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WATCH: Nick Saban challenges new Alabama players to tubing test

by: Austin Brezina09/16/21AustinBrezina59
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Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

On an episode of Eli’s Places, the program followed Alabama head coach Nick Saban and his tradition of giving his players a tubing test ahead of camp. Saban drives the boat and tries to knock his players off of their tubes and into the water.

According to Saban, only one player never fell off during his test — Terrence “Mount” Cody.

Nick Saban and Alabama’s tubing test

Nick Saban was featured by ESPN’s new show series called Eli’s Places, a spinoff of the popular Peyton’s Places. In the show, former NFL quarterback Eli Manning travels to different colleges each episode to see what life is like for the coaches and programs across the nation.

When Manning went to visit Saban, the legendary coach explained his tradition for all new players to his team. Saban explains to Eli that he tries to dump the players into the water.

“Any time a new player comes in the program, the day before we start fall camp we have all the new players come. They all have to go tubing, skiing — something in the water. The challenge to me as the driver is to dump them.”

As the video shows Saban laughing while players fall overboard into the water behind him, he reveals who the only player that ever beat his challenge was.

“You know, there’s one guy that I have never been able to throw off — Terrence Cody,” Saban revealed. “[Cody] was the big nose guard here — he was 400 pounds. He was athletic and man, when he hunkered down on that tube you couldn’t get it airborne at all. I could not — I mean I didn’t even come close.”

The video clip ends with Saban and Manning laughing at how Cody was the only player to never fall off, with Manning wearing water gear of his own as he gets ready to attempt the coach’s tubing trial.