During the course of the off season, Nick Saban opened up with the media and shared that, while the media may think they're using his comments for content, he's also flipping the table on occasion by sometimes using the media to share important messages with his players.
Remember Saban's "rat poison" comment back in October 2017? Safe to say that probably falls in the "sending message to players" category.
That confession sparked me to look at times that Saban is at the podium in a slightly different light. While a lot of coaches send their most important messages during meeting times or pre or post practice, Saban chooses to sometimes use the media to spread his message to everyone, including his players.
We get a really good look at that approach in the clip below, where Saban talks about
"In football, even when circumstances get difficult, one of the terms that I came up with is 'run hard when it's hard to run.' I think some of the younger guys on the team, when it's hot and you get tired, they're not used to that many reps," Saban shared.
"One of the things we're really trying to establish is, for me, everything starts with discipline. I don't care if it's how you do flex, I don't care if it's how you run across the field, how you do karaoke, how you do high knee pumps, how you do up downs, if you don't respect that enough to do it right when you know that's the right way to do it, how are you going to be trusted in the game to do what you're supposed to do."
"Discipline is a part of your mindset and who you are. So it's how you live your life. It's how you do everything that you do - whether it's how you focus in a meeting or get ready to practice, or how you sustain practice and make the right choices and decisions."
"It goes back to, what are you willing to accept? Not really what you say, and it's not even what you do sometimes, it's what are you willing to accept from yourself, and what are you willing to accept from your teammates."
"If you don't do things right all the time, at a high standard, you watch someone else celebrate."
Hear more from Saban in the clip.