Nick Saban shares Pete Rose story when asked about Alabama's physicality

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – How physical is this year’s Alabama football team? That’s hard to assess, according to coach Nick Saban, who was asked the question after scrimmage No. 1.

“We’ve had two days in pads and one scrimmage,” Saban said. “We’ve got some guys that have played pretty physical. We got some guys that need to get more physical.”

The Crimson Tide’s first full-padded practice was this past Wednesday, and the team followed it up with a second consecutive day in full regalia before practicing in just helmets Friday. When it took the short ride to Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first of two preseason scrimmages, Alabama was once again in full pads for the two-hour, game-like practice in the scorching heat.

Neither Saban nor Alabama released stats from the scrimmage, but the head coach preached consistency in his press conference with local reporters. He also shared a story that Pete Rose, who spoke to the team earlier this week as one of its many camp guest speakers, told him.

“I kind of like what Pete Rose said the other night,” Saban said. “Sparky Anderson, he said was a great manager, and he asked him one time what’s the key to handling players? He says, ‘Well, you gotta know when to kick ‘em in the ass. You gotta know when to pat ‘em on the ass. And you gotta know when not to say anything,’ So we’re trying to figure that out.

“But I think I’ve been kicking them in the ass a little bit more than I’ve been patting them on the ass. So we’ll just keep on keeping on.”

Saban relays Doc Rivers’ message to the team

Rose is one of several notable names that have addressed the team this preseason, along with C.L. Sheperd, Inky Johnson and, most recently, former NBA player and coach Doc Rivers. During his opening statement, shared what he deemed “an interesting statement” made last night.

“(Rivers) said, ‘Do you want to win?’ Everybody in the room said, ‘Yeah, I want to win.’” Saban recalled. “‘But do you really want to win? Because you want to win if you can keep doing all the stuff that you’ve been doing, that puts you in your comfort zone and maybe isn’t the stuff you need to be doing to win. So you want to win but you’re not really committed to winning.‘You’re just committed to staying comfortable and doing what you want to do so and some of those things bite you in the butt when the time comes.’

“I think that’s something that players really need to think about because you do have to make sacrifices, to be able to do the things that we want to try to do, that these guys have goals and aspirations to do, you have to make some sacrifices. You have to invest in yourself in terms of how you sleep, how you rest, how you recover. The habits that you have, how you eat, how you hydrate. There’s all kind of things that go into what is my level of performance gonna be?

“If you dissipate, whether it’s drinking, smoking, whatever it is, all those things are gonna affect your performance so you’re only committed to winning if you can do all the things you want to do, not all the things you need to do to be able to win.”

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