Nick Saban
Nick Saban
Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Alabama, a position he has held since the 2007 season. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and three other universities: Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo. His eight-year contract totaling US$32 million made him one of the highest paid football coaches, professional or collegiate, in the United States at the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth31 October 1951
CityFairmont, WV
CountryUnited States of America
To be honest, I didn't even get a chance to watch the game. We came back from practice and watched film on our practice, so I didn't get to see any of the game. We respect the system that is in place and we are playing Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship game. It's a tremendous opportunity for our program and right now all we are focused on is getting our players ready to play Oklahoma.
From an intangible standpoint, it's about things like effort, mental toughness, the ability to stay focused and execute, and be a little relentless in the way you try to go about your work, ... We're gladiators out there. We're modern-day gladiators and that mental toughness has got to permeate your team.
I don't care if you are a coach or player, you have family and personal issues and those things that are of concern. Everybody's safety is of concern. I have a great appreciation for the players and what they were able to do today to stay focused on the things that we wanted to try to get accomplished.
My focus is on trying to get our players in the best position we can to have an opportunity to be successful. The other stuff is pretty minor.
We all like winning. The fun of this is a job well done. The purpose of what we do is to have success. We focused a lot this year on the process of what you need to do to be successful. I think this team has bought into that and has a belief system that has been beneficial to how we've competed.
Where do we go from here? I think it's important that everybody's responsible for what they can do to make this better. I certainly will be, in terms of my part of it. What we're focused on is how we improve as a team, how we learn from the experience that we had here to day, and how we stay together as a team.
I think those are the kinds of decisions we would certainly like to have some input into. Our goal and focus is, number one, to respect the player. Ricky did an outstanding job for us on the field. Secondly, (we want to) respect the decision of the league, relative to what they felt it was necessary to do.
Focus on the play like it has a history and a life of its own.
There is no continuum for success. Focus on the progress, not the results.
If you don't get result-oriented with the kids, you can focus on the things in the process that are important to them being successful.
Eliminate the clutter and all the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you sort of go about and take care of your business. That's something that's ongoing, and it can never change.
Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.
We tried to put ourselves in a position that that wouldn't be a factor for us right now.
We tried to create a little bit of an identity as a team today. I'm proud of the effort that we put in and the way we persevered and overcame adversity. The big thing that this team did today was they had a little tenacity, a little perseverance. And I think that's something you definitely need in this league relative to the competitive balance and what you have to do to win games.