Finebaum compares Swinney and Saban's QB controversies, calls him Nick Saban lite

Shanna Lockwood - USA Today Sports

by Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Sep 27, 2018, 5:13 PM

College Football analyst Paul Finebaum was a guest on ESPN's Stephen A. Smith's podcast recently and talked about how Dabo Swinney handled the difficult QB situation with Kelly Bryant and how it compared to Nick Saban's job with Jalen Hurts.

"Some would argue because that the end result wasn’t good. I frankly think he has handled it better than Saban," Finebaum said. "He didn’t talk about it a lot. He let the competition take care of itself. He didn’t try to baby a player. He didn’t get mad at the media. He didn’t attack the media. He dealt with it. We all knew that Trevor Lawrence was going to be the starter. I sat with you and said I think he will be and he was. I frankly thought it would come later but then again it was such an obvious mismatch between that talent that Dabo had to get it done this week to be fair."

Finebaum thinks that Saban hasn't been completely transparent about his quarterback situation.

"I was with Saban Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa," he said. "He’s still tiptoeing about it. He’s tiptoeing about who the best player is when Tua is not only the starter and a really good or great player, he’s the leader in the Heisman race. Saban is still like ‘well they are both really good’. Saban does everything for one reason - recruiting. He knows there is another quarterback out there watching this. He just doesn’t want to tip the balance. I also think he is giving Jalen Hurts some capital. We all know his record. We all know what he has done. So I think he is paying homage to that, but I think he has done enough of it already."

Finebaum finishes up by calling Swinney 'Nick Saban lite.'

"Saban could have played both, He could have started Jalen out of respect," he said. "Nobody would have gotten that mad. You would have understood it, but Saban is about winning championships and Dabo Swinney is Nick Saban lite. He’s a little nicer. He is a little easier. But he is still in the same league with Nick Saban and by going to Tua Alabama is way out in front. If you hold back Trevor Lawrence you are not going to win the championship. I think Dabo also took a look at the ACC which is putrid. Virginia Tech losing to Old Dominion. That damaged the league immensely. Now everything is going to be measured by that. Virginia Tech was maybe the second or third best team in the entire ACC now that Miami has not really shown very much by losing to LSU and Florida State just literally fell off the map. Dabo has a reasonably tough game against your team Syracuse this weekend."