Who Was Nick Saban's Best Player at Alabama on The Joe Gaither Show

We celebrate Nick Saban's 17-year run leading the Crimson Tide on The Joe Gaither Show | Episode 250: July 5, 2024.

Saban 250 JG SHOW / Joe Gaither Canva

The Friday edition of "The Joe Gaither Show on BamaCentral" is joined by BamaCentral's publisher Chris Walsh to talk about his summer project "The Saban 250". Walsh spent many months determining the best 250 Alabama football players in the Nick Saban-era and spent the episode talking through his decisions as he determined the best player to wear Crimson and White under the legendary coach.

The conversation began with a glimpse into the past as Walsh put together "The Saban 100" during the 2020 season. Alabama won a national championship, played for another and had two additional strong teams since then, therefore to encapsulate the Nick Saban-era the project expanded to 250.

Walsh highlighted difficult decisions involving two national championship winning receivers and a pair of national championship winning quarterbacks as the two toughest choices to make as he made his list. We asked him to defend a few specific rankings as some players were just too low for the host's liking, but ultimately it serves a a look at how absurd the talent was at the Capstone under Saban.

The conversation continued as we highlighted the project by discussing how difficult it is to compare players across time as college football changed so often in Saban's 17-year tenure.

We conclude by looking ahead as while the project's list of 250 players is complete there is still fun to be had with the Saban-era before head coach Kalen DeBoer coaches his first game in August.

The show can be seen on the BamaCentral YouTube channel. Keep up with each show on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Shows can also be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.