Meet the good guys, those plucky lads wearing crimson. Many college football fans probably remember them as the bad guys — or alternatively, as the evil empire coached by the guy nicknamed after a biblical villain.
Call it my Christian upbringing, but I always thought the “Satan” moniker was too harsh for a football coach whose biggest sin was winning all the time. Now, the nickname simply does not fit Nick Saban.
The 72-year-old is more like a tough but lovable grandpa who sprinkles in a sneaky-good sense of humor to soften his bark. But don’t think he’s content to nap in his recliner. He still has enough spunk to toss a faux tough guy off his well-manicured lawn.
Jim Harbaugh’s crew earned its Michigan-against-the-world battle cry, because the world generally disdains cheaters.
Saban achieved his greatness the old-fashioned way. He signed the best players, developed them, won seven national championships (six at Alabama) and vanquished opponents to the extent that fans who don’t shout “Roll Tide!” grew sick of him.
Saban was a hard-nosed know-it-all who was all business. For a time, he never even seemed to take all that much joy in winning. In fact, his teams became known for their tough brand of “joyless murderball.”
Saban once possessed a Tiger Woods-like effect: Alabama fans worshipped him, while others fell in the Root for Whoever Is Facing Saban camp.
Whether you cheered Alabama’s dynasty or rooted against it, no one can say Saban and his Crimson Tide didn’t earn their place.
Now here comes Michigan trying to cheat its way to the front of the line. I suppose I should add the perfunctory “alleged” cheating label, although the evidence is piled so high against Connor Stalions, a central figure in this scandal, that the Michigan analyst resigned in shame.
Michigan remains under NCAA investigation. Harbaugh denies knowing about Stalions’ scheme of using in-person advance scouting to steal opponents’ signs.
When you consider all of the heinous, hurtful and life-altering scandals in college athletics in just the past 15 years, Stalions’ little operation hardly ranks as the crime of the century.
TOPPMEYER:Why Florida State football should snub SEC, Big Ten, stay with ACC
GOODBREAD:Alabama football’s CFP berth slows flow of NCAA transfer portal exits
ALABAMA FOOTBALL 2024 SCHEDULE:Tide will have to be tough as nails to navigate this slate
I’m glad the College Football Playoff selection committee didn’t anoint itself judge and jury and try to enact hasty justice. It can’t manage to effectively explain its murky rankings process, which apparently includes predicting the future. We don’t need this committee doubling as a moral authority.
So sure, slide the undefeated Wolverines into the playoff.
And yet Saban would be doing the sport a favor if he gave Harbaugh a swirly in the Rose Bowl while Alabama unmasked these No. 1-ranked Wolverines as impostors, like they were the past two seasons when they exited the playoff’s first round with their tail between their legs.
Imagine the NCAA’s embarrassment at having to recognize Michigan as the national champion while investigating the program for cheating. Alabama can prevent that possibility on Jan. 1 and continue writing what has become one heck of a story in Tuscaloosa.
Saban has assembled plenty of juggernaut teams. This one isn’t.
I’m not going to try to convince you that this roster is full of underdogs who pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. Alabama isn’t 2022 TCU, but it also isn’t 2020 Alabama.
This was a talented but raw, young and unpolished group that looked a wreck in Weeks 2 and 3. Then they did what we love to see teams do: They stayed the course and improved, led by a quarterback whose charisma is nearly as big as his arm. Best as we can tell, they did this without flouting NCAA rules.
Saban’s pivot from villain to hero is quite a transformation. He ranked No. 9 on Forbes’ 2009 list of most hated figures in all of sports, a ranking based on a market research firm’s findings. He was the only college football figure ranked in the top 10. I can understand that back then. Just a few years previously, Saban made himself out to be a lying turncoat when he jettisoned the Dolphins for Alabama after insisting he wouldn’t.
As recently as 2017, the New Yorker likened Saban to “Satan’s dentist.” (Again with the Satan thing?)
I don’t detect that mood anymore. Age, plus enough image and messaging consultations, allowed Saban to soften his image. But I think his transition to becoming a more widely acceptable — even likable — figure is about more than that. We tend to admire longevity, and Father Time struggles to slow Saban. Also, he finally stopped leaving jobs. We also appreciate people who put down roots.
Plus, Alabama didn’t win the national championship the past two seasons, and the Tide now finds itself in the rallying position of proving naysayers wrong.
On top of all that, as college sports scandals kept piling up, there was Saban, whose most persistent fault is never letting the weaklings win.
Compare that to a cheater, and Saban and Alabama start to look like the hero college football needs in Pasadena, California.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.
