This Week in Coaching: Nick Saban is right about Bryce Young but wrong about the fairness of the SEC's proposed future schedule
Alabama head coach Nick Saban made waves last week when he told Sports Illustrated he didn’t believe it was fair for the Crimson Tide to have Tennessee, Auburn and LSU as the program’s fixed opponents in any future 9-game SEC scheduling model.
Saban’s comments were revelatory considering it wasn’t public knowledge — not yet, at least — who Alabama’s third fixed opponent would be moving forward.
“I’ve always been an advocate for playing more (conference) games,” Nick Saban told SI’s Ross Dellenger.
“But if you play more games, I think you have to get the three fixed [opponents] right. They’re giving us Tennessee, Auburn and LSU. I don’t know how they come to that [decision].”
Saban’s bellyaching is silly, especially when one of those chief rivals has no issue with playing Alabama on an annual basis.
“I’ve been in this for three decades, and no disrespect to any of the other schools that we play outside of the SEC, but they just don’t excite me,” Tigers head coach Brian Kelly told ESPN this week.
“I want to play the best. I came down here to the SEC because I wanted to play against Alabama. I want to play A&M. I want to play Auburn, the great teams, and in our new scheduling we get to play Alabama every year, Ole Miss every year and A&M, and that’s really why I came down here. I want to play those games, and I think playing nine SEC games is great for your schedule, and it prepares you for the opportunity to play for a championship but also play for the national championship.”
Kelly revealed that under the current proposal, LSU’s three fixed opponents would be Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
Alabama and LSU don’t have the storied tradition of the Third Saturday in October or the Iron Bowl, but it’s been one of the best games in the SEC ever since Saban returned to the league in 2007.
One of the beauties of a future 9-game SEC model is protecting the rivalries steeped in history (Egg Bowl, Outdoor Cocktail Party, South’s Oldest Rivalry, etc.) while creating new potential rivalries (say Florida vs. Oklahoma). Many are misusing the phrase “permanent” when discussing such future matchups.
The opponents would be fixed. In four, five or 10 years (really whenever SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and the teams agree to evaluate the schedule), they can change the matchups if games like Alabama-LSU no longer carry such stakes.
But for now, that game rocks, and Disney isn’t paying oodles of money to these schools not to get that game on ESPN every year.
Saban’s complaints about fairness are rather rich considering Alabama’s schedule — in a 9-game model — will actually become easier on an annual basis.
The Tide already play LSU, Auburn and Tennessee every year anyways. The fact that Tennessee was good enough to beat Alabama for the first time in 15 years makes Saban’s gripe more humorous, but we’re talking just three games on the whole schedule.
In this model, Alabama’s other six conference games would be weighted in its favor, with more annual games against the likes of Vanderbilt, Missouri and Kentucky.
So there’s little to debate here. This is an entertainment business, and folks want to see Alabama and LSU every year while both programs are good.
Brian Kelly understands that, and deep down, Nick Saban does, too.
QUOTABLE
“We’ve all seen the 6-4, 225-pound guy that can throw it like a bazooka, but he can’t make the choices and decisions, he can’t distribute the ball, he can’t throw it accurately. So who’s the better bet? I’m going on history, production, performance and Bryce Young’s done it about as well as anybody.”
— Nick Saban on the Know Mercy podcast with Steven A. Smith
Alabama’s head coach didn’t just make news with his opinions on the rumored future SEC schedule, but the seven-time championship coach also came to the defense of his former quarterback Bryce Young following criticisms about Young’s size at the NFL Combine.
The former Heisman Trophy winner weighed in at 204 pounds — something that will now forever be listed on his football card no matter what weight he actually plays at — but many are skeptical he will actually hold the weight even for his Pro Day next month. Young also measured at just 5-foot-10, easily making him one of the smallest quarterbacks in NFL history.
At the same time Young was being disparaged for his lack of size, Florida’s Anthony Richardson was being lauded for his freakish frame (6-4, 244 pounds) and a historic workout. Some in the NFL media even suggested he could be the No. 1 overall pick — not Bryce Young.
It’s a classic traits over production argument, but to that, Nick Saban says the tape doesn’t lie.
“I think history is the best indicator of what the future is going to bring,” Saban said.
“Bryce is not ideal height that NFL folks would like to see for that particular position, quarterback. But I think Bryce has played extremely well. He has no history of being injury-prone. Because the SEC—there’s a lot of folks in the SEC that end up playing in the NFL. And he plays against those guys every week. He’s never had a problem with injuries.”
Young missed one game in 2023 with a shoulder injury, but he finished the season with 3,328 yards, 36 total touchdowns and just five interceptions. He completed 64.5% of his passes.
Anthony Richardson? The workout warrior clearly has ridiculous upside, but in his lone season as a starting quarterback, he had 26 total touchdowns with 2,549 passing yards and nine picks. His completion percentage was south of 54%.
THE CAROUSEL KEEPS SPINNING
While most Power 5 assistant openings have been filled — Florida being a notable exception with a spot on staff at receiver still — a couple Group of 5 defensive coordinators have left for jobs in the NFL.
Temple DC DJ Eliot is moving across town to coach linebackers for Nick Sirianni’s Philadelphia Eagles staff. Eliot has spent his entire career coaching in college, including holding the DC title at Colorado and Kansas in past seasons.
Similarly, Georgia Southern DC Will Harris accepted an opening on the Los Angeles Chargers’ staff, per On3’s Matt Zenitz.
Harris will be LA’s assistant secondary coach after spending one year in Statesboro as Clay Helton’s DC. The former standout safety at USC produced multiple NFL Draft picks (Trent McDuffie, Kyler Gordon, Elijah Golden) in four seasons (2018-21) as Washington’s secondary coach.
At Florida, Billy Napier did make one key hire this week, promoting Russ Callaway to tight ends coach. Callaway was an analyst at Florida last season and has previously worked in the NFL with the Giants and in the SEC at LSU. The Gators did see a key support staffer leave for an on-field job, as defensive analyst Jamar Chaney is set to become the outside linebackers coach at Western Kentucky after former USC linebacker Michael Hutchings took a job in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.
Elsewhere in the SEC, Lane Kiffin rounded out his 2023 staff at Ole Miss by plucking Arkansas State’s special teams coordinator Jake Schoonover to the same position. Schoonover, who has produced solid units at Arkansas State and Kansas in recent years, replaces Marty Biagi, who is rumored to be taking the special teams coordinator job at Notre Dame.