UCF has gotten a lot of traction and publicity with their claims of a national title following their undefeated season last year. They've played it up quite a bit with rings and decorating their campus police cruiser, having a significant amount of fun with it over the past few months.
For the first time publicly, Nick Saban offered his thoughts on UCF's national title claim in an article by USA Today.
In the article, Saban shares that while the current system to name a national champ may have its flaws, it should absolutely be respected.
“If you honor and respect the system that we have, (despite) some of the imperfections that you understand that the system has, then you wouldn’t do something out of respect for the system that we have.”
“I guess anybody has the prerogative to claim anything. But self-proclaimed is not the same as actually earning it. And there’s probably a significant number of people who don’t respect people who make self-proclaimed sort of accolades for themselves.”
Strong words from a coach that had to go out there and actually earn that national title trophy this year with wins over Clemson and Georgia in what both turned out to be very hard-fought, gritty games.
Saban put into words exactly what many coaches have been thinking since seeing the UCF claim. I know a few coaches that will be doing the slow clap after reading Saban's quote above.
Head over to USA Today to read more.