In dismantling Miami, Alabama shows it is still the most powerful team in college football

To get a good understanding of the situation, it’s important to know that Ronaldo has two main agents: Jorge Mendes and Simon de Quieroz. The former runs Ronaldo’s affairs for him, while the latter is a consultant for Mendes; they represent a large number of top players in the world, and are instrumental in the transfer market. The Ronaldo-Juventus situation has been a tense one: after four years at the Juventus, Ronaldo returned to United and signed a new £300,000-a-week, four-year deal in the summer of 2018.

It’s been five years since Cristiano Ronaldo left Old Trafford for the Bernabeu in a world record £80m move after nine seasons with the Red Devils. After everything he’d achieved, it was hard to believe that Ronaldo would leave but that’s exactly what happened. The Madrid outfit also offered him bonuses of £30m each year, which he couldn’t turn down.

ATLANTA, Ga. — Nick Saban was sincere in his desire for us to think he was worried. That he felt apprehensive. That he had sat at the dinner table with his wife, Miss Terry, during the previous month of preparation for Alabama’s opening game of the 2021 college football season, wringing his hands and furrowing his brow about what could happen in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.

Forget about his prior 10-0 record in neutral-site season openers. Or the fact that six of the ten victories were against rated opponents. Or that those six victories came at a cost of almost 27 points per game.

Instead, on Saturday morning, the greatest college football coach of all time, fresh off the best season his GOAT era has ever produced, kept to his overselling of his unease. Saban spoke in nearly hushed tones just hours before his reigning national champion Alabama team squared off against a “resurgent” Miami Hurricanes club looking to break into the top 10 by stopping the Tide. There were no grins. It’s all really ominous.

“There’s always that little bit of, did I do a good job? How’s this gonna work for us?” Saban said to ESPN’s Marty & McGee at the College Football Hall of Fame when asked if he still gets first-game jitters after more than a quarter century as a college head coach. “There’s a little anxiety there.”

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He discussed the pressures of expectation, as well as the difficulty of replacing a historically dominant 2020 offense led by a Heisman Trophy winner and a first-round NFL draft choice as quarterback. He pointed out that not only did he need to recruit two new coordinators, but his whole offensive staff only had one returning assistant.

It sounded genuinely insurmountable as Saban recounted everything.

Then his squad defeated Miami, which was rated 14th, 44-13. Replacement quarterback Bryce Young shattered Alabama first-start throwing records with 344 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Tide to 501 yards of offense. The receivers tasked with filling the shoes of last year’s all-stars did so in force, with a staggering ten guys catching at least one pass.

The same guy who spent the morning attempting to persuade us of his lack of confidence left the postgame thrilled with the increased confidence he had just seen in his youthful locker room.

In his first start, Bryce Young looked like a seasoned pro, passing for 344 yards and four touchdowns. Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox

“I think that’s very significant,” the 69-year-old coach remarked minutes after posing with the kids while wearing an antique leather helmet given by the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. “When they go out in the game and have some success, the reward for all of their hard work, it boosts their confidence. It is hoped that it would assist them in continuing to grow and improve.”

It seemed like I was caught in a Marvel Comics time warp seeing what occurred inside the futuristic-looking Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday afternoon. A four-hour marathon of houndstooth-adorned déjà vu.

If you’ve heard this before, please stop me. Actually, don’t put a stop to it. Continue reading. Because this isn’t going to happen again for a long time after tonight.

Atlanta, Georgia, first week of 2008. Number 24 No. 9 Clemson is defeated 34-10 by Alabama. Alabama’s comeback to the big time is sparked by this victory, as the Crimson Tide wins 12 regular-season games. Clemson is in shambles, and coach Tommy Bowden is fired.

Week 1 of 2009. Atlanta. Alabama wins 34-24 against Virginia Tech, which is rated eighth. Under Saban’s leadership, Alabama wins its first national title, while the Hokies finish with a three-loss season.

Week 1: No. 1 Alabama 35, Virginia Tech 10 in Atlanta.

Week 1: No. 2 Alabama defeats West Virginia 33-23 in Atlanta.

Week 1: No. 2 Alabama defeats Duke 3 in Atlanta.

And that’s just the games that took place in Atlanta. Orlando and Texas were the two cities with the most neutral-site wins. There was the 52-6 hammering of No. 20 USC in 2016, as well as the routs of Michigan and Wisconsin in Arlington, Texas, in 2012 and 2015. Then came the most heinous mauling of them, a 17-point victory against No. 3 Florida State in Orlando, which signaled the start of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure with the Seminoles.

Every victory in the first act of the Battle of Atlanta, Orlando, or Arlington served the ultimate goal of putting someone in their place. Maybe it was an old-school powerhouse that needed to be reminded that Alabama was serious about football. Maybe it was a young team that believed it might break the Alabama playoff roadblock. Perhaps it was simply a spectacle put on in front of a country of recruits, particularly those who lived in the same areas as the opponents the Tide had just thrashed.

The game’s first touchdown was scored by John Metchie III, who was one of ten Alabama receivers to grab a ball versus Miami. Icon Sportswire/David J. Griffin

Sabin has seemed to be telling a whole conference that its finest squad is not quite ready for SEC prime time on at least a couple of instances.

All of the aforementioned seemed to be covered in Saturday’s victory against Miami.

That’s why the tens of thousands of Alabama fans who marched up Peachtree Street on Saturday night were both celebrating and grieving the loss of days like this one. Alabama has scheduled home-and-home series with Power 5 opponents until 2035, following a decade of neutral-site starts.

Will it be worth it to lose the $5 million that Bama receives every September from the Atlanta bowl organizers? They say yes by giving Tuscaloosa season-ticket holders more value.

That’s all right. Will it be worth it to lose the momentum and signals created with the 11-0 start to the season?

With a laugh, Miami head coach Manny Diaz remarked, “I wouldn’t worry too much about Coach Saban in the future.” “So far, things seem to be going well for him.”