Paul Finebaum: Time Is Running Out on Nick Saban to Get 7th Title

Paul Finebaum appeared on Get Up this morning and the topic of conversation was Nick Saban and Alabama football. His segment was around the 3:20 mark of the video above, when Greenberg asked him about Saban, who turns 69 in October.

"Sixty-nine may not sound old in our business or if you're running for president, but it is old in terms of championship head football coaches," Finebaum said. "I don't want this to sound blasphemous but time is running out on Nick Saban. It's been two years since he won a national championship. That's a long time. He hasn't gone that long at Alabama since the early part of his career. I think this is his best team -- the season is unknown at this point. However, there are many other programs catching up a little bit. You can no longer make a blanket statement that Nick Saban's gonna win a bunch of national championships. I think he needs to win one this year or that hourglass is going to become very dangerous for him."

Laura Rutledge opined that this is going to be a running team behind Najeh Harris, and agreed that this is one of Saban's best teams in awhile. Finebaum said a seventh national title for Saban would mean that he "stands alone atop college football -- and it's not debatable." Currently Saban and Bear Bryant are tied with six national championships. Nevertheless, Finebaum said that Saban needs to be concerned with Dabo Swinney -- who currently has two national titles at Clemson -- eventually catching him.

Look, Finebaum knows SEC and especially Alabama football inside and out, but Saban is about as young a 68-year-old as I've ever seen (Pete Carroll, also 68, is on that level too). Even if Saban doesn't win this year, I wouldn't be stunned if he can defy the traditional actuarial tables of head coaching and potentially do this at a high level for another decade. We'll see about that hourglass.

PS - we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the ongoing cameo from this segment by Rutledge's dog, Remy: