Nick Saban uses Notre Dame, Texas A&M as examples for getting more discipline out his team

Alabama head coach Nick Saban and his squad squeaked out a narrow 20-19 over Texas this weekend after entering the game as 21-point favorites. Other 20-plus point favorites, Texas A&M and Notre Dame, weren’t so lucky this weekend and lost in upset defeats. Saban spoke on being a heavy favorite going into games, and the importance of preparation and playing at a high level regardless of the opponent.

“What does it mean to be favored by 21 points?” Saban asked. “Well, there were two teams that I know of, maybe more I don’t know of, that were favored by about the same amount that actually got beat. So I guess it doesn’t mean anything, and that’s why we have to play the games, so it’s important for players to learn that they have to focus and prepare for every team and every opponent so that they can go out there and play to the best of their ability. Because sometimes even when you win, you can lose.”

Saban elaborated on how accountability is a key in these situations, and how it is on the shoulders of his coaching staff and his players so be successful moving forward and learn from their last game and the losses of other top teams in the nation.

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“So the challenge for us is from top to bottom in the organization is to hold each other accountable to make sure that we’re putting the players in the best position to have a chance to be successful. But we’re also teaching them fundamentally what they need to do to be able to have success, but then they have to be accountable to challenge themselves every day to be able to do it. So that’s kind of some of the things that I think we can learn from a game like this,” Saban said.

Saban was also asked if his upset loss to Louisiana-Monroe in the 2007 season was used as a tool to teach his team about being a heavy favorite in certain games, but it sounds like he’ll be sticking with more recent examples to draw from for now.

“History doesn’t seem to be on the forefront sometimes, and I do think that players relate better to things that affect them,” Saban said. “Which most of them don’t remember those types of things, I think sometimes what happens currently, like what happened last week to a couple teams, may be something that they can identify with and relate to better.”

The Crimson Tide certainly have plenty of teaching material to draw from their own performance and the performance of other teams in week 2, and hopefully for them they learn, as they will likely still be favored in the remainder of their matchups this season moving forward.