Nick Saban reveals his keys to helping players avoid complacency

If there’s one thing Nick Saban won’t tolerate at Alabama, it’s complacency. He makes it clear week in and week out that he wants his players to focus on getting better even after playing well.

During his radio show Thursday night, he shared some of his keys to making sure the Crimson Tide players don’t let off the gas.

One of Saban’s biggest mantras at Alabama for his players to have a “sense of purpose” in what they do. That’s a big reason why he doesn’t want them settling to just simply be good enough. It also shows in the conversations he has with them when it comes time to reflect and get better.

“I think sometimes, people who aren’t motivated don’t have a sense of purpose,” Saban said on Hey Coach and The Nick Saban Show. “So if you ask them what their goals and aspirations are and what they really want to accomplish and what they want to do, and they tell you and therefore, they have goals and aspirations. And then, you can sit down and say, ‘Do you know what that entails?’ So do you know what you need to do and what you need to be doing every day to be able to go be a doctor or whatever, get in Georgetown. Whatever you want to accomplish and what you want to do. It could be go to college and play college football. I mean, whatever it is. But then, what does that entail, aight?

“So now, you can lay out a process for them of things that they need to do, and then evaluate every day, are they editing their behavior to be able to do that? In other words, you could just ask him. Sometimes, I just ask the player, ‘Are you satisfied with — you said you wanted to do this, this, this and this, and these are your goals and we laid down the things that you’re doing. How do you think you’re doing?’ If he says, ‘I think I’m doing okay,’ I’ll say, ‘Why?’ And he tells me what he’s doing to make everything okay. If he says he’s not, I say, ‘Why?’ And he tells me everything he’s not doing. Missing class, not turning in assignments on time or whatever, aight? So he’s learning how to self assess.”

Nick Saban: Players need ‘discipline to execute … the kind of choices’ to achieve their sense of purpose

With that self-assessment, Saban said, players have the ability to change what they’re doing to help achieve their goals. That level of reflection is critical to making sure they’re not getting complacent and working to fulfill their “sense of purpose.”

In this case, Saban also tries to put the focus on the player rather than helping the team or looking through too wide of a lens.

“Ultimately, they have to have discipline to execute every day to make the kind of choices and decisions to do it,” Saban said. “But they’re not going to do that unless they have a sense of purpose. And then, you can always go back and reflect to them, ‘You told me that you wanted to graduate. How is this behavior helping you graduate? Because we laid out, this is what you have to do to be able to graduate.’ I mean, it could be anything that they choose. But then, you can always say how is this behavior helping you accomplish the goals that you have? And how do we need to change it? And get them to self-assess about here’s my goal, are you doing the things you need to do to accomplish the goal and ask them how they’re satisfied with the progress they’re making.

“So that’s kind of how I try to do it and make it about them. Not do it for me or do it for Alabama or do it for your teammates. Because everybody’s self-absorbed. Everybody’s got that, ‘What about me?’ in them, aight? So make it about them, and I think you’ll see a little better motivation.”

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