Saban tried to calm freshman nerves before opener
September 02, 2008
Alabama certainly looked cool, calm and collected while whipping Clemson 34-10 Saturday night in the season opener.
But minutes before his team — including the touted newcomers — executed almost flawlessly, Nick Saban wasn’t sure how his freshmen would perform.
“We really emphasized the fact that who you’re playing really doesn’t matter — not to disrespect the other team, that’s not the point — but it’s all about them and who they are and what they need to focus on to play their best football,” Saban said Monday. “And they need to get all the other stuff out of their mind, the crowd, I even said it before the game to some of them because we were dropping balls in pre-game warmups and our guys were catching it like I’ve never seen them trying to catch it before.
“I said, ‘Look guys, you need to re-center here. What do you want to do and what do you need to do to do it? That’s the thing you should be thinking about. Not the crowd, not the environment here, not the fact that we’re playing on the road, on the turf, in Atlanta. None of its matters. And it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing relative to what you need to do to be an effective player. And that’s what you guys need to center on and that’s what you need to focus on.’
“I’m sure some of them were still nervous but that’s what we tried to emphasize with them so that they didn’t feel like they had to go out and accomplish something because of expectations or anything else.”
