Nick Saban lights into Alabama players, has strong message to fans

Alabama’s quest for an SEC West title runs through Arkansas on Saturday. Nick Saban said this week that it’s all about staying the course and not expecting to win every game.

Saban, speaking on “Hey Coach and The Nick Saban Show” this week, talked about his message to the players as the Crimson Tide gets ready to take on Arkansas. He called out some “negative vibes” he noticed heading into Saturday’s game.

“I actually got on the players pretty good yesterday about that because you want to try to build and finish, and players have to understand what it takes to finish,” Saban said. “When all you read and hear is the unimportance of the the game you’re playing and the lack of respect for the team you’re playing from other people outside. Because [amazingly], to me, everybody believes what they read and you all can put whatever you want on your phone and run into the wall looking at it, but they believe it.

“But that’s not a good thing. That’s very, very difficult, and you have to have a lot of maturity and a lot of good leadership on your team because it creates this culture of what I just talked about. Just show up and win. We’ll just show up and win. And it doesn’t work that way.”

Saban also talked about getting ready for Arkansas, which he isn’t taking lightly given some of the Razorbacks’ marquee victories.

“Arkansas has got a good team,” Saban said. “I don’t know why anybody would think they don’t have a good team. They’re 7-3, they beat Texas, they beat Texas A&M — who beat us — so I don’t get it. And they lost 52-51 to Ole Miss because they went for two at the end of the game, which I’m not blaming the coach for doing that, and they didn’t make it. … I don’t understand it.”

Nick Saban has a message for fans, too

Saban’s message about mentality didn’t stop with the players. He had a similar message to fans about entitlement.

“So maybe that speech about entitlement also applies to fans,” Saban said. “Not just players. And we have great fans, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes, I think that fans don’t understand how what they do can impact the psychological disposition of young people and what they need to be doing so that they can play the way they need to play.

“Be positive, be supportive and understand your role. They need your help. They need your support. We’ve got to create a great stadium for them to play in and make it hard for the other team to play at our place, and not have the expectation that we’re just going to show up and win.”