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
We lost two great players who were part of a dominating front, ... Young players are going to determine the depth and quality of the kind of defensive team we're going to have.
We want to duplicate enthusiasm and team energy,
When you have reached the pinnacle as a player of what you have always aspired for, what's your motivation? ... Some guys just work their tail off because they want to be good. It's important to them and their pride. Those guys have a better chance to succeed than the guy who did all of that to get here, and now all of a sudden the things that got him here don't seem to be important anymore.
Typically, people who can score touchdowns or create big plays, whether they affect the quarterback on defense or make the plays down the field, are guys that have a little bit more impact.
We were recruiting a player who had a coach from another school using the NFL as a negative about our program, ... The player said to him -- and I'm not making this up -- 'If the coach of your school is so good, why aren't they trying to hire him in the NFL?'
We are going to get the quarterback ready that is going to play in the game and we are going to try and get the backup ready to be the backup. It is really insignificant to me, because there are players at every position that get limited amounts of reps to be backups and if something happens to the guy ahead of him, whether they are having trouble performing, they get injured or whatever, that guy has got to get you through the game.
We are going to have a plan for it,
We didn't pick up Gus for his brains. He's on this team because of his arm. How he chooses to celebrate is his business. He can butt heads with a brick wall as far as I'm concerned, as long as his right arm remains healthy.
We were very fortunate that we were able to sign a free agent who turned out to be even better than maybe we thought in his ability to snap and protect. From a business standpoint, it always makes sense to go with the younger guy.
We certainly created some adversity for ourselves to overcome out there, ... but I was really pleased with how we responded time in and time out. Nobody's ever happy with penalties. Nobody's ever happy with turnovers. But I think it's most important to establish how you respond to that stuff when it happens in the game.
We have some players that I think don't play with the kind of confidence that I would like to see, ... It affects their ability to make plays.
We have total faith, trust and confidence in the guy,
We have total faith, trust and confidence in the guy. The guy has a tremendous amount of ability. He's going to be a long snapper for a long time in this league so the question is do we want to take the time to develop that or do we want to let him go snap for somebody else?
We didn't have, maybe, the precision that we needed at times to get things executed, in terms of the protection, route-running and the decision-making at the quarterback position, so it is not really any one area.