players continue to develop in Saban’s system too. There are currently 64 active players in the NFL who played at Alabama under Saban.

The constant flow of elite high school talent, mixed with Saban’s ability to make them NFL-quality, will keep Alabama in the College Football Playoff conversation indefinitely.

Everyone can admit though Saban and the Crimson Tide have a big target on their backs every single year. Every opponent, especially ones with a good chance to win, throws everything they’ve got at the Tide. That’s what Auburn and LSU did, and Alabama still had chances to win.

Is it a disappointing end to Alabama’s regular season? Sure. Their starting quarterback has been dealing with injuries to the point where he is out for the season. They lost two games and won’t go the playoff for the first time.

For a team that expects to go to the playoff every year, anything less than that is a major disappointment. But despite missing out on a championship this season, the foundation is strong for Alabama to push for more championships in the future and continue their dynasty.

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