Jimbo Fisher details why Nick Saban is always able to find success

There were doubts early in the college football season surrounding the Alabama Crimson Tide following their home loss to Texas and their offensive struggles on the road against South Florida.

But head coach Nick Saban was able to rally the troops as his team showed steady improvement throughout the season, going undefeated in conference play capped off with an SEC Championship win over Georgia and the program’s eighth appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Former Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher is familiar with Saban after coaching with him for five seasons and against him for six seasons as an SEC West division opponent. And during a recent appearance on the ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast, Fisher was asked why he believes Saban has been able to maintain his success specifically this most recent college football season.

“Well I think he’s built a culture and they’ve had success and the players trust his word, but to me, it’s the consistent messaging,” Fisher said. “He never gets too high, he’s a process-oriented guy, and that’s what it’s about. You’ve got to be process-oriented to be successful, all the best people in the world that are successful that consistently do it are process-oriented and they stay in that process and I think that’s what it is.”

“He’s driven. That’s him, his competitive nature and what he does and he was able to message those guys,” Fisher said.

Saban’s principles and philosophies regarding how to run a program and get the most out of his players have been preached by him for many years, as he just recently completed his 28th season as a head coach at the college level.

From blocking out the outside noise and ‘rat poison’ to coaching ‘energy vampires’, Saban has been sharing the same messages with his players for quite some time now with results that are hard to deny.

Many have already crowned him college football’s greatest coach of all time after winning seven national titles and leading the Crimson Tide to 16-straight double-digit win seasons. But what he was able to get out of his offense specifically this past season after some early struggles may be one of his most impressive coaching jobs in recent history.

“But they bought in and where they really got better during the season, [Jalen] Milroe got better and the offensive line got better, and that’s the thing that let them down in the end is the offensive line. Michigan‘s defensive line got after them a little bit. But I think their improvement on the offensive line, matter fact, the quarterback grew up in the second half of our game,” Fisher admitted.

Milroe threw for a career-high 321 yards and three touchdowns against Texas A&M and would continue to go on a tear after a shaky start to the season under center for the Crimson Tide. As he and others on Alabama’s roster clearly took Saban’s messaging to heart as they manufactured yet another successful season in Tuscaloosa.

“We were ahead at halftime and we held him to negative yards rushing, they had 20 yards rushing as a team and he came out and threw for a bunch of yards. So I mean his development and what he did, but his [Saban’s] consistent messaging is what’s allowed him to be successful,” Fisher concluded.