Joey Johnston

His mega-contract ($5-million per year) has been dissected endlessly. His graceless departure from the NFL still leaves a mark. His iron-fisted manner makes it difficult to wrap your arms around the program.

If you want to get a reaction from the South’s passionate college football fans, you need only utter two words.

Nick Saban.

You’re either with him or against him.

But here’s another word.

Winner.

Saban knows exactly what he’s doing. And if the No. 8 Crimson Tide (4-0) can pull off the upset on Saturday night at No. 3 Georgia (4-0), Saban-mania might go off the charts.

Just imagine what’s at stake for Alabama football (Saban won’t go there; he’s interested only in preparing to win a football game). The Tide would get consideration as the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. Suddenly, it wouldn’t be a stretch to visualize Saban’s squad playing for the BCS championship in, ahem, Miami.

But that’s getting ahead of things. Way, way ahead, according to Saban. He’s not one to celebrate after a big win. He’s more comfortable in the film room, putting in the work, getting ready for the next challenge.

He talked about the Alabama faithful “drinking the kool-aid’’ following an overwhelming opening-game victory against Clemson. Listening to the talk. Reading the press clippings. Sure enough, it was a grind the following week against Tulane, despite Saban’s plea for caution during the build-up week.

He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows how to manage a team — and a season — and that quality will serve him well.

Let’s face it. Alabama football is one pressurized job. It has beaten down many a coach — the Crimson Tide is on the program’s eighth leader since Bear Bryant stepped down in 1982. And a video message from the Bear still appears on the scoreboard before each Alabama home game.

Call it a reminder of the expectations. When things aren’t going well, that proud heritage can make for an extra-long shadow.

But when you get it right? Pure magic.

Which brings us to Saturday night.

Is Alabama ready for this? Sure enough. In fact, it is right on schedule.

After all, it’s Year Two of the Saban era.

Or “the magical Year Two,’’ as it’s described by Georgia coach Mark Richt.

Richt’s Georgia team went 13-1 with a Sugar Bowl title in his second season. At USC, Pete Carroll’s Trojans went 11-2 and won the Orange Bowl.

Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma Sooners captured the national championship in his second season.

And let’s not forget that Saban’s LSU Tigers, in 2001, won an SEC title.

If Alabama can upset Georgia, pulling Saban’s program a season or two ahead of the conventional timetable, Year Two could indeed become special in Tuscaloosa. Yet you’ll never hear Saban talk in that manner.

He’s too much about the plan. He’s too much about the process.

Give him this much. The plan is working.

Better get Alabama now. With a recruiting class that some pegged at No. 1 in the nation — freshman wide receiver Julio Jones already looks like a gem — Alabama is stocking its roster with blue-chippers.

Think Alabama is on the right track? Just wait until next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. It’s already looking like a repeat of the job Saban did at LSU.

When he arrived from Michigan State following the 1999 season, LSU was an underachieving program, unable to protect its natural resources (home-grown blue-chippers who fled the state’s borders). Saban reversed that trend.

LSU became a winner. And it has stayed a winner, even after his departure to the NFL.

That move, as it turned out, was a disaster. Saban’s backtrack to college football is an episode he’d like to handle differently, no doubt. But despite the bad feelings, Saban had the right idea when he left the Miami Dolphins.

He belongs in college football. He belongs at Alabama. The record already is starting to bear (Bear?) that out.

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