David Pollack was in the news this week for several reasons.
Having been laid off by ESPN earlier this year, the former Georgia Bulldogs star made it clear that he no longer abides by the “stick to sports” mandate, as he joined the “save women’s sports” anti-trans movement. He also potentially indirectly played a part in why Alabama was able to return to the College Football Playoff.
Now, that may sound like a stretch, but this generation of athletes keeps receipts. And if Alabama needed any extra motivation to unseat Georgia atop the mountain, then perhaps Pollack’s words served as a form of bulletin board material.
It wasn’t even a year ago that Pollack looked Alabama coach Nick Saban in the face and told him point-blank that Georgia had taken over college football as we knew it. At the moment — one in which Georgia led TCU 38-7 at halftime of last year’s National Championship game — he was largely right.
“They’ve taken ahold of college football,” the former Georgia star defensive end said.
How bad did Nick Saban want to punch David Pollack in the face here? pic.twitter.com/QAZuxIr1DM
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 10, 2023
Saban didn’t engage. He respectfully nodded his head — likely in agreement — with Pollack’s sentiment. But that didn’t mean he had to like it, or necessarily think that it would continue to be the case after last season.
There was at least one person who tucked that thought into the back of his mind, though. Perhaps Saban used it as a rallying cry inside Alabama’s locker room this season, but it’s unlikely that the greatest head coach this sport has ever seen needs to scrap pieces of potential bulletin board material together, to motivate his players.
As for players themselves and what gets them going, like we said earlier, this generation of athletes is different. And they don’t forget. No, Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker didn’t forget what Pollack indirectly told his head coach. He kept those receipts. And after Alabama’s 27-24 win over Georgia in the SEC Championship game, he pulled them back up.
“He was on the podium last year with Coach Saban talking about how Georgia is the new standard, Georgia is the new dynasty,” Booker told USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer.
As Toppmeyer noted, Pollack didn’t refer to Georgia as a “dynasty,” but that sentiment largely doesn’t matter.
“That really sat with me, because I came to Alabama for the standard,” added Booker. “I came to Alabama to further the dynasty. To hear somebody challenge my coach to his face like that? I take that personally. I feel like everybody who saw it did, and then we responded to that.”
If you take Booker at his word — and there’s no reason not to — then Pollack’s remarks remained personal to not only him but several of his teammates. They let Pollack’s words sit with them. For how long is anyone’s guess, but Booker, among others, saw it as a challenge. They wanted to prove Pollack wrong and show the rest of the college football world that while Georgia had made a name for itself, the Crimson Tide hadn’t gone anywhere.
And they responded as such, knocking a Bulldogs team that had won 29 consecutive games, out of CFP contention.
“There’s only one Alabama, and there’s always going to be one Alabama,” Booker said.
