More Honors for Saban, Players

Two of Nick Saban's first-year stars made Freshman All-SEC. The coach himself is up for yet another honor. Here's more:

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The Crimson Tide's Caleb Downs and Kadyn Proctor were each named to the Freshman All-SEC Team, the league office announced Thursday.

Downs is cleaning up on awards this week. He was already selected as the SEC Freshman of the Year by the coaches, and now has earned his spot at defensive back while Proctor was selected along the offensive line.

He leads the Alabama defense and ranks fourth in the league with 99 stops, including 3.5 tackles for loss (-11 yards). He's forced a fumble, recovered a fumble and picked off two passes to go with three pass breakups and run a punt back 85 yards.

Everyone knows Proctor struggled early in the year. Since then, the left tackle has become the first person since 2014 to start the first 13 games at left tackle.

Proctor has recorded 20 knockdown blocks across 743 total snaps. He's 18.

Now, on to their coach:

He was named a semifinalist for the George Munger Coach of the Year Award, the Maxwell Football Club announced Thursday. There's a lot of competition on this one, as Saban is one of 14 semifinalists for it. The Munger Award recognizes the top coach in college football each year. Finalists for the Munger will be named Dec. 21 with the 2023 winner being announced on Jan. 10, 2024.

Alabama has had two winners of the George Munger Award, first with Gene Stallings in 1992 followed by Saban in 2016.

This year in arguably his finest coaching job Saban has led the Crimson Tide to a 12-1 record, including a perfect 8-0 mark in Southeastern Conference play. He guided the Tide to its 30^th SEC title with a win over then-No. 1/1/1 Georgia last weekend, snapping the Bulldogs’ NCAA-record long 29-game winning streak.

And there's more: Saban has helped Alabama earn its NCAA-leading eighth berth in the College Football Playoff. His Fourth-seeded team enters the CFP on an 11-game winning streak as the Tide is set to square off with top-ranked Michigan in the Rose Bowl.