Nick Saban

No. 11 Alabama may have defeated No. 17 Tennessee 34-20 on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, but this year's Crimson Tide squad is doing a number on head coach Nick Saban.

"I enjoy coaching this team," Saban told reporters after the win. "That's not say that they're taking years off of my life, but I'm OK with that."

The Crimson Tide entered halftime down 20-7 before holding the Volunteers scoreless in the second half and charging back for the victory with 27 unanswered points after the half. It marked the third-largest home comeback out of halftime in school history.

Quarterback Jalen Milroe finished the game having completed 14 of 21 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. Running back Jase McClellan led all rushers with 115 yards and one touchdown on 27 carries.

Alabama has trailed in six of its first eight games this season and entered halftime trailing against Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Texas. The Crimson Tide charged back for wins over the Bulldogs, Rebels and Aggies but posted their only loss of the season against the Longhorns.

With Alabama continuing to post comeback victories, Saban also praised his team's resiliency on Saturday:

I love it. It's been great. The challenges have been great. It's fun because they've got a good spirit about them. We've got good relationships on this team. I think players legitimately care about each other. They respond well to their coaches. It's really fun to coach them.

I don't think sometimes show the maturity from a competitive standpoint to do everything on a consistent basis, which is what we keep trying to work toward. But I'll tell you, eight weeks in a row and the grind that we've had the last four or five weeks with the games in our league—I think psychologically we probably had a bit of a tired team out there at the beginning of the game. I think the momentum of the game gave them the energy they needed to play they're capable of playing.

Alabama enters its bye week with a 7-1 record and will return to the field on Nov. 4 for a matchup against No. 19 LSU.

The Alabama Crimson Tide improved to 6-1 on the season with a 24-21 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday afternoon, but head coach Nick Saban doesn't necessarily believe his team has been beating its opponents this year despite owning a winning record.

"It's great to win, it's great to be where we are in the SEC…but there's a difference between beating the other team and winning the game," Saban told reporters after Saturday's win.

He added: "Hopefully we can learn how to beat the other team, just not just win the game, but beat the other team."

The Crimson Tide's performance on Saturday was underwhelming. They mounted a 21-6 lead entering halftime but allowed the Razorbacks to outscore them 15-3 in the second half.

Aside from blowout wins over Middle Tennessee and Mississippi State, Alabama has barely defeated some of its opponents this season. Last weekend against Texas A&M, the Crimson Tide won 26-20.

After two straight games that could have been losses, Saban knows his team needs to be better moving forward if it hopes to secure a berth in the College Football Playoff later this season.

Luckily, quarterback Jalen Milroe has been much improved since the beginning of the year. In Saturday's win, he completed 10 of 21 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to rushing for one score.

The Crimson Tide have some tough opponents coming up in the next few weeks in No. 19 Tennessee, No. 22 LSU and No. 24 Kentucky. Their performances in those matchups will go a long way in determining where they stand among the best teams in the country.

Alabama sits atop the SEC West with a 6-1 record. They have the second-best record in the conference behind the 7-0 Georgia Bulldogs.

New York Jets star Aaron Rodgers apparently doesn't maintain a regular presence on The Pat McAfee Show out of the goodness of his heart.

The New York Post's Andrew Marchand reported Thursday that Rodgers "is receiving more than seven figures per year to come on the show each week."

McAfee confirmed to Marchand the four-time MVP "has made over $1,000,000 with us, for sure."

Marchand also reported Alabama head coach Nick Saban "is in that vaunted neighborhood" in terms of the money he has received for his appearances on The Pat McAfee Show.

Marchand noted it's not uncommon for marquee athletes or coaches to be compensated for doing recurring spots on a radio or television show. But the kind of money that Rodgers is making was described as "a new level."

McAfee, who signed a five-year deal with ESPN reportedly worth around $85 million, certainly seems to have gotten his money's worth.

"Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays" have become appointment viewing for NFL fans, and Rodgers' presence unquestionably helped raised the profile of the show. Every week, his comments are aggregated and shared across social media.

McAfee told Marchand that Rodgers "deserves much more than what he's gotten for the time and effort he has put into 'Aaron Rodgers' Tuesdays.'"

But Marchand's report is likely to bring more scrutiny upon McAfee given what's perceived as preferential treatment toward Rodgers and an unwillingness to push back against the more controversial remarks made by the legendary quarterback.

In one recent example, Rodgers challenged Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce, whom he dubbed "Mr. Pfizer," to a debate of the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. It wasn't the first time critics pointed out what they believed was McAfee allowing Rodgers to spread vaccine misinformation.

Knowing that Rodgers is collecting seven figures from The Pat McAfee Show is bound to alter how his appearances are analyzed.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has had his struggles this season, even getting benched at one point, but he absolutely lit up Texas A&M in a 26-20 win on Saturday, throwing for 321 yards and three touchdowns.

And head coach Nick Saban was pleased with what he saw from the redshirt sophomore, telling reporters that Milroe has gotten "a lot better" about not letting "one play... affect the next play."

Saban added that the young quarterback is "staying much more positive on the sidelines, communicating well with his teammates and coaches in terms of what he saw, what he didn't see, what he needs to do to get it corrected. So that's something that comes a little bit with experience. But I also think it comes with awareness, and I think we're making good progress in both areas."

The result is that Alabama is 5-1 and now atop the SEC West. Another showdown with two-time defending champion Georgia may be looming in the SEC Championship Game, though tough contests against Tennessee, LSU, Kentucky and rival Auburn still loom.

But if Milroe continues to play at a high level, the Crimson Tide should find themselves in the College Football Playoff conversation again after the early-season loss to Texas.

College football head coaches are receiving higher salaries than ever before, but only one of them reigns supreme.

Per Tom Schad and Steve Berkowitz of USA Today, this year's annual review of coaches compensation revealed that Alabama's Nick Saban is the highest-paid head coach in college football this year with a salary of $11.4 million.

Saban is making roughly half a million more than the second-highest-paid coach in the country, Clemson's Dabo Swinney. He is one of seven SEC coaches making at least $9 million this year, meaning seven of the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country hail from that conference:

• Nick Saban, Alabama: $11.4 million
• Dabo Swinney, Clemson: $10.8 million
• Kirby Smart, Georgia: $10.7 million
• Ryan Day, Ohio State: $10.2 million
• Brian Kelly, LSU: $9.9 million
• Jimbo Fischer, Texas A&M: $9.1 million
• Mark Stoops, Kentucky: $9.01 million
• Josh Heupel, Tennessee: $9 million
• Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss: $9 million
• James Franklin, Penn State: $8.5 million

Per Schad and Berkowitz, "This is the first time that this many football coaches have eclipsed the $9 million mark in a single season − let alone from the same conference. As recently as 2020, there was only one coach in the country making that much."

A seven-time national champion with six titles at Alabama, Saban is in the midst of one of his toughest seasons as head coach of the Crimson Tide. While the team is ranked No. 11 and has a 4-1 record, it has not looked as dominant as previous squads under Saban. This season marks the first time since 2015 that Alabama has been ranked outside of the top 10 in the AP Poll.

Things are moving in a positive direction, as Alabama is coming off back-to-back SEC wins over then-No. 15 Ole Miss and Mississippi State, The Crimson Tide will look to remain undefeated in conference play when they travel to face Texas A&M on Saturday.

While Alabama is ranked outside of the Top 10 in the AP Poll for the first time since 2015, head coach Nick Saban remains confident in his team.

Saban told ESPN's Chris Low on Thursday that he thinks last week's 17-3 win over South Florida is not indicative of the No. 13 Crimson Tide's true talent.

"We'll respond. We've got a better team than the way we played last week," Saban said. "I don't know if we've got a good enough team to beat Ole Miss or anybody else we play, but we've got a better team than we played last week."

Alabama will have its first SEC game of the year on Saturday against No. 15 Ole Miss, which has averaged 52.7 points in its first three games. After losing to No. 11 Texas two weeks ago, last week's showing against South Florida was surprising, especially considering the Crimson Tide were facing a team that went 1-11 in 2022 and surrendered 41 points in its season opener against Kentucky.

Still, Saban believes this year's Alabama team has enough talent to compete against anyone.

"I like this team. I like this group," he said. "They've worked hard. They've got a good attitude about things. We just got to execute better and pay better attention to detail, and we've got some areas on our team that need to play better."

Saban has won six of his seven national championships at Alabama. Despite the team's past years of success, he feels the struggles this year are a natural progression for any program.

"The standard here doesn't change, but this is also a test of your humility," Saban said. "You say, 'Hey, I don't care what anybody says. I know what the expectations are.' But, I mean, how many people have been able to go 16 years and not have a bump in the road?"

With Alabama's quarterback situation being as murky as it's been in a long time, Nick Saban resorted to some unorthodox methods ahead of last week's win against South Florida.

Saban, who benched starter Jalen Milroe following the Crimson Tide's loss to Texas in Week 2, gave opportunities to both of his backups, Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson, having promised all of the signal-callers playing time at some point this season.

"That was it. Nothing else," Saban said. "I've got confidence in Jalen. I believe in him. The one thing that we've always talked about is you make enough good plays, but you've got to eliminate the devastating plays, the ones that are killers. It happened twice in the Texas game, but I think he's learned from it."

Both backups struggled mightily in the Crimson Tide's 17-3 win over the Bulls, each of them passing for less than 80 yards. Saban announced that Milroe would take over the starting gig once again as Alabama kicks off SEC play against No. 15 Ole Miss.

Saban cited Milroe's leadership and enthusiasm on the sideline against USF as a big factor in the decision.

"This is all I'm going to say about this," Saban said Monday. "Jalen really showed the leadership I was looking for in terms of supporting his teammates."

Milroe, a sophomore, started the Crimson Tide's first two games of the season against Middle Tennessee State and Texas, respectively. He wasn't overly impressive in either game and struggled against the Longhorns, completing 14 passes for 255 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

This is the first time in a while that Saban has had to deal with uncertainty at quarterback, having dealt with a lineage of Bryce Young, Mac Jones, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts dating back to 2016.

While he knows it's a struggle, Saban also know that's just the way things are in college football now.

"It's not just the quarterback," Saban said. "We've had a lot of different assistant coaches, coordinators and others coming and going, but that's part of it. The nature of the beast has changed, too, with the transfer portal. Other people get better quicker, and it also cuts into your depth.

"So it's a little bit different than sort of building and recruiting and developing players. It's all changed, which is why you have to keep changing and evolving."

Deion Sanders has engineered an impressive turnaround at Colorado since his arrival as head coach, and he received praise from arguably the greatest college football coach of all time.

"I haven't been able to see (Colorado) a lot. I saw a little bit of the game last week against Colorado State, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for Deion Sanders," Alabama head coach Nick Saban told reporters Wednesday.

The Buffaloes are off to a 3-0 start this season with impressive wins over TCU and Nebraska, plus a resilient double-overtime victory over Colorado State this past weekend that saw them overcome an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit. It was just a year ago that the team finished with a 1-11 record, but Sanders wasted no time in changing the direction of the program and quickly turned Colorado into one of the most popular teams in college football.

"First, (Deion's) a great person and he's done a great job of marketing the program to create a lot of national interest, but I see their team playing well on the field," Saban continued. "They play with discipline, they do a good job of executing, they've been able to score points (and) playing decent on defense. So all those things, to me, are indicators that he's a really good coach and I've always thought that he's always been successful."

Saban's comments were in response to a question about what Sanders said about him during his appearance on Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes. When asked who the best coach in college football was, Sanders jokingly asked for a mirror to look at himself before expressing his admiration for Saban.

"I love and I adore and I respect and … every time I do a commercial with Coach Saban, it's a gift," Sanders said. "Just sitting in his presence and hearing him and throwing something else out there so I can hear his viewpoint on it. … I'm a student looking up at this wonderful teacher, saying, 'just throw me a crumb of what you know.'"

While Sanders is still hoping to learn, it's clear that he already knows what he's doing. Colorado has sold out every home game for the remainder of the season for the first time in program history.

The No. 19-ranked Buffaloes will look to make it 4-0 when they face No. 10 Oregon on Saturday.