SEC Media Days: Nick Saban predicts SEC football title game in 2024

Speaking at SEC Media Days, Nick Saban offered his prediction for what teams will play for the football championship.

Who will play for the SEC football title this season? Nick Saban offers his prediction at the 2024 SEC Media Days. / Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Moving into his role with the media as a college football analyst, Nick Saban made his first big prediction for the season to come when speaking at the 2024 SEC Media Days, projecting what teams will end up playing for the conference championship in Atlanta later this year.

Saban's pick? Texas vs. Georgia.

"I think Texas, if their defense comes through and they can replace some of the interior people that they lost that were high draft picks and all that, they're really good offensively," Saban said of the Longhorns, which play their first football season in the SEC this fall.

"And even though their quarterback has missed time — [Quinn] Ewers has missed time in the last couple years — Manning was lights-out in the spring game. Arch was like 21 of 25 for 347 yards.

Saban added: "The depth at quarterback is probably really important for them because Ewers has missed time the last couple years, a game or two, which could really affect where you end up. So, I really like Texas."

After losing key personnel on both sides of the ball, especially at wide receiver and in the interior run defense rotation that was No. 2 nationally a year ago, Texas employed the transfer portal to address the losses.

Matthew Golden from Houston, Silas Bolden from Oregon State, and in particular Isaiah Bond from Alabama at the wide receiver position, in addition to ex-Crimson Tide tight end Amari Niblack highlight the Longhorns' gains.

Defensively, the Longhorns added Trey Moore, the former UTSA edge rusher who had 14 sacks a year ago, to the front seven formation, and heralded as an impactful acquisition.

Despite his remarking on the Longhorns' potential, Saban was also quick note that every team in the SEC has its weaknesses.

"I don't think there's any team right now — or any coach that you would talk to — [who would say] there's not some part of their team that they're concerned about," Saban said.

"How those problems sort of get resolved, whether it's a young player that comes in and makes an impact or an older player develops consistency, those are the question marks that I think make it impossible to make predictions right now."

As for Alabama? The man who brought the school six national championships during his tenure is confident the program is headed in the right direction under his successor, Kalen DeBoer.

But with one possible exception.

"I believe in our Alabama team, too," Saban said. "And I believe in Jalen Milroe. I just think the question marks in the secondary, until those get resolved, it's hard to sort of jump on that bandwagon."

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