No. 1 Alabama absolutely dominated Miami last weekend, but Nick Saban isn’t satisfied with a season opening win. In fact, he felt the need to knock his players down a peg after they didn’t keep up their intensity in the victory and followed that up with a few lackluster days at practice.
Saban unloaded on his team on Wednesday after the Crimson Tide turned in back-to-back disappointing workouts following last weekend’s win. He explained that his team and players haven’t accomplished anything yet, but are letting the fast start against Miami go to their head and affect the amount of effort that they’re putting in to being great.
Here’s Saban’s full message to the media Wednesday:
“Okay, I think several years or go, it was the sixth or seventh game of the year, we had just beat Texas A&M and people started talking about our team. I had to bring everyone’s attention to what I refer to as ‘rat poison.’ So, this year we basically played one half of one game. We went ahead 27-nothing in the game and then it was basically 17-16 after that with two stops inside the five-yard line. So we didn’t maintain our intensity in the game, so we were affected by the scoreboard, so we didn’t play 60 minutes.
“Then we come out on Monday not really ready to practice, I guess because of the [lack of] respect we have for our opponent, I don’t really know. Or maybe it’s what [the players] read on social media or in the media after one half of a game this season. Then it was hot yesterday… so we got every external factor in the world that is affecting our ability to maintain intensity and play the way we need to play and practice the way we need to practice.
“So the scoreboard affects us, who we’re playing affects us, the heat affects us, the media and what you guys write everyday affects us. To me, we got to prove that we can play and maintain intensity for 60 minutes in a game, execute, do our job, play hard, finish games, finish plays and do things the way we’re supposed to do it.
Media personalities around the college sports world weren’t all that surprised to see Saban go off like this just one week into the season, but still had some thoughts on the rant.
“My team thinks they’re good… they ain’t shit.. and I’m fed up with all of it” ~ Nick Saban… basically 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/T2AwsumPvT
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 8, 2021
It’s annoying to hear but this is why he is so great. The standard he holds players to and they buy in https://t.co/plBPVQjG0a
— Chris McClain (@macwfnz) September 9, 2021
This is a huge piece of Alabama’s success. This is why he is one of the greatest coaches of all time. https://t.co/vUwyy5ZNEd
— Zach Laskey (@theZLazer37) September 9, 2021
Following practice on Wednesday, Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban made it clear he isn’t pleased with what he’s seen from the squad this week. You have to love his intensity! @wvua23 @Tide1009 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/jsWmFzdmor
— Gary L. Harris (@garyharris_wvua) September 8, 2021
Many of the reactions to Saban’s message are right: this way of thinking is exactly why he’s one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. There’s never an off day at Alabama and less than 100 percent effort won’t be acceptable.
The Crimson Tide shouldn’t have a problem against Mercer this weekend, but you better believe Saban will have his players ready to give their all come Saturday.
The post College Football World Reacts To Nick Saban’s Rant Tonight appeared first on The Spun.
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