Nick Saban: A Football Life

foreign [Applause] Excellence Bama bludgeons the Buckeyes and Saban steps past Paul Bryant with his seventh national championship [Applause] all-time leader now in college football national championships he'll save her for about an hour and then think about 2021. the best day of your greatest leader [Music] I don't care what the situation in the game is there is no scoreboard [Music] so this room is our recruiting room and it is used exclusively for that you really need to come back when we're in the middle of a Saturday night recruiting party players do are not here these are the families the parents the grandparents of our recruits we have a piano we've got the pool table and you may not be able to see it from here but the highlight of the evening is our karaoke machine oh he's terrible [Laughter] but he can dance [Music] foreign if you've ridden in the car with him he blasts his music like a teenager I think it's uh something called Wagon Wheel [Music] to North Carolina snapshots can make a journey appear like it was all just simple fun but don't be fooled by the final shine diamonds Guinness coal formed and found and Polished over time [Music] he may not know but I had seen him from afar as a pop warner cheerleader and of course he was popcorner quarterback and I was selected by my little school to participate in science camp how he ended up there I don't know but I I still haven't figured out there he was the cute quarterback in science camp [Music] I think we sat on the bus together to the dairy farm yeah we did so that ended up officially being the first date dairy farm you know we were in a very growing up in a very isolated kind of coal mining community community my dad was a coal miner and um Nick and I are both first generation college first in our families to go to college I was around big Nick and I knew him as a business leader as owning the gas station in the community and the little Dairy Queen across the street and we knew him to be very demanding and a perfectionist but always kind-hearted always somebody that if you had trouble in the community you could go to Mr Nick and and he would he could solve problems for you look my dad had such an impact on Me growing up the importance of doing things the right way doing your best work ethic I mean so many things that I go back to working at my dad's service station I think also that my dad was a coach and that's where he was toughest on all of us he expected and demanded the best so the elements of all the things that I believe in as a coach were instilled in me when I was 10 years old playing Pop Warner football damn man you guys got no point and sometimes it seemed like nothing was ever good enough eight seconds to go in the game we gotta call timeout cause we got 12 guys the first coach to change Nick Saban's life was his father [Music] the next was his head football coach at Kent State [Music] I never grew up wanting to be a coach James Don James who was my college coach calls me in his office says I want you to be a graduate assistant and coach and I said coach why would I do that I don't want to go to graduate school you know I was tired of being poor we were you know and I wanted to get a job and do something Nick's father had the gas station and and Nick always worked in the gas station so that was something that that he considered was having a car dealership and and something that paralleled the gas station so he said but you know Miss Terry's got another year of school you promised your parents when they allowed you to get married that you'd both finish college so you know he kind of put me on the spot and and I agreed to do it after the first game of that season I realized how much I liked being a coach that it was a lot like playing I liked the competition I like the relationships and involvement with the players so call my dad I said you know this is really what I want to do and he was excited and happy that because I was you know like a lot of people when they're young you're not for sure what you want to do you know where am I going to fit into this world and you know I called my dad and I told him and it's the last conversation I had with my dad before he passed away obviously we were shocked because he was young and we thought he was fit he was jogging when he died I think his first concern was his mother who was home by herself he was uh self-employed with the service station a small restaurant that was going to be a difficult thing for my mom to be able to manage on her own I had worked there for years I could have done it and no one would really allow me to do it his mother and the women in the family said no you know we're so proud of what you're doing we we want you to continue on to have great parents and great family support I mean this is this is a tremendous example [Applause] this career as a coach would have never occurred had the family not been so supportive of allowing me to do what they felt I wanted to do rather than what they needed for me to do at the time standing on the shoulders of his home team in the hills of West Virginia Nick Saban returned to the Kent State coaching staff taking one more small step toward the football life he merely never had [Music] during that year I think he learned to love it and also the opportunities just kept coming you know do you want to be a ga and then you can help the coordinator and then you can be the coordinator and then you can be the assistant head coach and there was never a time where it just didn't roll us into that next opportunity so I often wonder if I hadn't had that one more year of college if he would exclusively be in the car business are you still playing like some three four stuff but mostly out of a lot of sink but different guys dropping and I'm going back to this all three four Nick Saban loves talking balls especially with an old pal like Bill Belichick and get the kids the pyramid in Annapolis where Saban and Belichick's father Steve worked on the Navy football staff by then bill was an NFL assistant already making a name for himself we got enough guys out there Bill used to come home in summertime to visit his parents and same age same young guys trying to come up in the business we just sort of naturally became friends Bill probably got my job for me at the Houston Oilers which was my first job in the NFL and then I went to Toledo as the head coach I'm proud there's hell of them they should be proud of themselves they've accomplished was there for one year Bill gets the Cleveland Browns head coaching job and he started calling me about coming to Cleveland to be the defensive coordinator for us [Music] difficult just [Music] lure of the NFL the timing of leaving Nick's first head coaching job and really feeling bad about letting people down there in Toledo it was tough and it just happened to be you know sometimes the Stations of life that you're in you know my kids were little so one of the most challenging times for Miss Terry with the kids if anyone else had called there would not have been a consideration because it was Bill made a lot of difference Nick was the first coach I hired and the best coach I hired Nick was really my number one partner there and I relied on him so heavily on every level if we don't play our ass off they'll beat us yeah I was the head coach at Cleveland but whatever success we had we wouldn't have achieved without him our 47th year and I still would say that stint with Bill was the toughest on us but you know I think that's what makes you a better person when you push yourself to beyond what you think is your limit and then from then on everything is just relative to that piece of cake ten seconds to play in this football game in 1994 we had a really really good team had a really good defensive team and had gotten offensively where we're very competitive and just did a really great job of rebuilding a program straight back in the pocket look End Zone they're going over check but he's not in he's down at the one-yard line it was one of the best experiences of my coaching career it's one of the most difficult but I learned a tremendous amount and it's really helped me probably more as much as anything in my career for the sabins relationships are the road map of life that's what steered them to Cleveland and then back to Michigan State where Nick had once been an assistant and where in 1994 he was offered the head coaching job it happened in the beginning of December when we had three or four games left to play and the playoffs I told the people at Michigan State I wanted to stay there and finish the year with this team I wasn't going to walk out if they hired me they were going to have to hire me with that understanding and they did you know in the Pro the players since you got one foot out the door they don't perform but I don't think there was ever any danger of that with Nick he's got one speed he's going to demand your best whether he's there for a day a season half season or a career the party is started as the Browns have won it 20 to 13. when you went to Michigan State I wish the transitions could be as smooth as that one was and and I certainly appreciate you know the job you did to finish the year in 94. I really wanted to do it because I felt it was what I owed the players if it wasn't for the players I would have never got the opportunity coming up it's unfair to your family in a lot of ways moments when things aren't going so well and everybody could suffer for it [Music] [Applause] [Music] and the long history of Michigan State football no head coach has ever beaten the Michigan Wolverines in his very first try while that streak has now come to an end Nick congratulations well we're very pleased for all the people that associate with Michigan State but Nick Saban took over at Michigan State in 1995. [Music] before long the winds got bigger and the scrutiny on him more intense [Music] after we went to Michigan State Nicholas he was now playing Junior High basketball all right so I got to go to a few games but I get to go to this game and he makes a breakaway layup and the guy follows him and knocks him up into the wall and he gets up and says something and he got technical foul so you know I'm gonna sit him down and do the best version of how you got to keep your cool how you got to keep your temper and he just sat there and looked at me and listened and listened and listened and then he says by the way Dad how many headsets did you break this year foreign [Music] I've got a little better at that I think I only broke one this year damn it I I've always loved what I do I I've always my guilt comes from how it affects other people it's an all or nothing profession if you're a competitor during football season you can't go out to eat you don't see a movie you don't do anything right it's not very family friendly as the season is in the thick of the season with the stress and the tension there will be little things that will happen in the family that I'll want to share with him but I'll make the Judgment call that it's not appropriate to talk to him about it right now it's not worth bringing it up it's really trite compared to what else is happening in our lives but then when things settle down he might get his feelings hurt and say why didn't you tell me that why didn't you share that with me but at the time it just wasn't the right thing to do he did miss out on a lot of Life events of his kids growing up but especially when we were young that really helped us be closer me my mom my brother like when I was in high school we had senior night and I was a cheerleader and my dad was traveling I think he was recruiting and so it was obviously really disappointing that he couldn't be there to walk me out onto the field for the announcement of the senior cheerleaders my brother actually filled in for my dad so little moments like that it really means a lot the hardest thing that I've ever had to do professionally was to get in front of my team today at Michigan State and tell them that I was going to no longer be their coach After Five Seasons at Michigan State the sabans accepted LSU's offer for Nick to become the Tigers head coach probably at LSU when he was starting to have more success there were more like fans of him more than they were in the very beginning being in a kind of family like that you're thrown into a limelight whether you like it or not I think it was our first year at LSU and we lost a UAB like the last second field goal time Runs Out and the Blazers have pulled off a big upset here tonight and I remember they put for sale signs in our yard threw some eggs and things like that uh just remember thinking gosh that's kind of crazy just over a football game but growing older I've actually just learned how to deal with it you have to block out the noise people like that they have their own things going on their lives you can all you can do is just pray for them and just blow it off I've grown up with football and I love the sport but I take it with a grain of salt if you lose one game it's not the end of the world just enjoy the game enjoy the little things enjoy beating you know Duke 42-3 it's a good thing in his second season Saban LED LSU to its first outright SEC title since 1986. two years later he took the Tigers to a higher level head coach Nick Saban as ranked hello First National Championship out of college we were nervous and so that night I'd give him a lucky penny I said dad this could make it or break it so if it works we'll make it a tradition and if not we'll just forget it ever happened because we're very superstitious [Music] [Applause] interception ever since then he's like okay we got to keep this going so it has not stopped since lucky pennies and national titles both family traditions began in Baton Rouge but no prize could distract the sabins from the next challenge [Applause] [Music] if we we could have stayed and done exactly what we did here and then he ripped back in in the States but at the time he's still young and ambitious and we had another opportunity Wayne heisinger who's a wonderful man was a wonderful owner tempted us with some wonderful things mostly just his control of the organization and all of that but um that's how that story ended and he ended up in Miami follow the dolphins all season long on NFL Network there's nobody I respect more in football than than Nick Saban I don't think there's anybody that's that's a better Coach than Nick Saban because Nick can he does everything well these guys ain't even getting lined up yeah to be able to do it twice in terms of national championships but he had great success at Michigan State as well and would have had a lot of success in Miami had he stayed there I have no doubt about that when we talked to Saban he said Bill did say I wish you weren't coming into the AFC East life gets tougher when he's there that's for sure twice a year it was interesting when coach Damon came in because he you know he kind of brought that's what I'm talking about good job a little bit of a college mentality a little more a lot more yelling we got Auburn LSU in Florida represent represent whoa what's all this screaming and Coach is always frowning so don't come out here with the poor meat all right poor meat my ass hurts poor meat my ham hurts poor me this when you hit the field and you walk across the line that's all over Nick Saban had a vision for what every player could be no matter what or where the player had been before I had been a 4-3 guy for I guess seven years at that point when he came in had been in the Pro Bowl several times in a row and I'm like I don't want to change from a 4-3 DN to stand up three four backer now I remember when you went there and I talked to Jason he's like I don't know about this 34. like 34 you're gonna be the best defense for you he's like you could do so much more on the football field than what you do Nick's a genius like just trust him and go with it and then I remember I was taking that trip to the Keys and Coach Steven wanted to talk we ended up getting on the phone he was like fix some of the names of people Kevin greens to the Lawrence Taylor's Greg Lloyd I mean all the guys that have stood up in this 3-4 system and an hour later by the time we got done I was ready to turn the turn the boat around come back and start practicing this is like in March or April he sold me on it and he expanded my horizons of learning the game of football Jason Taylor that is a pro ball play right there uh it was definitely life and career changing for me in a lot of ways you have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations that's another great thing I learned from coach statement perhaps the most challenging conversations of Nick Saban's time in Miami began in December 2006 when the University of Alabama fired its head football coach and began to pursue Saban it's flattering that somebody would consider you for anything but it's also disappointing that when you're trying your very best to do the best you can for your team that it becomes a distraction or anybody would even ask about it it's certainly not a distraction to me there was a lot of pushback in the beginning I don't think he wanted to go I've stated what my intentions are and they really haven't changed so I don't I don't know what the issue is and I don't know why people keep asking about it what they talk about over there is their business but what's Happening Here is my business and our business and that's what we're focused on and that's what I'm committed to doing I don't know how else I can say it guys I've said it three different occasions I don't know how else I can say it I don't know why you keep asking the famous television Mark of him is on TV saying I'm not going to be the Alabama coach what what I shouldn't even have to comment on this I think I've said this over and over and over again it's because we have to say he's got 65 guys sitting in the meeting room he's trying to lead for the next month why did you ultimately choose to leave Miami and come here well I think we had a chance to fix the quarterback situation you know the year before Drew Brees was a free agent we were in the mix to get him and I think when that didn't work out I was like you know we've worked our tail off and because of this one position that we have not been able to solve I just felt like I couldn't control my own destiny I was not particularly happy there you know the head coach's wife and family in the NFL Your Role is a lot different than it is in college helping with recruiting and alumni and helping with donors and raising money for this and that and Community involvement just a lot more involvement in college you know having the opportunity to come back to Alabama which was some place you could win in college football which maybe that opportunity doesn't come um I just said you know maybe maybe it might be a a better path and it certainly has worked out well uh as you know Nick Saban has decided not to return to the Dolphins um you know it's uh it is what it is but um I met with Nick at his home this morning with his wife Terry and Nick you know I said there's a lot of reasons why decisions get made in life but the net is that uh he's not coming back he'll be leaving this afternoon going to Alabama we loved Wayne and um he was in our living room when we made decision we were all crying we were all crying when the decision was made are you upset about the way Nick Saban handled this over the last couple weeks well I you know no I the answer is no I'm not upset because it's more involved than what you think Joe and and I've been through this with Nick for quite some time now and I I feel I feel the pain and so forth and so on of Nick and Tyrion and it's not a very simple thing and before I introduce the coach I would like to take just a moment and introduce his family and certainly and introducing Terry to say to you how important she was in the decision that was made by the coach she loves college football and long to be back in it so does coach Saban the Terry Saban was the one that made me feel good when I called her Terry would you please stand and by the way on the subject of money I wasn't going to bring this up but seeing as you did it Nick never talked to me about money he never talked to me about an extension you never asked me for anything because I honestly believe this was not about money do you feel like he disrespected the Dolphins organization or their fans and is there anything you'd like to say to them well I think that the two years I was in Miami that I affected the team in a positive way maybe could crack a smile now but hey and it was premature to not stay there all right but if I knew and Wayne and I talked about this that my heart was to go back to college I don't think it would have been fair to the organization if I stayed more power to them you know if you don't if you don't want to if you don't like a job or you want to make a change or whatever this is America man we're playing sports professional sports like you know it's not we're not it's not rocket science we're not supplying fresh water to somewhere else across the world like this we're playing sports if you want to make a change make a change our forever love Nick Saban for what he did for me and really for the team as a whole in Miami I know people give them a hard time about it but we didn't do anything but make a decision was best for he and his family and go to Alabama and change a bunch of kids lives in a program's life and he changed a lot of lives down here some will say for the worse and others that can step back a little bit and be truthful and say for the better to me he's he's one of God's gifts of football so certainly one of the best days in my coaching career was that you took the Alabama Job got out of Miami I don't believe that I do making the players feel comfortable getting them to focus on um the things that are process oriented rather than the results you know you've heard me say this a hundred times before outcomes are a distraction focusing on the process of what you have to do to get the outcome is the most important thing you need to do Nick Saban says it a lot because he lived it a lot it's all part of the process one of Nick Saban's favorite phrases it's less about the Victory lap than the extra laps that produce the victory [Music] we were dating in high school and when he was quarterback the whole County thought they were wonderful and they were winning all their games and I might come to the house afterwards and actually sit down at the table when his father would would start evaluating I might Slither out of the room because it did come across as you we could be better you could have been better you know I think that was the beginning though of learning that it wasn't just about winning or losing the game that there was a process there was a value placed on how you played the game and the most difficult thing that I have to deal with is to get people after we win to have the same kind of commitment to improving and changing look guys if women to win good plays in the game all right but we made a lot of bad boys that's that I hate to being negative guys but that's as bad as we've ever played on special teams I have this field goal everybody remembers the Bluegrass Miracle 75-yard tipped Hail Mary pass that we win the game I don't even remember the score touch touch the shoe but they don't remember that the next week was the worst beating we ever had and all the time that I was at LSU and I contribute the fact that we played poorly against Kentucky we won the game on a lucky play and no one was really ready to acknowledge the fact that we didn't really play that well ready coaches and players alike they were all relieved we won the game why are you getting honest coach why do we need to work hard why do we need to practice more well because we're not really heading in the right direction and we need to change no money was rolling the change before I-74 all of Saban's players have heard about the process but as much as anyone quarterback Tua tungabaloa lived it during his freshman season when he was the backup to Jalen hurts you know all season long we wanted to get to as much experience as he could not because we want him to beat out Salem but we really wanted him to be in a position to be able to go win a game if Jada never got injured or even wasn't playing well I mean we were ahead of Tennessee and we put him in the game and the first series he was in there he threw a pick six left him in the game you know you got to learn how to play you know go play so I knew going into the game against Georgia this was one of the best front sevens we played against it's going to be really hard to run the ball against these guys we're going to have to make plays in a passing game and if we struggle throwing the ball we may have to make this change well we're behind 13 nothing at halftime and I just said we've got great skill guys on offense and we're not utilizing them at all if we're gonna have a chance to win this game we need to give this guy a chance [Music] [Applause] it wasn't like an emotional in the moment decision it was calculated based on a progression through the season and an improvement of a young player knowing his skill set versus knowing what we needed to do to win the game it wasn't working all right so we needed something to change that [Applause] doing stepping down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it might have been Saban's greatest coaching job a testament to the power of focusing on small steps rather than distant goals and a demonstration that the process is really about people Nick Saban knows him it hurts better than anybody he knows how jayla's going to react he knows that jayla's a team guy right now and he's coming in to try to help out he knows all those personalities and how they mesh because he's got his thumb on everything the proof was in the next season's SEC title game when Tunga by Loa was injured the quarterback he'd once replaced was ready willing and able to step in [Music] service [Music] we've always had a lot of faith in Jalen and you know I told him when we put him in when two I got hurt it's your time and he certainly took advantage of it did a fantastic job I'm so proud of this guy for what he's done this year I can't even tell you coming up maintaining it once you get it to that level it's so much more difficult and you know so you have to have a different mindset is remember why we're here we're planning to get in a state championship when I was a sophomore and I called the police as a quarterback we got behind in a game 18 and nothing we came back made it 1812. we're going two minute at the end of the game so fourth and 12th we're on about the 20 yard line going into score my high school coach he calls the last time out so I run over to the sidelines he called me young Nikki all the time he said young Nikki what do you think I think I think you should call this place and he said look you got a left half back that's the fastest guy in the state you got a three-time all-state guy playing split in it's called a play that one of those two guys get the ball so I called 26 Crossfire pass so it's a left-half back plate to him to the Post Corner of the X 25-yard touchdown and we won the game 1918. but after the game he told me this he says it really doesn't make any difference what plays you call sometimes it's what players you have doing it [Music] Nick Saban has consistently identified and developed football's best players the first college head coach to produce a first-round NFL draft choice at every offensive and defensive position [Music] wide receiver Alabama Saban also holds the record for the most total first rounders produced by a college head coach 2021 alone the Crimson Tide had six of the NFL's 32 first-round picks Al Alex Linwood Alabama it's no wonder Saban has won seven national titles the most by any coach in history talk for a moment about what it would mean to your father right now to know that his young son has won national championships well I think my father would be proud of the players that's what I think and you know Nick's father was kind of bigger than life and so many times we'd say wish your Dad we're here to see this because I feel like he had something to do with that and we always end it by saying he can he can see it big Nick's Legacy lives on through Nick Saban's football teams but also at the Birmingham car dealership that Nicholas helps operate turns out the Saban's Football Life LED them back to the original family business thanks in part to a philosophy born at the service station the biggest thing with the process that he taught me from an early age on is you know not not looking at the scoreboard not being result oriented sometimes all people do is look at the scoreboard but yeah it's how you play the game how you compete in the game how smart you play how you execute that is going to make a difference we've tried to implement the process at our dealership in the same light you know it's not about selling 100 new cars in a month winning that's the best or any of those accolades you can win it's about making this one customer happy and if you can make this one customer happy today then go on to the next one you'll reach your goals it's not okay to go out there and not do your job well I don't care what the situation in the game is there is no scoreboard listen I'm a dork I go to the gym I YouTube Saving speeches we're going to try to win the game and we're going to play the best players that we can play to win the game and we're not assuming that it's going to be an easy game I and we're not assuming that we'll have opportunity just to play anybody that wants to play to expedite anything except winning the game so we're going to play everybody who can expedite winning the game that's what that's what we're going to do so I don't think anybody should expect us to do anything else I love it and you always pick up something do it and you practice it until you can get it wrong not till you get it right so you can't get it wrong people sit at the later probably like what's he listening to and I'm thinking I'm listening to some Kevin Hart or whatever it's Nick Saban you guys are getting me fired up you better be careful you might want to just pass that thing on down the road you can tell over the years he's gotten a little bit less and less uh intense um in the media I I know one right because he still is very intense I shouldn't say you know all that stuff you write about how good we are and all that stuff they hear on ESPN it's like poison you know what I mean it's like taking poison like rat poison all right so I'm asking them that guy you see on that's fiery on TV that's not the guy that calls me every night if I don't get them I get the same message every time Nick fan just calling love you bye that's it called me every night well I've always had to take the theory with your children that I'm not always going to be there so it's always been a challenge to me that when I'm there it's got to be special it's got to be good it's got to be and we really do try to make things like Kristen and I watch the OC every Thursday I get home I try to get home by eight o'clock so that we can watch from eight to nine because that's a favorite show of hers and that really during football season that hour is almost the only thing that we do together unless she rides home with me after the games so um for all the things that I missed which are more than I'm proud to see you know to be there to see how happy you know Kristen and Adam were that's about as special as it gets and um I'll never forget that I just feel really fortunate that I was able to do that with him given what he does and how absent he is sometimes that wedding that's my moment and no one else has that so in a marriage you can't really keep the score at the end of every year so how do you tell whether you've been successful in your marriage for instance I don't think it's any different I mean if you walk into our home those rewards were not the important thing those trophies but it was the process itself the struggles of getting there that our our best memories I I think the marriage is the same way but I tell you what to have a understanding and supporting wife which Miss Terry has always been that's really really important because if you work like this and you come home and you're getting dogged every day because you're not doing this or that you know that makes it almost intolerable because you feel guilty to start with all right so now you're getting it shoveled on and that is really tough I spent quite a bit of time there myself foreign [Music] West Virginia to Sweet Home Alabama the places and victory songs have changed but through every note the savings have stayed in sync coming home from every away game of course I travel with Nick and when we come home to the airport he and I are in the car and we blast Rolling Stones Give Me Shelter win or lose I'll only win only win no things are very quiet if we lose [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I don't know how people see him now it's not his personality to care I probably don't care you know for him but um I think he's kind of proven himself [Music]

Channel: Nathan Starszak

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Id: vvyzNSQ9b8E

Length: 43min 3sec (2583 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2022