Nick Saban hesitantly picks the winner of Georgia-Alabama game

Georgia welcomes Alabama in college football's game of the week on Saturday, and Nick Saban has made his final prediction from the College GameDay desk.

Nick Saban offered his final prediction for the huge Alabama-Georgia game kicking off tonight. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Alabama and Georgia are set to square off under the lights in college football’s game of the week, but Nick Saban was a little reluctant to make a prediction for the matchup.

The reason? As he joked on College GameDay, Saban doesn’t want fans of either team to take it out on him because of what he said about the game.

“We have a home in Georgia. We have a home in Alabama. I would like to not pick this game because I’d like for neither one of these homes to be vandalized,” Saban quipped.

But in the end, Saban bucked the trend coming into this matchup, and is taking the Crimson Tide over the Bulldogs.

“I gotta pick with my heart, man. Roll Tide.”

Nick Saban on College GameDay

Saban was alone in that regard, as the other hosts of College GameDay all went with Georgia to take down Alabama to stay undefeated.

Earlier in the week, Saban outlined what will turn the game in favor of one team over the other.

“Who can affect the quarterback? Who has the kind of pass rushers? Who can create the situations where you can affect the quarterback? That’s gonna be huge in this game,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show this week. 

“Can Alabama run it? Can they make the explosive plays? Can Georgia affect the quarterback? But I think it’s gonna be very similar for Georgia, as well.”

Alabama is in Athens for the first time in a decade to take on Georgia in a primetime SEC matchup that can’t help but have some influence on what the national championship race looks like.

Alabama is already behind, sitting at 2-1 and with an ugly two-touchdown loss at Florida State in the season opener, and second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer is under considerable pressure to get the job done and avoid falling to .500 on the year.

Last season brought us the first Alabama-Georgia meeting in the post-Saban era, as Kalen DeBoer’s team put on a show in a 41-34 victory in Tuscaloosa.

Since then, however, Alabama is just 7-5 overall while Georgia is 11-2 and made it as far as the quarterfinal round in the College Football Playoff.

Now, both teams look to get a leg-up in the very early SEC title picture and make what will be a good impression for the College Football Playoff selectors.

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