Nick Saban Speaks Highly of Georgia's Defense Ahead of SEC Championship

Nick Saban is just the latest head coach to lavish the Georgia defense with praise.

Harrison Reno | Nov 28, 2021

Just 24 hours after Alabama beat rivals Auburn in quadruple overtime 24-22, Nick Saban spoke to the media once again, as part of the SEC Coaches teleconference, before Saban's Alabama team begins preparation for the SEC Championship with No. 1 Georgia on Saturday.

This year's SEC Championship game has oddsmakers putting the Crimson Tide and Nick Saban as the underdog, picking Georgia as a six-point favorite, making it the first time since 2015 that Alabama opened as an underdog.

Vegas's willingness to list Alabama as a near touchdown underdog to Georgia follows a trend that has developed over the season, especially following Alabama's loss on the road to Texas A&M in week five. The mainstream take is "this is not the same Alabama" team of year's past, mainly pointing to their close margins of victory.

The Tide come off an offseason where they lost a large chunk of their firepower from their 2020 National Championship winning team. Saban and co. were responsible for replacing a starting quarterback, a Heisman winning receiver, a top running back, a pair of top offensive linemen, among others in the span of one offseason, not to mention a high amount of coaching changes.

Despite the prevailing narrative surrounding the high amount of attrition on and off the field for Alabama, the Tide made it to Atlanta with just one loss on the year. It will be facing an undefeated Georgia team that is the consensus number one team since the Tide lost the top spot following their lone loss.

Georgia's defense has been the talk of college football for the majority of this season, and it is posing questions for Alabama, as the Tide still boasts a talented, explosive offense, but looks to have some weaknesses, more than usual.

Saban spoke about one of the key pieces to Georgia's historical defense, starting nose tackle Jordan Davis. Saban lathered some high praise on the senior nose tackle, who's even garnered some Heisman attention as many look to get him in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in college football.

"I think Jordan Davis is one of the more dominating players in college football. He's about as good an inside player I've seen in a long time."

Saban also talked about Georgia's defensive front as a whole, a unit that many expect to challenge Alabama's offensive line, which gave up five sacks in the first half alone versus Auburn.

"They have some really good rushers up front. They mix up coverages in the back end quite a bit. It's going to be very challenging for us."

"They have 5 different players with multiple sacks. 9 different players with two sacks. This is not a one-man wrecking crew."

Georgia's defense is spoken of as the best in the nation and is garnering a lot of praise from who many consider the greatest head coach of all-time in college football.

"Their defense is No. 1 in the nation. That speaks for itself."

Even with the lost production from a year ago, that featured an offense that took the world by storm just a season after LSU did the same, Alabama features an elite offense, who will give Georgia its toughest test.

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Published Nov 28, 2021

HARRISON RENO