Intelligent arguments can be made about quite a few Alabama football teams being coach Nick Saban's best work.

The 2008 team that fell just short of championship glory, for instance, made a stunning improvement from the prior year: a 7-6 team in 2007, followed immediately by a 12-0 regular season. Regardless of that team's postseason losses to Florida and Utah, it's in the conversation. And of course, it's easy enough to pick one of six national championship teams.

Point to a trophy and call it a day.

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But judging a coach's performance should have as much to do with challenges faced, and the talent on hand to work with, as it does success on the field. That's why a Mark Stoops can win the 2018 SEC Coach of the Year award with a three-loss Kentucky team over a Saban team that went 14-1 and won the league title. The nuanced discussion demands some context; an evaluation not just of outcome, but one relative to what outcome should be expected.

All that considered, I contend the Crimson Tide's 11-1 run through the regular season is Saban's best coaching job at Alabama. Setting aside that this program is back on the brink of championship glory, the larger point is that it wasn't supposed to be. This is a very good team, but it simply isn't as talent-laden as its national championship predecessors.

It's required more development.

It's survived more close games.

And it's endured the narrative that Alabama was a program mired in a slow decline; a narrative that held true through the season's first three games, which included a 10-point home loss to Texas and a dismal road showing in a win over South Florida. The turnover of talent from 2022 to 2023 ripped the guts out of an 11-2 team, and there was no objective reason to think the void would be filled well enough to yield better results. But somehow, it has.

Quarterback?

Saban had to replace a Heisman Trophy winner.

Pass rusher?

In Will Anderson Jr., UA lost the second-best one in school history, behind Derrick Thomas.

Offensive line play was objectively bad early in the season; NFL scouts were stunned by the level of dysfunction up front. The O-line remains the team's biggest weakness, but it has steadily improved. And now with a much more confident quarterback in Jalen Milroe, so has the team at large. It is now a very different team than the one that floundered through September.

And in directing that turnaround, Saban's never done better work.

Four for the show

Opinions on how the College Football Playoff selection committee will respond to various possible outcomes from conference championship weekend vary wildly. Colleagues Blake Toppmeyer and Craig Meyer have somewhat differing views, and I don't quite agree with either one of them. I expect it to come down to this for Alabama's shot at a CFP berth: the Crimson Tide must beat Georgia, and get help from just one other game. That help can come from any of four contests: a Louisville win over FSU, an Oregon win over Washington (both of which are strong possibilities), an Iowa win over Michigan, or an Oklahoma State win over Texas (both of which are unlikely). In other words, a win over Georgia by itself won't be enough. But if you think Alabama needs help from two games, you're underestimating the turbo boost that an SEC Championship Game win over a two-time defending national champion riding a 29-game win streak would give the Crimson Tide's resumé. We're talking jet fuel here. Enough, I suspect, to vault Alabama ahead of any other one-loss contenders necessary to join the party.

Around the SEC

When we last left Bobby Petrino's sordid past at Arkansas, he was unceremoniously ousted for, among other things, misleading the school's administration about an improper relationship with a staffer. That was 11 years ago, albeit under a different athletic director, and now Petrino has been re-hired as the Razorbacks' offensive coordinator. Only in college football. … Incentive clauses in new Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby's contract include a $125,000 bonus for each SEC win above four, essentially creating a jackpot for any season above .500 in league play. Now there's a way to drum up support for a nine-game schedule. … Transfer portal madness has already begun, but it will really ramp up next week. With Alabama playing in the SEC title game, word on the Crimson Tide's pending exits likely won't come until Sunday or Monday, when the portal officially opens.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Notes: 2023 has been Nick Saban's best work ... Alabama's CFP path