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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran Jan. 14, 2021. It has been updated and republished after the news that Nick Saban will retire.
When you have coached as long as Nick Saban (28 seasons as a head coach), won as many games (292), national championships (7) and conference titles (12), and pumped as many dudes into the NFL draft (49 first-rounders and counting), then guess what? You get your own all-star team!
After Saban won his record seventh national title in January 2021, we pored over stats, scrolling through film and pestering sports information directors to determine the greatest college football player at each position to have spent time playing for and being yelled at by St. Nicholas, patron saint of angrily swollen forehead blood vessels. The smorgasbord of candidates for this team is so ridiculously talented that the list of those who didn’t make the cut might still be better than any other coach’s first-team roster. Then, when we updated the list following Saban’s retirement, the task of narrowing it down was only more difficult, as we had to trim some of the legends who made the initial cut three years ago.
So who made it in? Read ahead, as we present our updated post-retirement ESPN.com All-Saban team. Honorees will be awarded a trophy shaped like a straw sun hat, turned upside down and filled with Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies.
Offense
QB: Bryce Young
Here’s our first big change from the 2021 list, as Young replaces original starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tua remains arguably the most thrilling player of the past 25 years who didn’t win the Heisman Trophy. Young did win it, almost single-handedly scrambling and throwing his way around Georgia to win the SEC title in 2021, icing his Heisman campaign. The next season, Young led the Tide to a 10-2 record even while hiding nagging injuries that kept him off the practice field for a huge chunk of the fall. And don’t even bother with the comparison of Tua vs. Young in the NFL. I don’t care if this year’s Panthers had Joe Montana or Tom Brady behind center, no one could complete passes when they are being piledriven into the turf on every play.
WR: DeVonta Smith, Julio Jones, Amari Cooper
If you’re looking for the position that most accurately illustrates the genius of Saban, it’s this group right here. The coach who used to passionately argue for rules that would bog down pass-happy spread offenses became the CEO of Wideout Incorporated. Just look at the receivers who didn’t make our top three, a list that includes Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III from Alabama, not to mention Josh Reed and Michael Clayton from LSU and even Plaxico Burress, Derrick Mason and Muhsin Muhammad from Saban’s stint at Michigan State from 1995 to 1999. Hey, we told you these roster cuts would be wicked.
RB: Derrick Henry
Speaking of wicked cuts, our one-back set has another Heisman winner set up in the backfield. Henry won the stiff-armed man in 2015 and he edges out the 2009 winner, Mark Ingram II. Why? Have you ever seen the two of them standing side by side? It’s like Ant-Man before and after he hits the “become giant” button.
TE: O.J. Howard
Howard doesn’t have gaudy stats, at least not in the regular season, but his back-to-back national championship performances against Clemson in 2016 and 2017 (314 yards, 3 TDs) still give the folks in upstate South Carolina the heebie-jeebies.
OT: Andre Smith, Alex Leatherwood
OG: Chance Warmack, Barrett Jones
C: Ryan Kelly
The NFL trenches are like an Alabama Big & Tall Clothing Warehouse, with seemingly every pro roster including a former Saban O-lineman. But this quintet of man-mountains spans Saban’s time in Tuscaloosa, beginning with Smith, anchor of the 2007-08 teams all the way to Leatherwood, who covered the blind side for 2021’s record-breaking offense. Among them, this group owns three Outland Trophies and four Jacobs Blocking Trophies, and all were first-team All-Americans. Heck, Jones was a two-time All-American and did it playing two different positions! Also, if our All-Saban team bus ever ended up in a ditch or snow embankment, these five could pull it out with their bare hands.
Defense
D-line: Jonathan Allen, Will Anderson Jr., Marcus Spears
Allen would have made this list if he had made only one play in his career, that being the airborne “Superman” sack of Texas A&M‘s Trevor Knight in 2016. It was so amazing that at that year’s College Football Awards, I saw Knight ask Allen to sign a picture of it. It was merely one of his 28.5 career sacks, second only to Derrick Thomas on Alabama’s list. Another swap-out from our original 2021 list is Anderson replacing Quinnen Williams after posting back-to-back unanimous All-America seasons in 2021 and 2022, along with back-to-back SEC Defensive Player of the Year awards and back-to-back Bronko Nagurski Trophies. Meanwhile, the lone LSU player on our All-Saban squad is Spears, the QB-smashing captain of Saban’s first national title team in 2003. Also, I work with Spears and he knows where I live, so I thought it best that I didn’t leave him off this list.
LB: C.J. Mosley, Dont’a Hightower, Rolando McClain, Reuben Foster
In case you were wondering why we went with a three-man defensive front, it was to free up space for all of the linebackers. This position room is more crowded than Saban’s ring drawer. Mosley had 319 tackles over four seasons, the best for a Bama LB since the mid-1980s. Over his four years, Hightower had 21 tackles for loss and was a two-time team captain. McClain had 14.5 tackles for loss in one season and was a two-time member of the dean’s list. And Foster … well, just ask Leonard Fournette about Reuben Foster. On Nov. 7, 2015, Foster had 11 tackles, limiting the LSU running back to 35 yards and essentially ending his Heisman campaign.
CB: Minkah Fitzpatrick, Dre Kirkpatrick
Now we come to the poor souls in the All-Saban defensive backfield. No one catches more heat or hell than these dudes. They had to face off against all those future NFL receivers in practice every single day, all while under the burning-the-ants magnifying glass of Saban, who not only played defensive back at Kent State back in the day but also was a DB position coach for a dozen years — from West Virginia to the Houston Oilers. But that’s also why the Patricks — Fitz and Kirk — will always hold a special place in Saban’s heart. Kirkpatrick’s crown jewel will always be his nine pass breakups against LSU in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. Fitzpatrick’s stated goal was to lead the NCAA in interceptions, but he didn’t. Why? Because he had so many pick-sixes (four, an Alabama career record), opponents stopped throwing to his side almost completely.
S: Mark Barron, Landon Collins
Both of these guys were pushed into leadership roles ahead of schedule when the All-Americans who preceded them departed for the NFL. Both guys answered the bell by becoming All-Americans themselves, not to mention team captains and national champions. Just like the coach for whom our team is named, these two are tough, smart, dominating and, yeah, a little scary.
Special teams
PK: Will Reichard
Poor Paul Edinger. On our initial All-Saban team, he was the lone Michigan State representative. But during Saban’s final season, Reichard became the career scoring leader in the history of college football. That feels significant.
P: JK Scott
Right smack in the middle of Saban’s first season in East Lansing, a baby with a big right foot was born 1,200 miles away in Denver. His name was JK Scott, and 20 years later, he was an integral part of two national championship teams in Tuscaloosa as a two-time All-SEC, one-time All-American and now all-time All-Saban punter.
KR: Javier Arenas
Both of those big shoes are thankful they never had to kick it away to the final member of our All-Saban team. In fairness, Arenas was recruited by Mike Shula, but it was under Saban that he became a kick-return legend, setting an SEC record for punt-return TDs (seven) and finishing only 9 yards shy of the NCAA mark for career punt-return yards. (Damn that Wes Welker!) He is still the only player in college football history to rack up 2,000-plus kickoff-return yards and 1,500-plus yards on punt returns. Also, he had 154 tackles, 6 interceptions and 7 sacks en route to being named an All-American at cornerback, so yeah, we managed to sneak another awesome defensive back onto our All-Saban team through a loophole. Sneaky smart, right? Just like Saban himself. Just call it part of our Process.
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