Former Alabama quarterback recounts memories of Nick Saban yelling fits

Alabama coach Nick Saban is known for his tough love for his players. One former Crimson Tide quarterback reflected on some of the longtime coach’s yelling fits on a podcast this week.

David Cornwell played for Alabama from 2014-16 before transferring to Nevada. During an interview this week, he looked back on some yelling fits from Saban and how the team responded to it.

He noted it wasn’t a bad sign when Saban yelled a player. That shows he’s looking out for them.

“That was my whole career, (on the) scout team field,” Cornwell said. “That was the nice part. At first, it was I didn’t want to be on the scout team field and by my third year, I had kind of been injured enough to know this is where I’m going to be until I transfer. I just kind of took it to heat. You kind of learn what he wants, you learn how to operate and there’s a certain standard he expects. If he’s yelling at you, it’s actually a good thing because he cares about you. When he stops yelling and kind of turns his shoulder on you, that’s when it’s not as good of a situation.

“That’s when a lot of young guys kind of either figure out too late or figure out right on time and be really good players. Yeah, I mean, there’s too many to count screaming at me. You get blamed for anything that happens on the scout field, so I mean, it kind of got to a point whee I knew it was going to happen, respect it. He’s a great coach and it is what it is.”

Nick Saban delivers powerful speech about leadership

Alabama head coach Nick Saban made a powerful speech to the coaches at the Alabama Football Coaches Association, which linked the lack of leadership today to the tragic events that led to the arrest of former Crimson Tide wide receiver Henry Ruggs III.

“People are more apprehensive about being leaders than they’ve ever been before,” Saban started. “Because they’re worried about what everybody thinks. Ask one of your players: ‘You gotta get up in front of a thousand people and give a speech, are you going to be nervous and anxious?’ He’s going to say, ‘Hell yeah.’ Why is that? Because you’re afraid of what everybody out there thinks of you.

“If there was a player in Las Vegas, who was drinking at 3:00 in the morning with his buddies, with his girlfriend, and somebody would have taken his keys away, it probably would have pissed him off,” Saban continued. “It probably would have made him mad. He probably wouldn’t have thought much of you for doing that. But would he be better off now? Or was he better off going 156 miles an hour, running his ass into somebody and killing them? And he’s in jail. And he doesn’t have a career anymore. He’s a good kid, he didn’t have one problem when he was on our team at Alabama.