We are possibly ranked too high, but who knows at this point in the season? They say we are overrated just about every year, including last year, when seemingly every pundit out there droned on endlessly about out defensive deficiencies, and how somebody was going to upset us - Ole Miss, Miss. St., LSU, blah blah blah. Well it didn't happen until the last game of the season and only then by a team that played for the national title. We are ranked highly because of our track record and because as long as Saban is there we are generally going to be right there in the thick of the championship discussion at the end of just about every season. Think about this:
2007 - Saban's first year of "the process" => 7-6, won Independence Bowl
2008 => 12-2, about 1 quarter and 1 "horse collar" tackle away from playing for a national title
2009 => 14-0, won SEC and BCS, Heisman
2010 => 10-3, losses to S. Carolina (once-in-a-lifetime game by Garcia), LSU (always a tough out), and AU (BCS champs with one-and-done Heisman winner Cam Newton)
2011 => 12-1, won BCS, won the revenge game 21-0 against an LSU team on the verge of being called the greatest ever (who only scored 6 on us in the first game loss)
2012 => 13-1, won SEC and BCS, only loss to Heisman-winner Manziel
2013 => 11-2, undefeated until AU game, where one more first down probably puts us in the BCS title game again (instead AU plays for the title in our place)
Bottom line is that since Saban has been in Titletown, it usually takes a monumentally heroic performance, once-in-a-decade type player, BCS title run team, or the like to knock us out of the race. There's a good reason we are always ranked in the Top 5 preseason, because we usually end up there at the end.
Look, as long as Saban's there this is going to be the deal. We are going to be ranked highly pre-season, maybe higher than we are comfortable with. They are going to call us overrated almost every year. And almost every year, they are going to be wrong.
