Does Saban have another title run (or more) in him? Recruiting hasn’t slowed and the talent is oozing.
Personally, unless LSU wins the next 4 which I know is impossible, I want Bama to win one while traitor2 is there. That must be a great feeling when you are a student. When I was at LSU, we won the SEC my Freshman year under archer (88), but were terrible in 89-91 under archer and Curley Hallman. I still remember getting skull dragged by Tennessee and walking out the stadium to jacknut TN fans giving us grief. Our response was “we got Shaq” which was nice and all, but it wasn’t football. Besides, love Shaq, but we greatly underachieved with him.
I think the 3 teams with the highest chance of "will win a title in the next 4 years are:
1) Alabama
2) Clemson
3) Ohio State (depending on whether Day is the real deal or the next Mark Helfrich)
I would give these other teams an above average chance:
1) Georgia - so much talent but may have missed their window
2) Florida - a coach that can take MSU to #1 for five weeks cannot be just tossed aside; give him time
3) LSU - because success tends to perpetuate success, and the monkey is off his back now
And I would rate the following as contenders with below average chances of winning it all:
1) Oklahoma - not until they realize defense is more than 1/2 the game
2) Penn St - if they can find a way to avoid that one belly flop game every year
3) TCU - if they can get through a year unscathed and get lucky enough to have two big guns exhaust each other in the semi-final, I could see this
4) Michigan - lots of talent, but their head coach is good at spotting talent and terrible at in-game coaching
But there's a wild card with Alabama, too - Saban's age, health, and life priorities.
Saban right now is 68 years old. Today, in fact, Saban is the same age Bryant was on May 30, 1982 (and was dead less than 8 months later).
Of course, there are numerous differences. Bryant was a notorious drinker and smoker who looked 80-ish in the early 70s (if not before). He didn't take care of himself (by his own admission) plus health care in 1982 was pretty good, but it had nothing on the things we can do to sustain both life and quality of life nowadays.
Bryant looked older than 68, Saban doesn't look like a 68-year old man despite the fact TV is now in High Def.
But the biggest question to me is this: "Has this pandemic resulted in Saban enjoying more time with his family and finding a different priority than college football?" That happens, particularly as guys get older since no man has ever said "I wish I'd spent more time at work" on his death bed.
In my view THAT is the determining question as to whether we can pull in another one. Is his drive for seven all-consuming?
Saban strikes me as the kind of guy who has to be in perpetual motion with his mind, the 19-hour a day workaholic. As long as that is still his makeup, we're in the hunt.