Nick Saban reveals what he's still chasing at this point in his coaching career
Nick Saban has done it all in college football, especially in the portion of his career in Tuscaloosa. Overall, his resume features seven national championships, six coming with Alabama, and 285 wins over 27 years in the sport. So, at 71 years old, what else does he have left to accomplish or build within the game?
‘The chase’, he says. In an interview with Joel Klatt, Saban spoke about the process that continues to drive him as a coach. He appreciates the challenge that his program takes on day in and day out for them to get better singularly and overall in order to succeed on the football field and, in turn, build habits that will make them successful in life.
“That’s the process of what you go through to try to build the team, the process of what you try to do to build individuals to have the culture that they need to be the best versions of themselves. In terms of whether it’s personal, academic, or athletic,” Saban said. “You view a game. That’s what you cover, that’s what you see. And that’s part of it. But the work ethic, the discipline, the pride and performance? All the things that go into trying to help them be the best versions of themselves? (They) carry over into life as well.”
“So that’s the part that I enjoy. The whole process of developing young people to have a chance to be successful,” said Saban. “It’s kind of like climbing a mountain. It’s a challenge. (But) it’s an individual challenge and a collective challenge for your team.”
Excellence has been Saban’s calling card with the Crimson Tide. In a decade and a half, you’re looking at an 87.8% winning percentage in 221 games while consistently either being on the cusp of or actually hoisting championship trophies. From there, 123 of his players have gone on to make it to the NFL.
Whether they’re still playing football or they’ve gone on to have successful lives off of it, Saban says they’re the reason that he keeps on going. He’s awfully good at constructing contenders but, in the end, he’s more so looking for the reward of building up great prospects and men within his program.
Saban again speaks out on missing the College Football Playoff
Alabama just missed out on the College Football Playoff last season and Nick Saban once again spoke about not getting another national title opportunity.
The Crimson Tide finished No. 5, just on the outside of the four-team playoff. However, there were some pundits and fans that claimed Alabama was better than three of the four teams ahead.
Saban spoke to Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt about Alabama missing out on the playoff, asking if there’s a better way to determine the best teams, especially if everyone wants parity.
“So but the problem with the way the whole system is, there’s no accounting for that, right,” Saban said. “So, all we do is take the teams that win the most games at the end of the year, put them in the playoffs. But do you really get the best teams? When they told me that we would be favored against three out of the four teams that got in the playoff? I’m like why aren’t we in the playoffs?”
That’s where Saban questioned if the teams in front of Alabama last season were better. The four teams were Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State.
“Does that mean they have a better team,” Saban said. “Or does it mean that those people don’t know what they’re talking about? I really don’t know that. But I’m not being critical of anybody. But, if you’re going to have parity, you have to have a better way of figuring out who has the best teams. Not just because you lose two games on the last play of the game.”
“That knocks you out when you may be better than somebody else who didn’t have the same circumstances that they had played.”