Nick Saban explains the importance for unsung heroes to step up

Any great football team requires contributors from up and down the roster. It requires younger players, backups, third-stringers, the last guy on the bench, whoever — to step up when their name is called. According to Alabama head coach Nick Saban, the time will always come when you are eventually asked to step up, and that’s why he stresses the importance of staying ready to his entire roster.

“I think it’s important to have a whole team of guys like that,” he shared this week, when asked about guys lower down the depth chart who have stepped up. “I think if everybody’s putting the team first and want to do what they can do to help develop themselves so that they create value for their future, and opportunities in their future as well. Whatever their role is on the team, you know, do it the best you can do it, so the team has the best chance to sort of develop the kind of personality, as well as the intangibles, that you need to be a great competitor.”

As a backup, staying locked in and ready to perform when your number is called is difficult. It’s easy to lose sight of the important stuff when you’re not getting the playing time you hoped. Don’t let that get to your head, says Coach Saban.

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“And look, there’s a lot of distractions out there and guys have to choose to focus on the right thing. Can’t worry about all that stuff. You know you’ve heard me talk about it before — external noise, rat poison, whatever you want to talk about, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. When you step on the field to compete you need to be focused on what you need to do to play the best you can, to dominate your box against whatever the challenge is. Whether you’re an offensive lineman, a defensive back, a linebacker, it doesn’t matter. And that’s a challenge. It’s more challenging now than it’s ever been before.”

Lastly, Nick Saban actually praised the lesser known pieces of this year’s team, noting that some guys have really surprised him.

“But it’s important for guys that aren’t starters on your team that don’t even know if they’re going to play to get ready to play, so they can take advantage of the opportunity when they do play. Because those opportunities will come at some point. And sometimes it’s when you least expect them. And some of the young guys on our team have done a much better job of that this year than I thought some of the guys did in years past.”