Nick Saban pleased with team’s focus as classes begin at Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Nick Saban doesn’t remember anything about his first day of college.

“Do you know how many years ago that was?” he responded when asked Wednesday.

Saban graduated from Kent State in 1973 and said the biggest moments he remembers about his academic career were the day his parents dropped him off at school and the shootings that took place on his college campus on May 4, 1970. Other than that, the Alabama head coach now associates the first day of classes with a lackluster performance at practice.

Was that the case as students flooded the Tuscaloosa campus on Wednesday?

“I told them last night, I said, ‘I know tomorrow is your first day of college – I’m talking about college, everybody. You’re going to college tomorrow,” Saban said. “So most of the time, that really impacts the quality of practice that we have, but that wasn’t the case today. They were focused in practice and they were ready to go. Maybe it’s online classes, I don’t know.”

The Crimson Tide has now held 17 preseason practices with three more to go before the first game week of the 2023 college football season. Alabama will practice Thursday, Friday and Saturday before taking Sunday off and turning its full attention to Middle Tennessee.

On Wednesday, Saban shared his message to the team following last Saturday’s second and final scrimmage, which marked the end of fall camp, as well as UA’s plans for the week.

“Now’s the time to get ready for the season,” Saban said. “Every practice is important, every game is important. You’ve got to get ready for the task at hand, develop the right habits. That leads to confidence, it leads to trust in teammates and togetherness on the team. Discipline, having the right mindset, having the right mental toughness to be able to sustain so that you can elevate your game.

“So instead of somebody else trying to motivate you, or something motivating you, how about you just focusing on what you need to do to get better so you can elevate your game without some external factor, whether somebody dogs you or whatever. I think it’s important you learn from your mistakes, and that’s the best opportunity you have to learn. This group’s been pretty good about it.

Saban continued, “This is always a challenging week, but the guys have done a really, really good job the last couple of days. We’re working on some issues and problems that may come up with some of our opponents during the season and we’ll probably start on the first game on Friday.”

Alabama will return to the field on Thursday, Aug. 24, for its 18th preseason practice.

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