Saban on college, Tide
If coach retired, what would he do?
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The latest championship arrived in dramatic fashion — in overtime, with freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa connecting with DeVonta Smith, a 41-yard bolt for the touchdown and another national title. As the confetti rained down moments later, Nick Saban told an interviewer, “I’ve never been happier in my life.”
Five months later, Alabama’s fifth national championship in Saban’s 11 seasons is, like all those others, a thing of the past. The dynasty continues, but “the Process” moves ever forward; neither the coach nor the program he has built shows any signs of slowing down. As the Southeastern Conference’s annual meetings begin in Destin, Fla., Saban seems relaxed, content and, yes, happy — don’t mistake that for complacent, ever — and ready, as always, to tackle the next challenge. He will turn 67 on Oct. 31, square in the middle of what projects to be another season of the Crimson Tide vs. the rest of college football.
By then he’ll have settled the rather large question that arose that January evening. The victory against Georgia came only after Saban had pulled Jalen Hurts to insert Tagovailoa. Does Tagovailoa continue now as Alabama’s quarterback, or does Hurts retain his starting gig?
Earlier this month, Saban spoke with USA TODAY on a variety of topics — from the quarterback competition to whether he’d like to be a selection committee member for the College Football Playoff. (The latter would require retirement from coaching. We asked about that, too.)
USA TODAY: Five national championships in 11 seasons. Knowing you don’t look back, but does all the success surprise even you? Do you say, ‘Wow, we’ve actually accomplished that much?’
SABAN: I don’t know. I don’t really, because it’s sort of become the standard and the expectation, so it’s kind of hard to feel good about what you’ve done in the past when you know the expectation is can you continue to do it in the future? Which may be unrealistic in some ways but certainly challenging in others and is certainly what we try to do.
Q: The competition between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa is ongoing, but what do you look for in a quarterback as you make a decision like this? Have you had a situation like this at Alabama, this sort of competition?
A: You know, we kind of did when A.J. (McCarron) was a young player and Philip Sims. Not quite the same because neither one of those guys had played, they were just both high-profile guys. So look, my responsibility and obligation to the two players is to be fair and honest with each player and give them every opportunity to compete and play if they deserve it. And my responsibility and obligation to the team is play the best players. And that would be at any position, so why would it be different at quarterback?
Q: We’re heading into the fifth season of the College Football Playoff. Is there something about the Playoff that has changed things for you and your program?
A: The Playoff is not the only reason, I think player safety is another reason. We’ve made some changes in workload, how we practice, because the season’s longer. I think if you get in the Playoff, and we’ve been in a few times now and played both games a few times, it can get a little physically and emotionally draining on the players. So we’ve tried to, even on a yearly basis, have downtime, psychologically, physically, emotionally. And we’ve tried to do the same thing during the season, to look at it less like a sprint and more like a long-distance race that you have to be able to maintain the pace. But other than that, I don’t think we really change a lot.
Q: Has anything been lost in college football because of the Playoff ?
A: Oh, I think the significance of bowl games has been diminished dramatically, and that was one of the unique things about college football: If you had a successful season and went to a bowl game, that was a real positive gratification for your team, your fans and everybody in the organization. Right now the Playoff becomes the standard, and if you don’t get in the Playoff it’s a disappointment and to go to a bowl game is kind of a consolation prize. And I think the attendance and the interest and all of those things have diminished, and that’s very unfortunate, really unfortunate. But I said that would happen. It’s hard for bowl games and a playoff to coexist. It’s a tradition we’re trying to maintain and I appreciate it, but … now the solution is if you have more teams, don’t have bowl games. Just have an eight-team playoff or whatever.
Q: You’ve had plenty of staff turnover in the last couple of years, especially at offensive coordinator. How does that impact your team?
A: Systematically we don’t change. First of all, the offensive coordinator (Mike Locksley) we hired was here, so he completely knows the system. He completely knows the players. So that always makes a transition better. The defensive coordinator (Tosh Lupoi) was here. So that makes the transition better. Because you’re not changing terminology, you’re not changing system, you know. You’re not making changes for everybody in the building (including) the most important ones, the players.
So now, does that mean you don’t improve the system or do something a little different or some of the new coaches that you have have new good ideas that you implement into it and make some subtle changes? But we don’t make wholesale changes, and I think that’s the key to the drill. Where a lot of people, when they hire a new offensive coordinator, let the guy do whatever he wants. Well, that means everything changes for everyone.
Q: If Alabama had not gotten into the Playoff last season — and obviously they chose y’all over Ohio State — would you have understood the selection committee’s reasoning?
A: That would have been a little bit hard one for me, because you’re talking about a team that had two losses vs. one. Our loss was one on the road against a ranked team, a pretty highly ranked team. One of their losses was a very bad loss against an unranked team. It was hard to make comparisons, but you know, it’s a difficult job that they (the Playoff selection committee members) have, too. I recognize that. Because the standard is not the same in terms of, no matter how you try to calibrate strength of schedule and conferences and those types of things — hey, I know I’m in the minority on this, but I think the whole scheduling thing in college football needs to be revamped.
I think College Five (Power Five) conference teams should play all College Five conference teams. You know, and we should play more conference games. Then to me, losing two games wouldn’t knock you out of this, because you’d be playing more good teams. You can barely have a bad game in college football and survive it. And if you have it late in the season like we did it seems to have more significance in terms of how people feel about it than if you lose games earlier.
Q: Do you have a favorite memento here in your office?
A: You know, I’m probably, I mean championships and the things that represent those championships are special, but I guess I’m a little more sensitive to relationships. So when I look around and I see pictures of Mal Moore, Bobby Bowden, Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry who won the Heisman Trophy, Coach Stallings, those relationships are kind of pretty sentimental.