Nick Saban Quotations

What makes Freddy Krueger such a horrible character? What makes him scare you to death? You can't get rid of the guy. He never goes away.

Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people.

One thing about championship teams is that they're resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.

I don't think I'm complicated at all. I'm not political, and I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and I don't say bad things about people. There is no agenda. There's no trying to fool somebody.

I think I'm pretty misunderstood, because I'm not just about football.

When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whether it's make good grades in school, be a good athlete, be a good person, go down and do some community service and help somebody who's in need, whatever it is you choose to do, you're investing your time in that.

Soccer is a continuous game, rugby is a continuous game, but for the physical elements that are involved in playing a football game and the number of plays that you play, I don't know that it was ever intended to be a continuous game.

I don't know that there's any particular scientific evidence that you could say, more guys get hurt in this offense versus that one, or hurry-up, or whatever, but everything that we've ever done in the NCAA is about exposure. How many exposures does a player get?

Now, everybody always says there's no 'I' in team, but there is an 'I' in win, because the individuals make the team what it is, and how they think and what they do is important to the team. So when you act like the individual is not important, well, it is damn important who these people are and what they are.

College football is the only game in the country, of any kind, that the college game is longer than the pro game.

One of the most difficult parts of my job is having to release players, and the past week has emphasized this fact. This is especially true when those players made significant contributions to the success of the team in the past. Ideally, we would like to keep many of those players on our roster, but we are simply not able to do that.

I would be a little disappointed for our players (if a blackout occurs). These guys have worked hard, and we have done a lot to try to make the team better.

I would have liked to determine it a month ago or two weeks ago. I would like to determine it. I don't have a problem with determining it. We are trying to determine it. But we don't want to upset the apple cart of what we are trying to accomplish with the development of both of these players by trying to determine something that is not ready to be determined.

I wish there was some big, like, deal about what happened today, ... But Ricky's been coming here. He's been going to meetings every day. He's been allowed to work out every day. He just has not practiced with the team.

I wish there was some big, like, deal about what happened today. But Ricky's been coming here. He's been going to meetings every day. He's been allowed to work out every day. He just has not practiced with the team.

If we don't have an agreement this year, obviously it's going to affect the cap in an adverse way in terms of what's available to spend on players.

I was pleased with the way Sage played,

Nobody in this room, with all of our power and might put together, can have anything to do with where it goes. What we can try to do is have something to do with preparing for the game and doing our job well and having pride in the performance of what we have to do.

When I call up (Carolina coach) John Fox and tell him what we are going to do, then I'll let you guys know,

Maybe this guy (Denney) won't mess up twice in a year after he's done it in 10 years, ... But if we were to cut this guy, he would have gotten claimed. And if you watch him snap you would feel the same way. We're not going to second-guess anything that we did.

Nobody has a crystal ball. Nobody can make a prediction. But based on history, the guy is making good progress to come back. ... And as you see his progress being made, it doesn't become a leap of faith to determine whether the guy can come back.

Nobody wishes that anybody has to go through what one of our colleagues is having to go through right now relative to his loss in this holiday season.

Philosophically, I don't there's a lot of difference in terms of what we like to do. His knowledge of the league and being able to define things internally in the organization, so you have everybody on the same page, are probably his greatest assets. That and recognition of what people can do - the strength of players, coaches and people in the organization - and putting them in position where they can have success doing it.

Philosophically, they want to establish the run, ... The most important aspect in the game was we stopped the run early.

Richard is an outstanding coach who has been in the NFL for 17 years. I coached with him in Houston and have always thought he was one of the best coaches I've had the chance to work with.

Ricky did a fantastic job for us this year. If someone said, 'Who have you enjoyed coaching the most in all my years of football,' he'd be one of the top guys I've ever been around.

Nobody ever said this team wasn't tough. Look at that, it took two teams to eliminate us from the playoffs.

My focus is on trying to get our players in the best position we can to have an opportunity to be successful. The other stuff is pretty minor.

My last conversation was awhile back and was really about our heritage, trying to figure out where we came from and what we did,

I don't know. He doesn't know. Nobody knows.

If we just didn't do that kind of stuff, we wouldn't have to worry about it.

I don't feel like we have enough depth. Lance has certainly made a lot of improvement. He is a veteran player that's starting to feel more comfortable in the system. He did make a couple of good plays in this game.

I don't know that tradition has ever won or lost a game. As far as I can tell, the field they have up there is 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep. They'll play 11. We'll play 11. The game will be decided on who does the best job of blocking and tackling and dominating the guys they play against.

If we're going to do that, we should have had a press conference for the other three guys we signed, too. So how do we choose who has a press conference and who doesn't?

If we can get all of the guys to play as well as they are capable of playing, we could have a good football team,

If we can get it worked out, maybe he will have the opportunity to play. If he can't, we will have his services later.

Last year was a mountain climb -- we were fortunate to be able to plant the flag at the top of the mountain and win the national championship, ... This year, we have won zero games. We are at base camp at the bottom of the mountain looking up at the climb. And it will be very difficult.

There are lots of players who have had this injury. There are lots of players who come back and play from this injury, and they actually come back to full mobility and full speed.

There are times when we are getting an outstanding performance from the running back. There are times when we are getting a hat on a hat to finish a block. We just have to do it more consistently. ... It's just a matter of execution on a more consistent basis from the entire unit.

We need to make sure we have an adequate backup at that position. We're trying to work through that right now, either with the players we have on our team or some who are available in free agency.

Maybe we can create some problems and issues for teams by doing that.

Olindo has had a fantastic camp. He has made a much higher percentage of his kicks than what our standard would be.

I wouldn't say that he has been demoted. The way I'd rather say it is that Sage Rosenfels has earned, through his efforts and consistency and performance through this preseason, the opportunity to compete for the number two position, and he's been put in a position to do that. I don't think anybody has been demoted.

I would stop short of saying that Ronnie was 100 percent, but he did do everything in practice. Those decisions will be made on a day-to-day basis.

I would say that if Jason Taylor had played in a 3-4 system somewhere, he would have been a Hall of Fame outside linebacker. There is no question about that based on the athletic ability the guy has. He's smart and he's got great instincts to learn things better than I ever hoped for. It gives us an opportunity to move him around and use him in a lot of different ways.

I would think in all probability it would be someone else other than Matt because he hasn't been able to do it to this point.

Guys, let's get off this starting quarterback thing.

There are still lessons to learn from this game. I'm very proud of what this team was able to do down the stretch. We're not in the playoffs, but it wasn't all in vein.

He is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and probably the best quarterback in the SEC. He makes good choices and decisions; they only have one turnover all year. ... He doesn't make a lot of bad plays.

He is respected throughout the league and has a strong background in player personnel,

Ideally, we would like to keep many of those players on our roster, but we are simply not able to do that.

I am surprised that I keep getting asked the same questions that I have been asked for the last six months and I keep answering them the same way,

I am so happy for Ricky. He has played a great role for this team all year. He has been unselfish and has been a really good team guy.

I can't sit here and say that our players aren't as good as their players. I feel terribly that we didn't get the result that we wanted.

I don't think anybody goes out there not knowing what to do, ... I don't think anybody doesn't know they didn't do it right after it happens. I just think that you are talking about a lot of different multiples and adjustments that have to occur. They happen quickly in the game and I think the more repetition you get on things like that, the more confidence the players gain in their ability to adjust.

From an intangible standpoint, it's about things like effort, mental toughness, the ability to stay focused and execute, and be a little relentless in the way you try to go about your work, ... We're gladiators out there. We're modern-day gladiators and that mental toughness has got to permeate your team.

If Williams were committed to coming back and being a productive player, ... ... well, I've discussed this with some of the leaders of the team, and I think he'd be welcome.

I don't think it's just that position (quarterback),

If a player isn't performing relative to the so-called investment that you have in him, sometimes you have to make tough decisions. We were committed to the guy. He was committed. If anything, I feel personally responsible that we didn't make it work with the guy.

I don't think he's ready to carry it 45 times. We're going to have to keep playing him into it, but hopefully we can get him in that 12- to 15-touch mode.

I don't think you want me to say what I think about that,

I don't think we're where we need to be. I don't think we're where we can be.

I don't think we played very well. We didn't look quick, we didn't look fast and we didn't play with the same energy level that I've seen us play with throughout the year so far. I'm not blaming it on anything because that's not my nature, but we certainly didn't have the energy and the enthusiasm that we've played with to this point.

I don't think we're considering a lot of changes.

But what happened in their first game is no indication of the kind of team that they have.

I don't care if you are a coach or player, you have family and personal issues and those things that are of concern. Everybody's safety is of concern. I have a great appreciation for the players and what they were able to do today to stay focused on the things that we wanted to try to get accomplished.

I don't know, you should ask Sam that. I can't answer that. I don't think that we are doing anything differently than anybody else does, though.

I felt like Ricky Williams played well. He didn't have many opportunities to do much, because he didn't have much space.

Here's a guy that's had a character quality career. He's been a leader in the community as well as on his team. Obviously, we've all done something on some occasion in our life that we regret and wish we wouldn't have done.

Gus did well, but he looked more comfortable and confident with the offense because he's played in the system before. I think we were a little tentative early in the game and I think the longer we played, the better we played.

Gus has a good understanding of the offence. He's very knowledgeable, and we felt he would give us the best opportunity to be successful and develop this offensive team.

Gus has a good understanding of the offense, he's very knowledgeable. And I think (he) can manage the game the best with a pretty young offensive team right now. . . . We weren't displeased with the job any of the quarterbacks did, but we felt that Gus would give us the best opportunity to be successful.

Gus has a good understanding of the offense. He's very knowledgeable, and we felt he would give us the best opportunity to be successful and develop this offensive team.

Gus has the best understanding of the offense right now. We feel like he hasn't played his best football yet, but with his knowledge and understanding and leadership, we're hopeful that he can show continued improvement, and that we can make some improvement as an offensive team. We've had spots of doing those types of things, and hopefully we'll continue to be more consistent.

Gus is going to make us a better team at the quarterback position. His knowledge and experience that comes with being a veteran will help the development of some of our younger players. In addition, he is familiar with our system and he'll create competition at the position.

What would he do (if he returned)? If there was something significant he could do, we'd encourage him to do that.

We talk about playing hard and competing. But you also have to play smart . . . . We did a lot of good things out there, but they were negated by our errors.

We're pleased to have someone as well-respected as Dom join the Dolphins. He brings a wealth of knowledge to Miami and will be a valuable addition to our staff.

He's played a great role for this team all year. He's been unselfish, he's been a really good team guy and he's been very helpful with a lot of other players in terms of what he's done. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it as an organization based on what he's done and how he's played and how he's overcome a lot. We're real proud of him.

He'd come and visit his dad in the summer,

We looked at him last year, quite a bit. Kelly's a smart, experienced quarterback. He's very capable of managing a game and doing what they need him to do to have success and it will be up to us to execute what we have to, to try to stop it.

He didn't look like a defensive end doing that.

If that is what it takes and gives us the best opportunity to win, the best opportunity to be successful and play winning football on offense, it's not something we wouldn't consider doing,

He did some straight-line running (Monday). He threw the ball some. He took some easy drops. So it's not like this guy is not at a point where he can't start doing some things. Now, I didn't see all that. I'm just going on what the trainer and the people doing the rehab with him did. But he was there early and stayed late and worked hard. We were pleased with what he did.

He did well, actually better than I thought he would. We did not want him to go the whole practice because we didn't want him to get in an overuse situation where he might fatigue that particular injury and have additional problems.

He did a fantastic job, especially at the end of the game. That's the toughest it ever gets. They're trying to take the air out of him. They're putting them all out there to stop you. He broke two runs that were as big as any in the game.

He has continued to do a good job every time he's been out there, ... and I think that's something that's got to be taken into consideration.

He has been one of our most productive players.

He was the number one guy last year and I think he did pretty well. He didn't do anything to make us think that he couldn't do it.

He's going to have to carry a little more than maybe he's ready for. We're very pleased with his development, but in the absence of Ricky, we're going to lean on him a little more than we would like to.

His team, as well as himself, had a few bumps in the road. They struggled, offensively, for whatever reasons. I just don't know the specifics of it.

The Pac-10 obviously did pretty well against the SEC this past week, ... Our players need to be aware of that and know that our league is nationally-known and when we go play places people are anxious to play us.

He's done a good job. He has minimized his mental mistakes. He's become a starter and he has played fast in the games and made some plays. We (will) keep working with him in hopes that he'll be able to execute on a consistent basis and continue to eliminate those mental errors that can get him in trouble.

What do you want me to do, cut the guys? ... I really can't do anything to the players, to be honest with you.

He looked quick. He looked fast. He made the right cuts. I'm not disappointed at all in the way he played for the first time out of the box.

He does everything you ask him to do. He's never been a problem; he pays attention in meetings. It seems like his head is in the right place.

He gives us a dimension out there that nobody else does in terms of his physical presence and toughness. We're happy to have it.

He had a lot of tough yards out there.

He is a bright guy. He has a pretty good understanding of what we're doing. It's just going to take some time to get him into football shape.

He is not badly hurt. He told me today that if it were the regular season, he would play in this game, but we are obviously not going to take any chances.