Alabama players react to Nick Saban shading the Crimson Tide in his CFP predictions

It is going to be a different year for Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. After retiring from the coaching profession, Saban has embarked on a lucrative media career as a college football analyst for ESPN. He was at SEC Media Days in Dallas this week for the first time as a member of the media. Incredibly objective, he did not view this year's conference through any Crimson-colored glasses.

Like most pundits who cover college football, Saban believes that two of his greatest disciples in Kirby Smart and Steve Sarkisian will meet in Atlanta for this year's SEC Championship Game. Yes, Saban actually picked the Georgia Bulldogs to play the Texas Longhorns this season, and not his beloved Crimson Tide. Admittedly, this is the safest title-bout pick anyone could have forecasted.

This may not have been easy for him, but Saban put on his analyst hat and delivered us the truth here.

"I really like Texas. I think Georgia has got a really good team. I believe in our Alabama team, too. I believe in Jalen Milroe . I just think the question marks in the secondary — until those get resolved — it's hard to, sort of, jump on that bandwagon."

Of course, Alabama defensive back Malachi Moore understands what his old coach has to do now.

"It's all love, man. Coach has a job to do."

Star quarterback Jalen Milroe is all love with his former head coach, so it is not a big deal to him.

"Still love Coach. That's my guy. He's the same guy I hugged at after the Iron Bowl. Ain't nothing going to change there."

Milroe continued by saying the Crimson Tide must focus on what they can control, not rat poison.

"But it's all about us. You know, it's all about attacking the task at hand and setting short-term goals and long-term goals that we want to accomplish as a group and never looking at external factors within the time we have together and the opportunity — the opportunity that's presented, seize it and make the most of it. So it's all about going 1-0 each and every day and just try to attack attack all tasks that we have in front of us."

As far as offensive lineman Tyler Booker is concerned, he does not have time for the critics anyway.

"He would get mad at me if I felt a way about what he said because he always used to say, 'Don't let some guy that lives in his mom's basement determine how you feel'. So I'm not gonna let a guy who plays golf all day determine how I feel."

Booker, Milroe and Moore will be playing for former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer this year.

Alabama players react to Nick Saban picking Georgia, Texas over Tide

Look, it is what it is what it is. Saban is spot-on in that there is so much more unknown within the Alabama program than what we know about Smart's Dawgs up in Athens or Sarkisian's Horns over in Austin. In all honesty, Alabama is probably still a College Football Playoff contender. I have them as one of the last teams in as either a 10-2 team or a 9-3 squad. It all comes down to what DeBoer does.

Saban was a tremendous advocate for DeBoer taking over for him. With each passing day, I have more and more belief that he was the perfect hire for Alabama. Athletic director Greg Byrne went with a proven winner and an offensive background. The belief is that rampant winning will help bridge cultural gaps between their head coach from South Dakota and those from The Yellowhammer State.

Right now, I would have Alabama somewhere in the fourth-to-seventh-best team in the SEC. I would take Ole Miss over the Crimson Tide, in addition to Georgia and Texas. You could convince me that they are better or worse than LSU, Missouri or Tennessee. I suspect that much of Saban's football culture is still in the building at Mal Moore. It is why I cannot say they are not a playoff team in 2024.

I have never been more sure that Alabama will make the playoff and that Milroe will win the Heisman.