Paul Finebaum says Nick Saban’s time is almost up at Alabama

Paul Finebaum sees the clock ticking on Nick Saban winning championships.

Time is not on Nick Saban’s side when it comes to Alabama football.

The Alabama Crimson Tide may be one of the three likeliest teams to reach the College Football Playoff this season, but we have to start wondering if we’ve already seen the best out of the program in the Saban era. Since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007, Saban has won five national championships, making Alabama every bit as dominant as it was under Paul “Bear” Bryant.

However, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum appeared on Get Up! Wednesday morning with the belief that Saban is running out of time to win more championships at Alabama.

“I don’t want this to sound blasphemous, but time is running out on a national championship,” Finebaum said. “It’s been two years since he won a national championship. That’s a long time. He hasn’t gone that long at Alabama since the early part of his career there. I think this is his best team. The season is unknown at this point.”

“However, there are many other programs catching up a little bit. You can no longer make a blanket statement that Nick Saban is going to win a bunch of national championships. I think he needs to win one this year or that hour glass is going to be become very dangerous for him.”

Paul Finebaum thinks 2020 is Nick Saban’s best shot to win a championship.

Interestingly enough, Finebaum did pick Alabama to win the College Football Playoff this upcoming season, siding with the Crimson Tide over the likes of the Clemson Tigers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Then again, he has been insanely critical of Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney of late on his blatant tone-deafness to all things surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement.

Even though Alabama is his pick to win it all, Finebaum realizes Ohio State and Clemson should have two other incredible teams as well. So it shouldn’t come as a shocker he picked Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence to win the 2020 Heisman Trophy.

Alabama hasn’t won a national championship since it beat the SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs in double overtime back in 2017. The Crimson Tide were blown out by Clemson in 2018 and didn’t even make the playoff as a two-loss team a season ago. They had to play the Michigan Wolverines in the VRBO Citrus Bowl, as they couldn’t even get a New Year’s Six bowl invitation.

Though the biggest issue for Alabama isn’t Clemson or Ohio State out of conference in the playoff because that’s a known commodity at this point, Saban needs to be firmly aware of just how insanely competitive things are getting in the SEC these days.

LSU won the national title last year and Auburn beat the Tide in their own division a season ago. Eventually, one of Saban’s proteges will beat him. Five of them, yes, five of them, coach in the SEC. Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher will face Saban’s Crimson Tide this season. Maybe one of them can finally beat him?

And it’s not just the coaching talent in the SEC that makes things challenging for Saban, he also has to recruit against the likes of Fisher, Smart, Pruitt, Dan Mullen of Florida and Ed Orgeron of LSU. They are relentless in their recruiting efforts and every single one of them is younger than the Alabama head coach. Try winning a recruiting war on multiple fronts. That’s what Saban has to do.

Overall, Alabama should be favored to come out of the SEC. LSU will regress, Auburn is consistency inconsistent and are we really buying into Texas A&M in the SEC West? Georgia hasn’t proven it can beat Alabama in a decade plus and Florida hasn’t proven it can beat Georgia in the last three. This might be Alabama’s best shot at winning one more national title for Saban.

Saban is a college football legend, but Finebaum knows his time is coming to an end.

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.