Nick Saban calls on Kalen DeBoer to 'protect your players' from outside expectations, criticism

Alabama‘s lackluster season-opening loss at Florida State even had former head coach Nick Saban scratching his head last Saturday. It was the program’s first 0-1 start in 24 years, meaning none of Saban’s squads over his 17 years in Tuscaloosa ever experienced what this season’s Crimson Tide is going through this week in Year 2 under his successor, Kalen DeBoer.

A week later, Saban cited Alabama’s poor “psychological disposition” after both teams traded scoring drives to open the game, and challenged DeBoer to better “protect” his players moving forward in an effort to avoid similar emotional swings in the future. He did so during his weekly Friday afternoon appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.

Aabama will get a chance to redeem itself with Week 2’s home opener on Saturday. The Crimson Tide will line up against Louisiana-Monroe (7:45 pm ET, SEC Network).

“Was it anxiety? Was it expectations? One thing about coaching at Alabama, (fans) expect you to win every game. There’s a high expectation and the standard is really, really high for what you’re supposed to accomplish and what you’re supposed to do,” Saban told McAfee on Friday from inside Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla. “(But) you need to protect your players from that, and give them a different way to compete in the game so they’re not looking at the scoreboard, they’re not worried about the outcome and stay focused on the things they need to do to compete in the game for 60 minutes and play one play at a time, so they’re not worried about (the rest).

“Because that’s all they hear everywhere they go, on social media. … (that) they’re expected to win. So you can’t let that creep in and (create) that anxiety about being outcome-oriented affect their performance.”

From his introductory press conference in early 2007, Saban established a standard of excellence — henceforth termed the “Alabama Standard” — in which players focused on the little things they can control. That included things such as their own effort play-in and play-out, while ignoring everything outside their control, such as the scoreboard or the end result of the game.

That “Alabama Standard” allowed the Crimson Tide to win an astounding six national championships over Saban’s 17 seasons at the helm. The most recent of which came during 2020’s hectic COVID season.

That standard has come into question just 14 games into DeBoer’s tenure, especially after Alabama players looked listless and showed a lack of effort at times. Some defenders even appeared to jog during live plays, both of which rarely, if ever, happened with Saban as head coach.