At 71 years of age, Alabama head coach Nick Saban is not slowing down. He intends to continue coaching for the foreseeable future but there has been a noticeable shift in his personality and how he approaches his players.
Saban appears more mellow this season. He’s less explosive and far more zen.
“I think, maybe, as I’ve gotten a little older, I’m probably not as volatile as I used to be,” Saban said during the “Hey Coach” podcast this week. “I think many people have heard me say before: one of my prayers in church every Sunday is, ‘Don’t get angry and control your temper, and don’t let your emotions make you do something you’ll be sorry for.'”
There has been such a dramatic shift in his temperament that Saban’s wife, Terry, has even called him out on it.
“I got a lecture [from my wife] about, ‘Why don’t you show a little more intensity on the sidelines when the players aren’t doing exactly what they should do?'” Saban said.
Saban took that criticism to heart and during a win over Mississippi State last week, showed off some of his trademarked rage with a nice and all-too-familiar outburst.
“Miss Terry told me, if they’re not playing good, to get on their butt. I was just doing what I was told,” Saban joked. “I’ve been a little laid back, and at times it’s been hard to bite my tongue relative to some of the things we’ve done to shoot our foot — not just shoot our foot, but shoot our foot off.”
Alabama is 4-1 on the season and ranked No. 8 overall, which is still very good but a far cry from the dominance they have traditionally experienced under Saban. Perhaps a return to his old ways would help ignite a fire, but the veteran coach insists that this young generation of player responds better to calm teaching than the classic discipline that has served he and the program so well in the past.
