“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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Nick Saban Tarnished His Own Reputation

I live in Clemson Country, so I get to hear a lot of talk about how Georgia should have lost to Ohio State in the 2022 Peach Bowl and why Georgia should not have been playing in the 2023 CFP Championship game. As diehard Clemson fans like to tell it, two “critical errors” allowed Georgia to win the Peach Bowl and go on to play TCU for the CFP championship:

They say that Kirby Smart should not have been allowed to call a timeout as a play was getting underway on a critical 4^th down play in the fourth quarter.
They say that the targeting call on Javon Bullard for hitting Marvin Harrison should not have been overturned.

The Timeout Call

With about 9 minutes left in the game, Ohio State led Georgia by a score of 38-27, and the Buckeyes faced a critical 4^th and 1 at their own 34-yard line. It was a punting situation, but Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach, called for a direct snap to a blocker who would try to run for a 1^st down.

Kirby Smart, Georgia’s coach, noticed that something wasn’t right in Ohio State’s backfield, so he asked for a timeout. The referee gave him the timeout and blew the whistle. A moment later, the ball was snapped. After the timeout was called, the blocker turned runner ran for a 1^st down, but it did not count because a timeout had been called.

Everything was perfectly legal. This is the rule relating to timeout calls:

A timeout can only be requested by a player in the game or the head coach, and only when the ball is dead or in control of the team making the request.

That happens all the time in football. Smart sniffed out a trick play and did what good coaches do. He called a timeout so Georgia could prepare for a possible run. After the timeout, Ohio State punted the ball, because the element of surprise was gone. A few seconds later, Georgia scored a touchdown and got a 2-point conversion. Ohio State still led in the game, but the score was 38-35.

Referees decide whether to grant timeouts. Those are their decisions to make. Coaches ask for timeouts. Those are their decisions to make. If a referee grants a timeout, play stops. That’s exactly what happened. There was nothing unusual about it except that the ball was snapped after the timeout was called, and the runner picked up what would have been a 1^st down if the timeout had not been called and granted. The same kind of thing happens regularly during extra points and field goals, too. As I said, it’s not unusual.

The referee’s decision settles the matter. It’s as simple as that. Even so, according to Clemson fans, that 1^st down that didn’t count was a “critical error”. They say that Ohio State would have marched down the field and scored if that timeout had not been granted and that Ohio State would have won the game.

That’s a stretch to say the least, but that’s their logic. Let’s look at that play and see what happened:

Kirby Smart did a great job of coaching when he called the timeout, and he prevented Ohio State from getting a 1^st down on a trick play. That’s the whole story in a nutshell.

I can understand why Clemson fans pull against Georgia. Athens and Clemson are only about 80 miles apart. Clemson and Alabama have been in the hunt for national championships for several years, and Georgia has been just another good football team. But things started changing when Kirby Smart became Georgia’s head coach.

In the 2018 National Championship game, Georgia lost to Alabama 26-23. It was the first CFP National Championship game to be decided in overtime, and it was the first overtime National Championship game since the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Even though Georgia lost that game, it was clear that Georgia was in the hunt for national championships, too. Clemson, Alabama, and Ohio State were put on notice. Georgia was coming to play, and winning national titles was its goal.

Georgia beat Alabama 33-18 in the 2022 National Championship game and changed the way Georgia is viewed by everyone in college football, especially the folks at Clemson, Alabama, and Ohio State. Georgia had arrived, and it got to the top spot by beating the current coach of coaches in college football, Nick Saban.

The Saban era of dominance in college football was not coming to an end, but it was being challenged. Saban’s dominance of SEC football was being challenged, too. The winner of the SEC West, usually Alabama, was expected to play for the national championship, but the SEC East was the weak sister. No team from the SEC East stood out as a serious competitor for Saban’s Crimson Tide until Kirby Smart took the helm at Georgia. Suddenly, Georgia had a new nickname: The Beast of the East.

More than any other coach, Nick Saban started to feel the pressure. Heretofore believers in Alabama’s supremacy in college football started to talk about Georgia as the top dog in the SEC, not just the SEC East. The pressure got to Saban after Georgia defeated Ohio State in the 2022 Peach Bowl and won the opportunity to play TCU for the 2023 CFP National Championship.

The Targeting Call

The targeting call against Javon Bullard occurred with a few seconds left to play in the third quarter of the Peach Bowl. It was a very hard hit, and Marvin Harrison, Ohio State’s leading receiver, was knocked out of the game.

According to Clemson fans, that play denied the Buckeyes a critical 1^st down on a 3^rd and goal play from Georgia’s 7-yard line. If the targeting call had not been overturned, Ohio State would have had a 1^st down inside Georgia’s 4-yard line, and Clemson fans think the Buckeyes would have gone on to score a touchdown. Instead, Ohio State had to settle for a field goal in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter.

That was the last time Ohio State scored. Georgia scored 18 points in the fourth quarter and won the game 42-41. Bullard’s hit on Harrison was costly for the Buckeyes because the team had to play the entire fourth quarter without its leading receiver.

Clemson fans think Ohio State would have scored more points if Marvin Harrison had been in the game. That may be true, but that doesn’t mean Bullard was guilty of targeting. It was just a great hit. Let’s look at the play and see what happened:

As I said, Bullard hit Harrison hard, the way he’s supposed to hit receivers, but he was not guilty of targeting. For targeting to be sustained, the defender must lead with the crown of his helmet, hit the receiver in the head or neck area, and launch himself into the receiver.

None of that happened:

Bullard led with his right shoulder, not the crown of his helmet.
He hit Harrison in the left shoulder, not the head or neck area.
And he did not launch himself into Harrison. He just hit Harrison very hard, the way he’s supposed to hit.

Enter Nick Saban

Clemson fans can be excused for not seeing things clearly. Their team has been playing for national championships in college football for a long time, but lately, Clemson has been just another good football team.

Georgia and Alabama are the teams to beat in college football now, and it looks like Georgia is becoming the top dog. As I said, the pressure on Nick Saban is mounting, and it became evident in the halftime discussion during the 2023 National Championship game. Let’s take a look:

The look on Saban’s face during that discussion said it all. He knew the facts as well as anyone, and he didn’t like what the facts were saying:

Georgia beat Ohio State and won the right to play TCU for the national championship.
Michigan had trounced Ohio State to win the Big 10 title.
TCU beat Michigan and won the right to play Georgia for the national championship.
Alabama lost to LSU in the regular season, so LSU played Georgia for the SEC title.
Georgia crushed LSU and won the SEC, while Saban watched the game on television.
Georgia was leading TCU at the half of the national championship game by 38-7. It was a blowout of unprecedented proportions. The final score was 65-7.
Clearly, Georgia looks like a team on the rise, and Alabama doesn’t look like the dominant team in the SEC or the SEC West much less the nation.

As I said, Clemson fans can be excused for not seeing things clearly, but you can’t excuse Saban for deluding himself into believing that Georgia didn’t belong in the national championship game. That’s exactly what he did. See “Nick Saban says referees made a mistake by overturning targeting call in Georgia-Ohio State semifinal game”:

The Georgia Bulldogs became the first program to win back-to-back College Football Playoff national championships Monday.

Georgia dominated TCU for a 65-7 victory, which marked the largest margin of victory ever in a bowl game.

Last season, the Bulldogs beat the [favored] Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship game to capture the school’s first title in over 40 years.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban was inside SoFi Stadium for Monday’s championship game and offered his opinion about a controversial hit on a star wide receiver during Georgia’s semifinal matchup.

“Well, I think the play on Marvin Harrison Jr. was targeting as well,” Saban said on “College Gameday.”

Late in the third quarter of the Peach Bowl, Bulldogs defensive back Javon Bullard delivered a hard hit on Harrison. The officials initially flagged Bullard for targeting, but a referee in the booth later reversed the call.

Saban made a guest appearance on ESPN’s telecast during the pregame and halftime of the national championship game. During the broadcast, Saban said he believed the targeting call should have stood.

Saban knows the targeting rule as well as anybody. He knows that Javon Bullard was not guilty of targeting. So, why did Saban make such a ridiculous statement?

I’m just guessing, but I think the pressure has finally gotten to the Alabama coach. He is no longer seen as the coach alone at the top of college football, and it bothers him. He’s not even seen as being alone at the top of the SEC or the SEC West. That bothers him even more.

There’s a new dog in town, and Saban doesn’t like it. He is not above being petty if he thinks it will help him retain his reputation, but he’s not in control of his reputation. Alabama’s lackluster performance during the 2022 regular season spoke volumes. Georgia’s superior performance during the 2022 regular season spoke volumes, too.

Everybody who watched Georgia dismantle TCU understood that things have changed in college football. Nick Saban saw it, too. He was talking with a panel about it during the halftime show. David Pollack was right. By virtue of its performance on the field, Georgia has set a new standard for college football, not just SEC football. Saban tarnished his reputation by not admitting the obvious fact.

Saban isn’t through. I think he will come back strong in 2023 to prove that he’s still the top man in college football, but he’ll have to prove it in the SEC West against teams that are not powder puffs. Then he’ll have to prove it again if/when he plays the SEC East champ. After that, he’ll have to beat 2 very good football teams in the CFP.

It won’t be easy for Saban or any other coach to win the 2024 National Championship game. Just getting to the championship game will be difficult. Why would such a great coach be so petty at a time like this? It costs him nothing to admit that Kirby Smart, his former protégé, is a great football coach, too.

Nick Saban is too old and his record is too good to be so petty. I hope he changes his tune before serious college football fans and college coaches and college players begin to see him as another bitter old man who should retire from the game. If Saban isn’t careful, that’s the legacy he will leave, because the thing you do last tends to be remembered most.

Dabo Swinney

It’s interesting to compare Dabo Swinney, Clemson’s head football coach, with Coach Saban. Swinney is a great coach, too, and he hasn’t said or done anything petty during the last 2 seasons while Clemson has not played up to the level that he wants and expects. I believe Swinney will lead Clemson back, and his team will become a serious contender at the national level again. When he does, he won’t bring a tarnished reputation with him.

Clemson fans can learn a lesson from Dabo Swinney. He’s a class act, and he has a great reputation. Coach Saban can learn a lesson from Swinney, too.

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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10: 14-18