Saban’s comments create controversy
Ken Rogers/Dothan Eagle
TUSCALOOSA — If you expected national fallout following Nick Saban’s comments in his Monday press conference, Tuesday held little suspense.
It started with a mention on morning sports talk shows and quickly mushroomed, leading SportsCenter late in the afternoon and being a topic on PTI.
Dan Lebatard, a Miami reporter who, uh, is no fan of Saban, and Michael Wilbon reviewed a selection of Saban’s rants. His press conference included mentions of the spirit of unity in the aftermath of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, alcoholics hitting rock bottom, and an inspired effort accusing the media of putting wins ahead of “doing the right thing.”
“He’s a dope. How is that for a reaction?” Lebatard said. “You have his spokesperson or a university spokesperson coming out now and saying, ‘Well he didn’t mean to connect it — a loss, a football game, to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.’ Well, what do you mean he didn’t mean to? He just did it! He’s a grown man. He talks for a living and he said it. I don’t know what Nick Saban is doing.”
Then it was Wilbon’s turn.
“Dan, he is like a sick conversion of a coach. He is a stereotypic, self-absorbed coach who has little sensitivity, if any, and little awareness of anything else that doesn’t happen in the compound. ...
“This is what Nick Saban is not: He is not a stupid man. He is a very bright guy, or at least it seems that way. Yet, to make these comments, to go on, like a paragraph form and talk about this stuff. Because you want to start screaming at him from the back of the room, ‘Hey, shut up! Do you know what you are saying? Do you have any sense of what you are doing?’”
They continued for several minutes before, of course, turning it back on the way he left Miami for Alabama.
“Why wouldn’t he just come out and say, ‘I blew it. That wasn’t a very smart thing to say,’” Lebatard said.
“When does he do that?” Wilbon asked. “When he lied repeatedly last year, he never said he blew it then. He doesn’t do it Dan.”
“He preaches accountability; that’s real easy when you demand it of others,” Lebatard said.
Wilbon responded, “Preaches it, doesn’t practice it.”
Alabama safety Rashad Johnson said he didn’t understand people taking Saban’s comments the wrong way.
“First of all I think it’s getting blown a little bit too much out of proportion,” Johnson said. “When it was brought up to us, he was basically having a speech about adversity. It is an adverse time right now and (he was) just giving us examples.”
Johnson said the story has spread.
“I mean just every newspaper you look in it’s there,” he said. “I got a couple of texts, it’s on ESPN, stuff like that.”
Grant on mend: Terry Grant said he’s been slowed by a sore hip since the Ole Miss game, an injury he said has made it tough to cut as sharply as he would like.
“It’s throwing my timing all off,’ Grant said. “I’m just trying to play through it. It’s like a nagging pain, all through my hip.”
Grant said he notices it most when he’s cutting.
“I haven’t been pressing the hole like I’m supposed to because I’m worrying about having to break down and cut,” he said. “I’m used to cutting on a dime. Now, I’m having to break down way before the hole to make the cut.”
Grant said the return of Glen Coffee, suspended with four others in the textbook investigation, comes at a good time.
“He can step back in,” Grant said. “He’s been practicing hard with the scout team. I don’t think he’s slowed down a bit.”
Practice picks up: It must be Auburn week. Several players noticed a sense of urgency and better focus early in the week.
“It’s like everybody’s wanting to practice instead of having to practice,” tight end Nick Walker said.
“Yesterday was a great practice and today was an even better practice, so we are just building every day and guys are starting to do the little things right,” Johnson said.
