Nick Saban: Alabama's 2021 Season Was 'Rebuilding Year' Despite CFP Title Appearance

The Alabama football team reached the College Football Playoff national championship game in a rebuilding year.

The head coach talked about the 2021 campaign during an appearance on the show.

We should have nine starters back on offense and nine on defense, but six of them will leave early for the draft. So now we have five back on offense and seven back on defense, so that in and of itself creates a few more question marks, but also gives other players a chance to shine in the program and contribute in a positive way. It's not certain how all this stuff will come to fruition, but that's part of the challenge of trying to develop a team.

Context is the first thing that comes to mind.

It's odd to hear a coach say that the program made the national title game in a rebuild year. The standard at Alabama is different every season.

It's a testament to his coaching excellence and what he has built with the ability to reload every time a player heads to the NFL.

The Tide have made it to the playoffs in seven of the eight years. They won the national championship three times in those six years.

Alabama looked vulnerable multiple times in 2021, and any season that doesn't end in a title could be considered a failure.

It beat Florida by two points, LSU by six and Arkansas by seven in conference games that were close. It took four overtimes to beat a team that lost in the national title game.

After winning the title in 2020, the team lost several players to the NFL.

The Alabama team has a lot of its primary contributors back, including quarterback Bryce Young and linebacker Will Anderson Jr.

The expectation will once again be for the Tide to win a national title.