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Nick Saban gives classic rant about players believing media hype, difficulty of opponents

by:Austin Brezina•09/14/22•

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Photo by Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Nick Saban jumped on a question that implied some of their opponents were easier than others, and provided a special rant about media hype. During his press appearance on Wednesday, the Alabama head coach seemed to take issue with a question about evaluating his team’s growth against opponents of varying skill.

Saban responded that he doesn’t view any team as tougher or easier, and immediately broke down how dangerous that line of thinking was when you’re looking to dominate every single week. He closed his rant by highlighting that picking favorites can prove that the media doesn’t know what they’re talking about and can creep into the locker room and affect players.

Nick Saban rant about how media hype affects players

“That’s your opinion on quality of opponent. It’s not mine,” said Saban when asked about playing against Texas last week and Louisiana-Monroe this week. “I respect all of the people that we play. And I respect winning and what you have to do to win, a’ight? And every player should not be focused on who they’re playing against — relative to their motivation — but every player should want to be the best player they can be.

“So why would it matter, whether we’re playing Texas or playing somebody else? That’s how you get good, that’s how you develop the right habits, that’s how you’re consistent.”

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Saban then turned his attention to his NFL coaching days and how he learned to focus on the winning process instead of believing what somebody says about an opponent. He closed with a pointed question to the media room, asking what being favored in a game means when you don’t play the way you should.

“What does ‘what your favorite’ in a game mean when you’re favored by 20 points and you lose, like two teams did this week? What does it mean? It means the people favoring you either don’t know what you’re talking about, or the players playing got affected by that. Neither one of them are good.”