There are a few signs every fall that college football has truly arrived.
One SEC fan-base is ready to fire it's coach after a bad Week 1 loss. Check, and thanks LSU.
There's real "Is Texas back" buzz after a solid, if not spectacular Week 1 win. Check, congrats on the win over Louisiana, Longhorn fans.
And Nick Saban completely losing his mind, even after his team completely kicked the ever loving crap out of an opponent.
Usually Saban waits until at least Week 4 or Week 5 before he starts talking about rat poison, but credit the old coach: He wasn't waiting around this year to lay the hammer to his team.... after a convincing win.
Instead, it came on Wednesday.
That's because while some saw an absolute bludgeoning of Miami last week in a 44-13 victory, in which the Hurricanes never really had a chance after the second possession, all Saban saw was a lousy, forgettable, embarrassing effort.
One that will assuredly end with the Tide finishing 2-10 or something like that. Here's the full rant:
"Several years ago it was the sixth or seventh game of the year, we just beat Texas A&M and people started talking about our team and I had to bring everyone’s attention to, what I refer to as ‘rat poison,'" Saban said "So now, we’ve basically played, one half of one game. Aight. We went ahead 27-0 in the game and then it was basically 17-16 after that with two stops inside the 5-yard line. So we didn’t maintain our intensity in the game so we were affected by the scoreboard, so we haven’t proven that we can play for 60 minutes."
He continued.
"Or maybe it's what they read on social media or in the media or whatever after one half of a game this season," he said. "And then it was hot yesterday, so we have every external factor in the world that's affecting our ability to maintain intensity and play the way we need to play and practice the way we need to practice to improve.
On the one hand, this is peak Saban losing his freaking mind after another domination of a lousy team. We've seen it before, and we will undoubtedly see it again. Again, the final score was 44-13, and we all watched the game. Again, Miami never had a chance after a possession or two.
On the other hand, there are a few factors. One, when you break down the game - he's right. After the Tide built a four-possession lead, they did only win the game by one point from there. Which is definitely one way to look at it.
Either way, you've got to give Saban credit for this: There is a reason that he has stayed on top of the game in college football for well over two decades now, and put together the most impressive dynasty of the modern era.
It's with brilliant coaching, great recruiting and elite staff-building - but it's also by not letting the little things slip.
That was again evident on Wednesday.
We'll see if the Tide come out and have a bit of a better practice on Thursday.
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