Brother: Can’t see me leaving Alabama
Nick Saban, Class
of 1969, who won the 1968 state football title for Monongah High as the
quarterback and one national title at Louisiana State University and three more
at Alabama, says “I don’t see it ever happening” that he would leave Alabama
for another school.
Brother is going
after a fifth national title, which would put him up there with the legends
like Bear Bryan, starting with Michigan State on New Year’s Eve in the Cotton
Bowl. The winner of that game plays the survivor of the Orange Bowl between
Oklahoma and Clemson for the national title.
The ESPN story
about Brother:
Nick
Saban on leaving Alabama: 'I don't see it ever happening'
Chris Low ESPN Senior
Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Nick Saban, who has already won three
national championships at Alabama and is seeking
another in this year's College Football Playoff, has become accustomed to
chatter that he may seek a new coaching challenge, but reiterated this week
that he doesn't see himself coaching anywhere else before retiring.
"No, I really don't. I don't see it ever happening, and I
know every year somebody has me going somewhere else," Saban told ESPN.com
in a wide-ranging interview. "I think a lot of it isn't just about the
coaching part. What people don't understand is they forget you're a person.
They forget you have a wife and two kids and a grandbaby, and they all live in
Birmingham.
"They all work here. My wife goes to Birmingham five times
a week. My mom lives in Birmingham now after moving from Myrtle Beach. It's not
just the job. A lot of people don't get that. My life is here."
Alabama takes on Michigan State on New
Year's Eve in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Saban has either won a national
title or coached the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff five of the
past seven years. Alabama also repeated this season as SEC champion, the first
time in 17 years that the league has produced a repeat champion. But when the
Tide won the SEC title a year ago and then lost to Ohio State in the playoff,
much of the narrative surrounding Alabama was that the program might be showing
some signs of vulnerability, especially when it lost at home this season in
Week 3 to Ole Miss.
Such gaudy expectations can take their toll on even somebody as
driven as Saban, but not to the point that he is looking for new coaching
horizons.
"I guess I don't really think about it that way," said
Saban, who is 35-5 in his past 40 games against SEC competition. "If
anything, it's trying to always be able to overcome the obstacles to continue
to be that successful. That's what is always on my mind, knowing what it's
going to take, whether it's in recruiting, staff or internal attitude and
chemistry, to be able to accomplish what we all want to accomplish.
"But I know a day is coming where that standard can't be
met. You cannot keep that up. There's going to be some period of time ... where
you're not at that level. If you look at every coach's record, it's just not
possible to sustain that level of success all the time."
Saban has been heartened by the way this team has handled its
business leading up to the Michigan State game.
"The biggest difference in this team and the last two years
is this team seems to have a little more want-to about them," Saban said.
"They want to be great. Some of our teams here have been complacent --
like last year, I was disappointed in the way we prepared for the Ohio State
game. We had too many people not happy at the Sugar Bowl about having to
practice and doing what we had to do. It was a little bit of a grind. These
guys don't look at it that way. They're excited to be in the playoff. They're
excited to still be playing.
"The attitude part, I like a lot better. There's a better
disposition. That doesn't mean we're going to play well in the game or anything
else, but there's a better disposition and we're going about it the right
way."
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