Alabama's Nick Saban on Early Season-Critics: Everybody Said I Was Past My Prime

Nick Saban had plenty of critics following Alabama's Week 2 loss to Texas.

Now gearing up to play in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Michigan on Monday, the veteran head coach believes those early criticisms fueled his team.

"We had some really good rat poison early. It was almost like Wheaties," Saban said. "Everybody criticized us and said we weren't any good. We're done and Coach Saban is past his prime and all that. It was like eating Wheaties, you know? Breakfast of champions, that helped us."

Following that loss to Texas, the Tide cruised through the rest of the season, beating then-ranked No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship to solidify their spot in the CFP. Now, Saban is looking to continue proving his critics wrong by dropping Michigan to reach the national championship game.

Saban recognizes his team had a slow start to the season, but he's liked what he's seen recently.

"I think we had bad early, and we've had a lot of good lately," Saban said. "I think we handled the bad well and we've gotta prove that we can handle the good and try to finish the way we like."

Since Saban took over at Alabama in 2007, he's never gone more than two years without winning a national championship, and he's looking to keep that streak alive this season.

First, he'll have to get through a tough Michigan team. The Wolverines come into the matchup undefeated, riding a hot finish to the season. Michigan closed out the season with big wins over Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State without head coach Jim Harbaugh, who was serving a three-game suspension at the time. Michigan then beat Iowa in the Big Ten Championship to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP.

Saban's team faced plenty of criticism early, but now they're looking to silence those critics by winning it all.