Everything Nick Saban said about Alabama's loss to Florida State on The Pat McAfee Show

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and discussed the Crimson Tide’s season-opening loss to Florida State and how Kalen DeBoer is handling the scrutiny after his fifth loss in 14 games. Below is everything Saban said.

Saban on his thoughts on the Week 1 loss; what he thinks DeBoer is telling the team…

“My message was, basically, when you have a negative consequence and you don’t teach and do a good job of identifying what do we need to fix it, so the players have something that they can relate to, if you don’t teach, it really affects morale in a negative way. So I think you gotta be positive and show the players when they did it right, here’s the success we had. When we didn’t do it right, whether it was even one player didn’t do it right, maybe that’s why they had success. 

“But I do think that there was something in that game that is tough to understand, in my opinion, in that Alabama looked great going down the field on the first drive. Florida State gets the ball and goes right down the field and scores. And then the whole sort of psychological disposition of Alabama’s team changed. For what reason? I don’t know. Was it anxiety? Was it expectation?

“But one thing about coaching at Alabama, they expect you to win every game. And 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. 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 worrying about the outcome. They can stay focused on the things that 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 that.

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

"One thing about coaching at Alabama is they expect you to win every game..

There's a high expectation & the standard is really high for what you're supposed to accomplish..

You need to protect your players from that"

Coach Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/aU9GQcy5ck

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 5, 2025

Saban on if he thinks the reality hit DeBoer after the Florida State loss…

“I don’t think there’s any question about it. Kalen is a really good guy. He’s a good coach. He’s always had success everywhere he’s been. Maybe he hadn’t had to deal with this kind of scrutiny in the past. But if you’re gonna be successful, you gotta be able to self assess and figure out, hey, what can I do better? And I know that he’s reaching out to a lot of people trying to do that, and hopefully, they get turned around this week and develop some confidence on this team so they can move forward in a positive way.”

Saban on thinking positively with a lot of season left…

“Yeah, and I think that’s the way the players should think. That’s the way the coaches should think. And I say they gotta stay focused on what they need to do to teach and get better, create roles for the players on their team and how they can support the team. 

“There’s one thing about this that you and I, when we played, we wanted to do well. We wanted to be good. But we also had a responsibility to those guys over there standing on the sidelines that was on our team, and that’s a responsibility that everybody’s gotta figure out in this day and age of football when there’s so much individual, name, image, and likeness, transfer. And once you decide and make a commitment to a team, you gotta do a good job for yourself, but you also owe it to the guys standing on the sidelines or in the huddle with you. And I think that’s an important thing for all these guys to understand.”

Saban on the loafing from Alabama’s players in Game 1…

“The one thing I always — nobody wants to be insignificant. And you always have the bench. And if a guy didn’t do what he was supposed to do, he knew that he would – and it didn’t matter who it was, I mean, you got the bench.”

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