Paul Finebaum praises Nick Saban, rips Tom Brady

We’re still early in the college football season, and already there have been surprises. Some preseason Top 25 teams have exceeded expectations, while others have stumbled out of the gate. The expanded College Football Playoff has provided a path to redemption, but we don’t know which programs will have that opportunity. To help us make (some) sense of it all, we recently caught up with Paul Finebaum.

As a radio show host and ESPN commentator, Finebaum understands the ever-shifting landscape of college football. We asked Finebaum about his thoughts on the season so far.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: What has been the biggest surprise of the season?

Paul Finebaum: “The unpredictability and I believe that is in part due to the transfer portal. We’re seeing results that are a little bit hard to explain, and the biggest surprise so far has been Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame. How do you explain that right after Notre Dame beats Texas A&M? Oregon has been in two incredibly dangerous games, and that was the team that started the season No.3 in the country. Ultimately, the unknown is occurring a little bit sooner than maybe we thought.”

Which program should have the happiest fans?

“Texas probably has the most important win of the year, and even though Texas was predicted high, top five, they planted a flag for all those who may have doubted that Texas was back and that Texas was ready for the SEC. To go up to Michigan, even a different Michigan team than a year ago, and just destroy them all across both sides of the line was pretty unbelievable.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_n5mvpW7X0

Which program should have the unhappiest fans?

“I think that would be Florida State. Here you have a school that spent the offseason crying about not making the playoffs after losing by 60 in the bowl game, and they continue their woeful ways by losing in Dublin to Georgia Tech and then to Boston College. Their season feels like it’s over before we barely get past Labor Day.”

How has Deion Sanders handled Year 2 at Colorado?

“Deion Sanders, not as a personality but as a head coach, is close to becoming a laughingstock in college football. I respect him very much in terms of what he’s accomplished in his career, but his career as a player has nothing to do with what we’re talking about right now. He is a complete and utter failure as a head football coach right now. His team is worse than it was a year ago. His star quarterback, who is also his son, is growing increasingly frustrated because he’s running for his life. He very possibly could be the No.1 quarterback taken next year (in the draft). I worry, as just a college football fan, that (he may not) make it to the halfway point of the season without being knocked out. ”

“(Sanders) still has a magical name. He still draws ratings. I say ‘still’ because I think that is subject to change at some point. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all look over at a train wreck, but at some point, it becomes too horrifying to watch.”

Which coach is under the most pressure?

“Billy Napier at Florida. He is in his third season. He lost to Miami badly in the opener. He has yet to have a winning record. He faces a home game this week against Texas A&M. Should he lose, the cries will start to resonate. The reason why it’s important is it’s not like he has an easy path. His schedule is just brutal. If he loses, the path to a winning record is almost impossible. There’s a $26 million buyout , but that seems fairly tame compared to Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million last year.”

If the season ended today, who would get your Heisman vote?

“I would be torn between Travis Hunter just because of everything he does and probably Quinn Ewers. It’s an interesting conversation, but I’m a big believer that the Heisman is not decided until November, and it’s possible to get in there without being on a championship team or a contending team. It’s incredibly difficult, though. Lamar Jackson did it. Robert Griffith did it. But nowadays, it’s almost always going to somebody who is in serious contention.”

How has Kalen DeBoer done so far replacing Nick Saban?

“He’s done a magnificent job of dealing with the transition. He has handled the Saban question with great aplomb. Last Saturday’s game was a little scary for Alabama fans because it was tight, and a lot of mistakes were made. But Nick Saban has been at the Alabama spring game, and he’s been at the first two games, and Kalen DeBoer seems to be living with that very well.

“Having spent most of my career in Alabama, and having covered the transition from Bear Bryant to his successor, this has been the smoothest I have seen. The fans love Saban. They still see him on TV, but they are focused on DeBoer. Now, could that change? Yeah. An upset in Wisconsin would be a body blow to the psyche, especially with Georgia facing them in two weeks. Great start, but Alabama still hasn’t played a good team yet.”

How has Saban done on TV?

“He’s brilliant. I was prepared for him to be smart. He’s the best coach of all time. I was not quite ready to hear him be so analytical and precise. Sitting there listening to Saban and comparing that with Tom Brady, who’s in the same position as the greatest that’s ever played his position, stumble, fumble and waste the audience’s time with hackneyed cliches and tempered comments when good, well-founded experience and opinion would suffice has been fascinating. I don’t think Nick Saban could be off to a better start.”

What game intrigues you the most this weekend?

“I think Oregon is in a very prickly spot at Oregon State. It’s a game that we’re accustomed to seeing at the end of the year, and here it is in the third week. So much is on the line for them because they played so poorly with a team that many thought was on the same level as Ohio State. It’s not a great week, but as soon as you say that, something happens. We’ve had some surprises already where you least expect it.”

Do you still think College GameDay going to South Carolina is ‘bizarre?’

“A lot of people have taken that to mean that I was putting down South Carolina . The real story is that there weren’t many places to go this week. You could have gone to the Apple Cup, I guess. You could have gone to Washington. I do not participate in the decision for where GameDay goes. I think it was a challenging decision. They said, ‘Let’s go someplace we haven’t been in ten years.’ It’s a noon game (vs. LSU). What does that mean? That means that even though GameDay will draw a large crowd no matter what time the game starts, it will be even larger because there will be 60,000 or 70,000 people milling around before the game. I try to be honest about everything. Sometimes, I will look back the next day and go, ‘Why in the world did I say that?’ This happens to be one of those times.”

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