Nick Saban’s Alabama legend was built on preparation and discipline throughout his career. The 2020 season was a different proposition, though, a season unlike any he’d ever had to deal with. With college football navigating a pandemic, the very act of getting players onto the field was a major challenge.
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As per analyst Paul Finebaum, that is why Alabama’s 2020 national championship stands above the other titles Saban won during his legendary coaching career. On ESPN’s Get Up, Finebaum lauded Saban’s grit while also recalling allegations about his approach to COVID-19.
“I’m going with 2020 for a different reason… While most coaches were trying to figure out where to go and what to do, Saban was sneaking into his office, probably breaking all kinds of state rules, but he didn’t care…,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s Get Up.
“I say this affectionately because I heard it from people inside that program and it will sound terrible on national television,” Finebaum continued. “We used to accuse Saban of making sure everybody on his team got COVID early on to get it out of the way. So, by the time the season began, he would have fresh players who were eligible to play.”
However, Finebaum’s comments are not definitive, and the reporting we have doesn’t establish that Saban knowingly put players at risk of COVID-19 or breached any of the pandemic protocols.
In 2020, Saban first tested positive on October 14, Wednesday, three days before Alabama’s game against No. 3 Georgia. He had no symptoms and went into isolation. Under the SEC’s protocol, an asymptomatic person with a possible false positive could return after three negative PCR tests 24 hours apart, run through an SEC-appointed lab.
Saban took those tests at 7 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and all three were negative. Alabama also had two extra PCR tests run by a separate lab, and both came back negative.
Team physician Dr. Jimmy Robinson said the original positive came from an outside lab Alabama used on top of the SEC’s testing, and that it counted as a false positive under the protocol.
The SEC said it had told Alabama to follow all local and state health policies and that the authorized lab processed the three required tests. “I’ve never had any symptoms,” Saban said on College GameDay on October 17. Alabama beat Georgia 41-24 that day.
Saban tested positive again in November, before the Auburn game, and that one was confirmed as a real infection. He stayed home in isolation and did not coach the Iron Bowl in person, so offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian ran the sideline. Alabama won 42-13 on November 28, and Saban was given the green light to return to the team facility after the required isolation period.
Finebaum also backed his pick with what Alabama did on the field. He noted that Alabama went undefeated through a 10-game SEC schedule and that three of the top five Heisman Trophy vote-getters came from Saban’s team. DeVonta Smith won the award, quarterback Mac Jones finished third, and Najee Harris finished fifth.
Alabama averaged 48.5 points per game and beat its 10 regular-season SEC opponents by an average of 32.7 points.
The Crimson Tide finished 11-0 after the SEC Championship Game against Florida, then beat No. 4 Notre Dame 31-14 in the Rose Bowl semifinal and No. 3 Ohio State 52-24 for the 2020 CFP title.
Smith had 215 receiving yards and three touchdowns in the first half of that championship game, and Jones threw for 4,500 yards on the season, with future NFL players Jaylen Waddle and Alex Leatherwood also on the offense.
So the debate comes down to how much weight a pandemic season deserves. Finebaum sees a coach who kept working while others were still figuring out what to do, and he leaned on talk from inside the program to make the point.