Greg Byrne says he spoke with Nick Saban about Alabama’s bad press
Alabama athletics have been in the news for all the wrong reason over the last couple of months, so Athletic Director Greg Byrne is leaning on none other than Nick Saban.
It’s starting to feel like Saban is the only coach in Tuscaloosa with his head screwed on right. After the Darius Miles incident that rocked the Alabama basketball team to their core and the recent gambling scandal that afflicted the Crimson Tide baseball squad, Saban joined Byrne’s effort to think about all the positives in Alabama athletics, as well.
According to Byrne, Alabama held an extra all-staff meeting on Tuesday, upping the number of those they usually do per year. He and Saban spoke about the different challenges college athletics brings, but also the positives surrounding their many programs, which they felt like weren’t being highlighted enough.
“There’s multiple things you have to talk to your staff about. Yesterday we had an all-staff meeting. We usually do a couple of those a year. We had an extra one,” the Alabama AD told AL.com. “What we talked about, and actually Coach Saban and I were talking, Coach and I talk regularly about different issues within Alabama athletics. Challenges. We talk about different challenges within college sports. He addressed the staff. I addressed the staff. We talked about this year, we have just last weekend graduated 83 student-athletes. Our APR numbers are as strong as anybody out there. We have over 2,000 hours of community service. We just had two of the top three picks in the NFL Draft. We’re No. 7 in the Director’s Cup. We’re the top SEC program, from an athletic standpoint.
“Unfortunately, those things aren’t getting highlighted right now. We’re proud of that. We’ve got an incredible group of young men and young women in our department, who are doing a really good job of representing the University of Alabama.”
Of course, Alabama athletics earned a ton of accolades over the last couple of months that they should be proud of. Byrne and Saban certainly are. Still, the sheer shock at some of the incidents that have taken place takes some time to wear off, despite how much good has been done.
Nevertheless, at the least Greg Byrne has Nick Saban to lean on, and there’s nobody better. The Alabama football coach will hope to help put some bad vibes in the past for the Crimson Tide, and move forward into a brighter future.