On Wednesday, Nick Saban joined the Dan Patrick Show to talk about Tua, the upcoming NFL Draft, emails, texting, and more.
Not only was Saban funny, but he also shed light on how the team and coaching staff are continuing to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
Here is the entire transcription of the interview courtesy of BamaOnline.com:
Nick Saban: “Well, I receive emails. I’m not much of a texter. I receive texts. So, the big news was is I now have an email, and I receive emails.”
DP: Have you sent an email on your own?
Saban: “No, I cannot.”
DP: Who texts you?
Saban: “All kinds of people text me. But if I need to respond, I just call them.”
DP: That’s what we used to do. I tell my kids that, I say, “Why don’t you just call me?” If I text them, they’ll respond. If I call them, they don’t answer.
Saban: “I’ve been through the same program.”
DP: How many calls are you getting about Tua Tagovailoa?
Saban: “We probably had at a half dozen teams call about Tua. Probably more than that about some of the other players. But specifically about Tua, I think teams that are interested in a quarterback are going to be interested in Tua. Other than that, I think the other guys, they’re just interested in the other players that we have in the draft.”
DP: What are you telling or reinforcing with these coaches who are interested in Tua?
Saban: “Tua’s a great player. He’s very instinctive. He’s very accurate with the ball. He’s got a great feel for the game. He’s got a great personality, really good person, great teammate to have on your team. He’s a great leader, and I think he’s proven that over and over again. I think that from an injury standpoint, what I try to tell teams is every time Tua’s gotten hurt here it’s been extending a play where he should have never even got hit. So, I think the lesson is self-preservation, and he needs to learn as a quarterback so he doesn’t take unnecessary hits is probably what he needs to learn how to do. Now, the guy’s a great competitor, so he’s always trying to make a play, which you really don’t want to take that away from him. But you also want him to know when there’s nothing there and there’s no sense in taking a hit that you don’t need to take.”
DP: Are you guys the first quarterback-coach combination to have hip surgery in the same year?
Saban: “Wow, I never thought of it that way, but I guess you’re right. I don’t know of any others, let me say that. He’s in way better shape than me. I think his hip is fine. Everything that our doctors say here about the way his rehab is going, all of his re-check physicals that we’ve done internally here. The healing process is great. The surgery went great. The rehab has gone very, very well. I have not seen Tua work out since we didn’t have a pro day here, me personally, so I don’t know where he is relative to what percentage he is today. But I think everybody’s feeling is he’s going to continue to make progress and get back to 100 percent very shortly.”
DP: What does Tua do better than Joe Burrow?
Saban: “I don’t like to make comparisons in players. They’re different style players. Joe’s a bigger guy. He’s very athletic. He can run. He played on a very skilled team with a wide-open offense. Good decision-maker. Joe extends plays. But I don’t like to compare players. Tua’s a little different style player, but I think both of them are very effective at what they do.”
DP: I guess the thing that stands out or I’ve been told many, many times — it’s the common theme with Tua — the ball comes out of his hand differently than anybody else that a lot of people have seen. I know Trent Dilfer went overboard, saying Tua throws better ball than Dan Marino or Aaron Rodgers did. But there’s something about Tua that is magical. … Can you explain what that is?
Saban: “I think he’s got great hands. I think he has a very quick release. I think he’s very accurate with the ball. Beyond that, I can’t really explain it. I don’t think those assessments are incorrect. There is a special talent there when it comes to this guy’s ability to throw the ball accurately, have touch on the ball and do the things that guys have to do to be a winning quarterback. He is special. I would probably, just in my experience as a college coach — I played against all those guys in the NFL when I was in the NFL. But as a college player, Drew Brees, when he was at Purdue and I was at Michigan State, is probably the best comparison that I can make as college players. All those guys that you talked about are a little different style guys and they’re all very, very good players, and I think Tua’s going to be a very, very good player, too.”
DP: Going back to the Dolphin days, if you’re passing on him, it’s sort of like when the Dolphins passed on Drew Brees. You’re talking about how great Brees was in college, but he’s right there in front of you and then you guys decided on Daunte Culpepper. But what was it about Brees…
Saban: “But it was the same scenario. Our first choice was to take Drew Brees. The medical people made that decision relative to Drew Brees’ shoulder, his situation. It was his throwing arm and all that. That was a medical decision. It was not an organizational decision. We wanted to take Drew Brees. He was the first guy that we brought in. He’s the first guy that we made a deal with, aight, but it was a medical issue that created that, aight. So, this may be the same scenario for whatever team is interested in Tua. It’s going to be a medical decision. I don’t think it’s going to be a performance issue.”
DP: Look, I’m not casting blame here. I’m just trying to understand where you were talking about, “Hey, if you pass up on (Tua), it’s going to be like when we were looking at Drew Brees the same way.’ And of course, Drew ended up as the all-time leading passer in NFL history. I hope you understand where that’s coming from. I just wanted to understand what you were saying in comparing that to Tua.
Saban: “Yeah. Well, I think it’s the same scenario. If you pass on the guy, he has a chance to be one of the great players in the history of the NFL, in my opinion.”
DP: You’ve got Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III who are going to go in the first round. When you have that amount of talent there, do you ever have to keep somebody happy with either giving them the ball or throwing them the football?
Saban: “I think that was the unique thing about this receiver group because we had two more guys that you’re going to be talking about next year in (DeVonta Smith) and (Jaylen) Waddle. So, we had four guys, and the unique thing about this group was they were all for each other. There was never a selfish moment that we ever had to deal with. They all made a lot of great plays, but they were never worried about who made the play. And they understood that, ‘I may catch eight balls in this game, but somebody else may catch eight balls the next game. But if we go do what we’re supposed to do, we’re going to have the production that we need to showcase our talents,’ and they all did that extremely well. And it’s really unusual because a lot of times receivers are guys that can be a little bit self-indulgent in terms of, ‘Get me the ball,’ and these guys were never that way.”
DP: When you stumble on an old college game that you have coached in, do you stop and watch it?
Saban: “No, I’m not much for watching old games where I know the outcome unless there’s a technical aspect of the game that we’re trying to use to prepare for the next game or another game. I guess I don’t.”
DP: The past month, though, when you’re watching TV and you flip through the channels, you haven’t stopped on an Alabama game?
Saban: “No. I really have not. I spend all morning watching film, preparing for next year’s season. I watch some of those golf things sometimes. The greatest rounds ever, maybe some great tournament or something. But when you spend all day on football and then you go home at night and you want to watch it on TV, I mean, I know everybody thinks I’m a grinder, but there’s a limit. I have a limit.”
DP: We all do. It’s like when I go home, the last thing I want to do is talk sports.
Saban: “Right, exactly. Even when we play a game. Like we’ll have all kinds of family come in for a game, and we’ll play the game in the afternoon and I get home at 8 o’clock at night after I do a TV show and a press conference and talk to a bunch of recruits and all kinds of stuff. And they’ll want to watch whatever game’s on at night, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to go in the other room and watch something else.’”
DP: Do you have a guilty pleasure now, TV-wise, during the coronavirus?
Saban: “Terry and I, we look for things on the Amazon, Netflix and all those things to try to find a series where we can watch like one episode here and one episode there, something that keeps your interest. To be honest with you, if this goes on much longer, we’re going to run out of things to watch.”
DP: You might be watching some old Alabama football games if that’s the case. You’re not doing “Tiger King,” are you? Have you seen that documentary?
Saban: “I hadn’t got there yet.”
The NFL Draft will take place Thursday through Saturday.
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