Nick Saban is notorious for not dwelling on his triumphs, but even those who know that might be surprised by how quickly he moves on after big wins.
The Alabama head coach told “All Things Covered” with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden that he feels the need to immediately meet with his juniors after a title win, citing an event that took place at LSU in 2003.
“The No. 1 thing is you wanna get together with the juniors that you have on your team that could go out for the draft,” Saban said, via Charlie Potter of 247Sports. “When I was at LSU — I won’t mention any names. I didn’t use to do this in the locker room after the game where I talked to everybody, and a guy went out and signed with an agent after we won the national championship in 2003. And then the guy really didn’t wanna go out.
“He was like a third-round draft pick or something. He had no choice, but he said he thought signed a different kind of agreement that really wasn’t an agreement to represent him. But we lost the guy over that. So I said, ‘Hey, I need to talk to these guys leading up the game, and then the first thing I need to do after the game is get them all in a room and say, hey, until we sit down and talk when we go home the next day, nobody’s doing anything with an agent.'”
Saban also said that the process of replacing coaches who are hired by other programs begins immediately. He admitted that he takes his downtime during the summer, once recruiting has died down and everyone who is leaving the program or going pro has done so.
“When I have vacation, I go to our lake house for a couple, three weeks, and that’s when I enjoy it. Maybe take a week off for spring break,” Saban added. “But if you think when the season’s over that’s the time to chill out, have a good time and not worry about things for a week or two, you’re gonna be upside down faster than you know it.”
Saban absolutely enjoys it when his teams win, and it certainly means a lot to him as well. That said, he knows better than most how much effort it takes to maintain that level of success. Every coach knows the importance of the offseason, but Saban, notorious for his work ethic, takes it further than most.
