The reason Nick Saban is the greatest coach of all time is that he has a superpower, and that superpower is the ability to conquer human nature.
You don't win seven national titles and keep coming back for more without removing complacency from your DNA, not only inside yourself but within everyone in your organization.
Saban's superpower manifests itself in his famous Process: a total devotion to focusing on what's self, to emphasizing what needs to be done that day and moment, to ignoring all outside factors, and to finding motivation from within, not in external factors.
None of this is new, of course, but Holly Rowe got Saban to talk about the Process in a way I hadn't heard before.
ESPN's top sideline reporter appeared on Saban's weekly radio show on Thursday night and asked Saban how his prior relationship with Steve Sarkisian might appear in the Xs and Os of Saturday night's game. I don't know, was Saban's immediate answer.
But his ultimate answer was something more profound. Saban is so devoted to the Process, he would go on to say, that he makes no effort to steal the other team's signals, and he wouldn't even want to know if the opposition was running or passing on a given play.
To Saban, knowledge of the next team's play took away from the ultimate objective, which is to focus on his own team and its preparation.
"When the players go out and play, it's really not about the coaches anymore. It's about the players. That's why I never, ever try to steal signals. I don't want to know what the other guys are doing, don't even tell me," he said.
"When I was a defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns we had a guy in the press box that always stole the signals of the other team. I told him I don't want to know. Don't tell me it's a run, don't tell me it's a pass, I don't even want to know. The players are going to play, we know what the situation is, and what we prepared them to play in this situation. So I don't even want to know because it just messes me up.
"When the game starts, it's really all about the players and their ability to execute. As a coach, your job is done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get them ready to do that... It's not about the coach or what I know or what he doesn't know or how he knows me. I don't really know what impact that has on the game."
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.