Alabama Crimson Tide Football

A pair of high-profile quarterbacks are near the top of ESPN NFL draft expert Todd McShay's early rankings for the 2023 NFL draft.

Ohio State's C.J. Stroud and Alabama's Bryce Young are ranked third and fourth, respectively, but defensive players primarily dominate the top five.

Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. is the No. 1 overall player on McShay's big board, while Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter is second and Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith is fifth.

Both Stroud and Young were starting quarterbacks at the collegiate level for the first time last season, and each of them thrived.

Stroud finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting after completing 71.9 percent of his passes for 4,435 yards, 44 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Meanwhile, Young completed 66.9 percent of his passing attempts for 4,872 yards, 47 touchdowns and seven interceptions en route to winning the Heisman.

Stroud and Young are widely considered the top two quarterbacks in the nation entering the 2022 season both in terms of producing at the collegiate level and establishing themselves as potential top picks in the 2023 NFL draft.

The quarterback talent promises to be rich in the 2023 draft, as McShay also gave Kentucky's Will Levis and Miami's Tyler Van Dyke first-round grades by ranking them 21st and 26th, respectively.

If those rankings hold up, the 2023 draft will be significantly different from the 2022 draft, as only one quarterback was selected in the first round this year.

The Pittsburgh Steelers took Pitt's Kenny Pickett 20th overall, and the next quarterback didn't come off the board until the Atlanta Falcons selected Cincinnati's Desmond Ridder 74th overall in the third round.

Last season also marked the first time since 2017 and only the second time since 2015 that a quarterback didn't go first overall.

Stroud and Young are strong candidates to go No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft depending on the order, but if a team that doesn't need a quarterback picks first, Anderson could be a clear choice.

Anderson finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting last season after racking up a spectacular 17.5 sacks and 31 tackles for loss for a Crimson Tide team that reached the National Championship Game.

The past three non-quarterbacks to go No. 1 overall in the draft were all pass-rushers in Jadeveon Clowney, Myles Garrett and Travon Walker, meaning Anderson could be the prospect to beat at this point.

The Alabama Crimson Tide won two national championships during Najee Harris' collegiate career, but it wasn't always smooth sailing for the running back.

During a discussion on The Pivot Podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor (h/t TMZ Sports), Harris explained that he and head coach Nick Saban "did not get along at first" and consistently "bumped heads."

"I'm not the type of dude to just sit back and just let somebody talk to me in a way and not expect me to say something," he said. "I can take coaching, but, like, it's just a certain type of line when you cross, it's like 'All right, bro, I'm a man, you ain't gon' f--king talk to me like that.'"

He also added that he felt "belittled" at times and even left campus following an incident that happened ahead of his final season.

"Last incident happened and I left school," Harris said. "... I left school for like two weeks—people didn't know that. I left school for like two weeks and then Saban sat me in his office."

That meeting was apparently a turning point in their relationship, with the running back saying "ever since that day, we was rock solid."

Harris appeared in 13 games for the Crimson Tide in 2020 and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting with 1,466 rushing yards, 425 receiving yards and 30 total touchdowns. His teammate, DeVonta Smith, won the Heisman, and Alabama went on to defeat Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

The Crimson Tide also won the title when Harris was a freshman in 2017 and lost to Clemson in the title game to end his sophomore campaign.

Saban is arguably the greatest coach in college football history and has a 183-25 record in 15 seasons with Alabama. He also has six national championships and has coached a number of players who have made their mark in the NFL, including Harris.

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Harris with a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, and he tallied 1,200 rushing yards, 467 receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns as a rookie.

While Harris chases a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, Saban's Alabama squad is once again well-positioned to pursue a title at No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban reiterated Friday that he has no imminent plans to retire.

During an appearance onThe Dan Patrick Show (h/t AL.com's Mike Rodak), Saban was asked about retirement and didn't give any kind of firm answer regarding when he intends on stepping away from coaching:

"I don't really think about retiring," Saban said. "I always think about what the heck am I going to do if I do retire? That's a scary thought."

Saban noted that he doesn't have to retire to pursue other interests and doesn't know how he would satiate his desire for accomplishment if he were to retire:

“I don't know if that's hard for people to understand. There's nothing that I want to do—like, some people want to go to Europe or go to Scotland and play golf and all that—I wouldn't mind doing all that stuff, but I don't have to quit my job to do it. I worry about what am I going to do if I don't do this?

"And when I say, 'What am I going to do?' I don't mean play golf or whatever. I mean, how are you going to get any kind of positive self-gratification or feeling of accomplishment when you've done something for so long that you like so much and then all of a sudden it's not there? So that's a good question. I don't really have the answer to that one."

Saban, who will turn 71 in October, is entering his 16th season as the head coach at Alabama and his 50th season in coaching overall, dating back to his first gig as a graduate assistant at Kent State in 1973.

The legendary coach first became a head coach at Toledo in 1990 before jumping to the NFL to serve as the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator.

Saban returned to the college ranks as the head coach at Michigan State in 1995 and then made the move to LSU. After an ill-fated stint as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Saban was hired by Alabama in 2007, and the rest is history.

Since taking control of the Crimson Tide, Saban has restored prestige and honor to the program, leading Bama to eight SEC titles and six national championships.

Alabama has won at least 10 games in every season since 2008, and the Tide have suffered two or fewer losses in each of the past 11 seasons.

Given how successful Alabama continues to be, it is easy to understand why Saban has no desire to step away.

Even as the Tide churn out elite talent to the NFL on a yearly basis, Saban manages to reload the roster with top-end recruits, thus keeping Alabama in the national title conversation.

Saban also won a national championship at LSU, so he has little left to prove at the collegiate level, but it is difficult to envision him going back to the NFL or coaching anywhere other than Alabama for the remainder of his career.

At this point, Saban is simply adding to an already legendary resume by trying to rack up wins and secure more national titles.

Saban is currently 18th on the all-time college football wins list with 269, and if he sticks around for three more years, he will almost certainly become only the 15th head coach in college football history to reach the 300-win mark.

We all know Nick Saban loves football.

How much does the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach love the sport? Well, enough to be so focused talking about the game that he missed a robbery happening right in front of him.

Saban and the uncle of former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, whose name is also Bob Stoops, recently spoke about a time in the late 1980s they were in an Ohio bar together and were completely oblivious to their dangerous surroundings.

Stoops set the scene for Barry Tramel of The Oklahoman:

“We were in this bar,” Uncle Bob said. “Just talking football. We were moving salt shakers, anything we could grab, talking football. 

“I remember vividly, there was a guy across from us, it was a snakelike bar, and the guy gets this glass, he smashes it on the ground. 

“I happened to be looking over that way, all of a sudden, I see him smash that, and he was really mad. 

“I said, ‘Hey, buddy, is something wrong?’ 

“He said, ‘Hey, you (expletive), we just got robbed!’ 

“I’m like, ‘You’re blanking me.’ 

“He goes, ‘No, they had a shotgun pointed right at you two blank-holes.’” 

The story is a Saban favorite, as the Alabama coach has shared it on several occasions in the past—most recently last week.

“There’s not a lot of details,” Saban said on The Last Round (around the 3:07:00 mark). “We were talking football, and the guy came in and robbed the place with a shotgun. Police came about 20 minutes later and the bartender just told the police, ‘Don’t ask these two guys. They didn’t even know what happened.’ That was it.

“I guess you could say we were focused."

While it's hard to imagine anyone being able to ignore a whole robbery happening before their eyes, that level of singular focus has made Saban arguably the greatest college football coach in history.

Alabama football isn't used to losing many national titles, so the program has to come up with unique motivational tactics when it does happen.

Offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor Jr. told reporters on Friday the Crimson Tide have put up a "participation trophy" from the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game in the team cafeteria to motivate the players this season.

In the eight-year history of the College Football Playoff, Alabama has made the field seven times and reached the title game six times.

The 2022 Crimson Tide finished the regular season 12-1, highlighted by a 41-24 win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. They earned the No. 1 seed in the playoff and had no problems in the semifinal with a 27-6 victory over Cincinnati.

Georgia defeated Michigan 34-11 in the second semifinal to set up an SEC Championship Game rematch for the national title. It was also a rematch of the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship that was won by Alabama, 26-23, in overtime.

The Bulldogs got revenge on their conference rival with a 33-18 victory to win their first national championship since 1980.

The 15-point loss also marked the largest margin of defeat for Nick Saban's squad since a 44-16 shellacking at the hands of Clemson in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.

Alabama routinely has the most talented roster in college football. Saban and his coaching staff are among the best in the nation. It's not hard to imagine a scenario in which the team wins a national title this season.

But if the Crimson Tide need to use a second-place participation trophy as motivation to push them over the edge, no one will complain if the end result is another championship.

Alabama's football program is so dominant under Nick Saban that it reached the College Football Playoff national championship game in a self-described "rebuilding year."

The head coach called the 2021 campaign as much during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning (h/t Brad Crawford of 247Sports):

"Last year, we had kind of a rebuilding year, so we should have nine starters back on offense and nine back on defense but six guys go out early for the draft. So now we have five back on offense and seven back on defense, so that in and of itself creates a few more question marks but also creates opportunity for other players to shine in the program and contribute in a positive way. Nobody knows for sure how all this stuff’s going to sort of come to fruition, but that's part of the excitement and challenge we have to try and develop a team."

First, some context.

Yes, basically every program in the country would dream of making the national title game in even its best season, so to hear a coach say it happened in a rebuilding year is somewhat jarring. But the standard is different at Alabama, which is in championship-or-bust mode every season under Saban.

That standard is a testament to his coaching excellence and what he has built with the ability to reload seemingly every time players head to the NFL.

The Crimson Tide have reached the CFP in seven of the eight years the postseason system has been in place. They advanced to the title game in six of those years and took home the national championship three times.

Any season that doesn't end in a championship could therefore be considered less than a success given that history, and Alabama looked vulnerable multiple times in 2021.

It defeated Florida by two points, LSU by six and Arkansas by seven in conference games that were much closer than expected. It also needed four overtimes to beat an Auburn squad that went 6-7 and then lost by 15 to Georgia in the national title game.

It was rebuilding in a sense after losing players such as Mac Jones, Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith to the NFL after winning the title during the 2020 campaign.

This season's Alabama team gets many of its primary contributors back, including quarterback Bryce Young and linebacker Will Anderson Jr. They are two of the top players in all of college football and could each feature prominently in the Heisman Trophy race.

If they do, a national championship will once again be the expectation for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama provided a massive boost to its 2023 recruiting class Friday by securing a commitment from running back Richard Young.

Young is one of the most highly touted recruits in the 2023 class, with 247Sports rating him as a 5-star prospect on its composite list, as well as the No. 24 overall player and No. 2 running back in the class.

The 5'11", 200-pound Young stars at Lehigh Senior High School in Lehigh Acres, Florida, and was pursued by some of the top programs in college football.

Per 247Sports, Young received scholarship offers from the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas and USC, among many others.

Young has been highly productive since entering the high school ranks, putting up huge numbers despite limited carries.

In 2019, Young rushed for 854 yards and six touchdowns on 111 carries, which was good for a yards-per-carry average of 7.7. He upped the average to 9.8 yards per carry in 2020, rushing for 982 yards and eight scores on 100 totes.

While Young has plenty of developing left to do, 247Sports' southeast recruiting analyst Andrew Ivins projects Young to eventually be a second- or third-round pick in the NFL draft and compared him to Kalen Ballage, who starred at Arizona State and has played for multiple NFL teams.

Young is an athletic and speedy back who uses his background in track to break away from the defense regularly, and his dynamic style of play should be a key addition to the Alabama offense.

Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban is now set to have another electric weapon at his disposal, meaning the Alabama offense will likely continue to be one of the best in the nation.

Alabama has produced no shortage of big-time running backs over the past several years, including Najee Harris, Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram.

Young can now join that lineage and potentially put himself in position to be a high NFL draft pick and produce at that level as well.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban could have deprived himself of three of his seven career national championships. A new book reveals that the most successful coach in college football history was in talks to cut his career short and join ESPN in 2014.

According to The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban by AL.com senior sports editor John Talty, the 70-year-old took part in meetings after the season in pursuit of a broadcasting role.

Per Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post, Saban had "'zeroed in' on the possibility of joining ESPN’s College GameDay." He even "quizzed" then-ESPN senior executive John Wildhack about the experience of working for the worldwide leader and the company's structure. It reportedly was important to Saban to gauge whether it would be similar to "working on a team."

"Not because we didn't have a good conversation and not because he wasn't intrigued by television because he was intrigued and he was interested," Wildhack said in the book. "If he wasn't interested, he never would have done it in the first place. But I also didn't think he was ready to step aside as being a coach."

Glasspiegel pointed out that ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit's comments about the coach in 2014 likely indicated he was aware of Saban's interest in broadcasting. Herbstreit was asked about the possibility of Saban jumping to the NFL and replied, "Nick Saban will be on the set with us before he's a coach in the NFL. I really believe that after he's done at Alabama, whenever that time is, whether it's a year, five years, whatever it is, I really believe there's an itch there about becoming an analyst."

Saban made the right decision to stay at Alabama, as he went on to lead the Crimson Tide to national titles in 2015, 2017 and 2020.

The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban will be released on Aug. 9.