Nick Saban Calls Alabama’s 2021 Season a ‘Rebuilding Year’

The comments come after the Crimson Tide went 12–1 in the regular season and won the SEC championship game.

Year in and year out, Alabama coach Nick Saban has the highest of expectations for his Crimson Tide. It’s championship or bust in Tuscaloosa and in 2021, the seven-time national champion came up just short of another title.

On a Wednesday morning appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on WJOX-FM in Birmingham, Saban gave an overview of last season before diving into the team’s outlook for this fall. In doing so, he made a head-turning comment about Alabama’s experience in 2021. 

“Last year,” Saban said, “we had kind of a rebuilding year.”

Just about any other program in the country would be envious of the Tide’s “rebuilding year”, which resulted in a 12–1 regular season record and yet another SEC championship. Alabama even held a lead in the fourth quarter of the national title game against Georgia before the Bulldogs scored 20 unanswered points to win 33–18.

Leading up to the comment, Saban explained why he felt like last year was somewhat of a rebuild, citing the young players that had to plug in and make significant contributions to the team throughout the campaign. Based on the Tide’s success, the underclassmen had no problem doing so, but the Alabama coach is even more excited to see those same players take another step forward in ’22. 

“I’m excited about the guys we have that our new to our program, new to our team,” Saban said. “And I’m excited about the young players that we had to develop and which one of those guys will actually be able to contribute. You know, we’ve had a lot of freshman play here and contribute to the success of the team. Our upperclassman have really embraced those guys in a positive way and I think that’s a good thing for our program. So, hopefully we’ll have some of those guys emerge.”

Alabama opens practice on Thursday in Tuscaloosa as the likely No. 1 team in the preseason polls.

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