{"id":878110,"date":"2026-10-11T02:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T02:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878110\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T02:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T02:40:15","slug":"nick-saban-shoves-pat-mcafee-for-his-alabama-georgia-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878110\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban shoves Pat McAfee for his Alabama-Georgia pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Saban \u2014 and one of his former star pupils \u2014 expressed his frustration at ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee<\/a> after the \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d panelist defied expectations by predicting that No. 2 Georgia would beat sixth-ranked Alabama on the road on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The other panelists \u2014 Desmond Howard, Alabama alumnus and Panthers QB Bryce Young<\/a> and Saban \u2014 chose the Crimson Tide to win.<\/p>\n

Alabama has a 5-2 record against Georgia since 2020, going 2-0 at home in that span.<\/p>\n

Despite a loud Alabama crowd inside Coleman Coliseum<\/a>, McAfee trusted his instincts and predicted the Bulldogs would secure a key road victory. <\/p>\n

Pat McAfee picked Georgia to beat Alabama. ESPN<\/p>\n

Coach Saban knocks Pat McAfee to the floor after McAfee picked Georgia to beat Alabama. ESPN<\/p>\n

Saban and Young took exception, shoving McAfee off the desk and to the ground.<\/p>\n

He then apologized to Saban as he was hit and pushed out of his seat onto the floor. And he kept apologizing to Saban \u2014 even while getting hit.<\/p>\n

Some fans felt that McAfee should\u2019ve known the risks of going against the respected college coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPicking Georgia in Tuscaloosa with Saban sitting at the desk was always going to end with Pat on the floor. He knew the risks,\u201d one fan wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others were confused by Saban\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a brutal punch, how is Saban not arrested for that devastating blow?!\u201d another fan asked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coach Saban knocks Pat McAfee to the floor after McAfee picked Georgia to beat Alabama. ESPN<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs (5-0) enter Saturday night undefeated and have scored at least 38 points in each game.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Gunner Stockton leads the team, throwing for 1,049 yards and 13 touchdowns while completing 76 percent of his passes, the third-best mark in the nation entering Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Crimson Tide return home with momentum after a 56-23 road win against then-No. 16 Mississippi State. Sophomore quarterback Keelon Russell continues to impress, averaging 282.8 passing yards per game and throwing 11 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

McAfee is eager to see if Georgia can get revenge for the \u201cGameDay\u201d beatdown as the two SEC powerhouses face off at 7:30 p.m. ET<\/a> \u2014 weather permitting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Saban \u2014 and one of his former star pupils \u2014 expressed his frustration at ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1603,15354,1607,352,399,6341,398,396,397,9534,3145,99,1625,3015],"class_list":["post-878110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-bryce-young","tag-college-football","tag-espn","tag-football","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nick-saban","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-sports-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}