Alabama football head coach Nick Saban joined the Dan Patrick Show today to discus a variety of topics, including his mindset as the team returns to the practice field I preparation for the Crimson Tide’s Week 1 matchup on the road against Missouri on Sept. 26.
Dan Patrick asks Saban about getting ready for the 2020 season, which will be unlike any other in years prior. The ten-game season will have games only played within the SEC. The schedule was recently released via the SEC Network.
While it may be difficult to make up for lost time due to a summer that had players, coaches and facilities on lockdown due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he’s confident he can get his players back up to speed.
“Well, I think that the mindset with the players for a long time has been that they’re practicing, they’re trying to get prepared for a season with a lot of unknowns, not knowing exactly what was going to happen,” said Saban. “You almost felt like you were sacrificing your time for the season. But I think now everybody is really looked at a little different, you have a schedule, you have a first game. Now we are back to investing our time into trying to create value for our team, for the individuals on our team, to create value for themselves and get ready to play football. And I think that’s the only way that we can look at it, and really almost have to stop thinking about ‘well this might happen, that might happen,’ those things may or may not happen, no one really knows, but at least we have a defined challenge now that we can look forward to. That’s the mindset that I’m really trying to get our players to take, because the uncertainty that we’ve had ever since March has created a little different mindset for everyone in terms of, ‘yeah, we’re doing all this work, but what’s it leading up to?’ and now at least we have direction. So, our organization is trying to get the mindset that we utilize everything that we can do everyday, we’re actually prating now to try to take advantage of creating value and investing in our future.”
Saban and Patrick also shared a couple laughs to conclude the interview.
The 68-year old head coach even revealed that he had to finally create an email account after his wife, Ms. Terry, got tired of receiving all of his emails, especially after a mass influx when quarantine began.
Finally, Patrick gave Saban the opportunity to comment on an interview former Alabama running back Josh Jacobs had done on the same show that revealed Saban was a big fan of ‘Deez nuts’ jokes.
The six-time National Championship winning head coach laughed it off and says he likes to have fun with his players, especially in recent seasons where he’s had some with strong personalities.
You can watch the full interview here.
Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide as the 2020 college football season approaches.