Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban made his official debut on ESPN’s “College Gameday” earlier today and made what could have been considered, by some at the time, as his first “hot take” in his new role.
But after how Saturday’s Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin played out, the seven-time national championship coach may have been onto something. Shocker, right?
Largely in part thanks to kicker Aidan Birr’s leg, Saban’s pick of Georgia Tech being his “sleeper” team in the ACC Conference this season is aging pretty well as the Yellow Jackets pulled the first upset of the young college football season with Birr’s 44-yard game-winning field goal Saturday to beat No. 10 Florida State 24-21.
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So what made Saban, who will be appearing on “GameDay” each week this season, pick a team that went 5-3 in the ACC last season and was picked to finish ninth in this year’s conference’s preseason poll? Here’s what he said:
“My sleeper is Georgia Tech,” Saban said on “GameDay” on Saturday. “I really do believe (that). They were in the top three offensively last year in the ACC. They were not very good on defense, they got a new defensive coordinator and they’ve got some new players out of the portal.
“If they can play defense a little bit better, they give people tremendous headaches with their offense, their running quarterback and the offensive skill that they have.”
While Georgia Tech pitched no perfect game against Florida State on Saturday in Dublin on defense, the Yellow Jackets’ defense did come up at big moments throughout the game as it gave Seminoles quarterback DJ Uigalelei trouble throughout the afternoon.
Uigalelei finished 19 of 27 passing with 193 passing yards while the Yellow Jackets held the Seminoles to under 100 yards of rushing on the day at 98 yards — which happened just four times last season for FSU. Georgia Tech also racked up seven tackles for a loss of 17 yards on Saturday.
Yellow Jackets second-year head coach Brent Key is also a disciple of Saban’s coaching tree. Key served as the Crimson Tide’s offensive line coach from 2016-2018, where he helped Saban lead Alabama to a national championship in 2017. The Tides’ offensive line was also named a finalist for the Joe Moore Award, which is handed out to the nation’s top offensive front that season, twice under Key.
So this goes without having to ask, is this a homer pick by Saban? We will see but for at least now, Saban surely is looking smart in his new job. (Saban also picked his former program to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff on Saturday as the No. 7 team and host a first-round game in Tuscaloosa against college football powerhouse Notre Dame.
