ATLANTA, Ga.—Nick Saban is tired. He’s so tired that his postgame speech to his team after they beat Georgia in the SEC championship game was only one word: celebrate. He said they danced, even though he declined to break down his moves, after Alabama emerged victorious, 27–24.
There is obviously much to be jubilant about. Saban and his Crimson Tide have beaten the Dawgs and the allegations. The ones that said he had lost his fastball and that he’d been forever supplanted by Kirby Smart. That his quarterback situation was untenable for a team with championship expectations, and that multiple losses were coming due to an offense that doesn’t have the playmakers it once did.
“We had a lot of naysayers early in the year. So we wanted to show people what we could accomplish and what we could do,” Saban said. “There wasn’t a better stage to do it, to play the number one team in the country who had won 29 games in a row. And because that’s the endpoint that says, you really got to where you wanted to go. We were able to go out there and compete in the game, play for 60 minutes, which it took all 60 minutes, and to win the SEC championship, which is, in my opinion, really, really significant. It means a lot to me. This is a tough conference.”
