NASHVILLE – Fresh off back-to-back national championships, you won’t get a lot of arguments that Georgia is the king of Alabama.
The Crimson Tide and head coach Nick Saban held that title until the Bulldogs knocked them off in Indianapolis for the 2021 national championship, only to cement themselves as the nation’s best by crushing Texas Christian last year in Los Angeles.
So, what do members of the Alabama program think? Is it extra motivation for this fall?
According to linebacker Dallas Turner, not much.
“I wouldn’t say it gives us any kind of motivation, because we are our own motivation. We want to get better as a team. We’re really not worried about nobody else,” Turner said. “Georgia has a very good program, they’ve won two straight national championships, you can’t take that away from them. They’re Georgia, we’re Alabama.”
Defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry felt similarly.
“I mean, I understand things like that are going to be happening,” McKinstry said. “They’ve been winning, so that’s part of what you’re going to hear.”
Although Saban wasn’t asked about Georgia during his session with writers Wednesday at SEC Media Days, he did field several dealing with expectations.
“We want to stay focused on the process of what we need to do to play winning football at every position. And I'm not here to create expectations for our team. Lots of people will do that. But expectations in some way are a premeditated way to create disappointment,” Saban said. “I think you can look at it in your life and that's why I say we need to say process-oriented, not focused on the outcome but focused on the things that we need to do to get the outcome that we want, and you know, if you have high expectations for what you want to accomplish and it doesn't work out, it makes you focus on the outcome and it doesn't work out and you're very disappointed.”
A question to Turner took the subject a step further: Would the season be considered a failure if Alabama does not make the College Football Playoffs after not doing so last year?
“I wouldn’t really consider it a failure because it’s still a learning process,” said Turner, a good friend of Georgia’s Marvin Jones, Jr. “It’s an experience to go through. We just look at it as a new season with new opportunities.”
It’s certainly going to be a new opportunity for someone at quarterback for the Crimson Tide.
With former Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young now in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers, there’s going to be a new man under center for Alabama for the first time in three seasons.
Sophomore Jalen Monroe and redshirt freshman Ty Simpson split first-team duties during the spring, ahead of true freshmen Eli Holstein and Dylan Longeran.
Whoever starts, Saban knows those aforementioned expectations will be there.
“By expectations, we want somebody to play winning football at that position. Our quarterback is a unique position in that you distribute the ball on every play, whether you hand it off, whether you choose the play that we run, whether you hand it off or whether you throw an advantaged throw, making decisions in the passing game to throw it to the right guys at the right time and the right place and accurately,” Saban said. “So who can do that with the most consistency and be a leader on our team who has an impact on the other players is also important, because quarterback may be one of the most difficult positions to play if the people around you don't play well.”
