Nick Saban on state of college football: 'It is what it is'

One of the things that has made Alabama head coach Nick Saban great is his ability to adapt to changes in the sport. Some of those have come on the field, while others are changes in the rules and scheme on the field.

Today, there has been a lot of debate about the state of college football as the game changes. However, Saban doesn’t want to get too upset about changes in the game. Instead, he wants to find a way to adjust to them.

“Well I think that the most important thing right now is it is what it is,” Nick Saban said on Get Up. “We have to adapt to it and try to make our programs create more value for players so that they’re going to benefit in personal development and developing a career off the field and developing a career on the field so that they’re going to create value for their future, which is why we all went to college and why you still go to college.”

In particular, Nick Saban is talking about changes in the NIL landscape. Players can monetize their name, image, and likeness now, which when combined with the one-time transfer rule has made for significant changes in how rosters are constructed.

“I know we have some things involved now that didn’t used to be involved, but I think we have to adapt to those things and try to make it work so that we can continue to challenge young people to be the bet that they can be.”

For now, Nick Saban needs to adapt to changes in the game while finding a way to beat Georgia and Kirby Smart who are attempting to three-peat in 2023 while taking over as the SEC’s premier dynasty.

Nick Saban facing problems to solve creates ‘most dangerous version’ of Alabama

One person who thinks Alabama is going to be scary this season is On3’s Andy Staples and that’s largely because of how good Nick Saban is at problem solving.

“Let’s be perfectly real, they’re not [the favorite]. We spent 20 minutes yesterday talking about Georgia and the possibility of three-peat and it is very possible that Georgia will three-peat. We don’t even know that Alabama will get out of the West. But I will say this, Nick Saban with a problem to solve is the most dangerous version of Nick Saban,” Andy Staples told Jesse Simonton.

As Jesse Simonton then pointed out, this Alabama team is already proving to be highly motivated to win this season.

“The other thing that history certainly supports is that before Kirby Smart was manufacturing motivation and was coming up with these grievances that no one ever was really talking about, Nick Saban was doing that,” Simonton said. “The teams that were claiming doubt and disrespect and then coming out and pulverizing opponents, well, JC Latham, their star offensive tackle, comes out today and it’s talking about all sorts of, you know, fuel to the fire, slap to the face. The idea that the dynasty is dead is complete, you know, disrespect and then he punctuated all of that by declaring that Alabama would win the national championship.”