Shortly after the 2023 college football season came to a close, the shocking news broke that legendary head coach Nick Saban would be retiring from coaching. He is still staying around the game as an advocate for players and the sport, a media member (who would have guessed?) and an advisor to the Alabama football program.
Since retiring, he has been vocal about the state of college football and has recently been talking about what happened within the Crimson Tide program over the last year. Most notably he discussed the poor attitude Alabama players exhibited after losing to Michigan in the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal.
He made clear that the attitude of the players was not the reason he retired, but it played a role. As Saban explained to ESPN’s Chris Low, building and maintaining relationships was one of his favorite parts of coaching, and he felt like his messages were no longer resonating with players, which, in turn, meant that the long-lasting relationships were getting harder to build.
With the recent mass changes college football has experienced, such as name, image, likeness policies and the transfer portal being more accessible, Saban felt like coaching, in general, took a hit.
“The thing I loved about coaching the most was the relationships that you had with players, and those things didn’t seem to have the same meaning as they once did,” said Saban.
After the 2023 season came to an end, Saban met with many Alabama players in a short period of time, and the topic of conversation revolved around things that the seven-time national champion did not appreciate: playing time demands and NIL deals.
“I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I’m going…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nick-saban-recounts-players-nil-221631490.html
Author : Roll Tide Wire
Publish date : 2024-03-07 22:16:31
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