Nick Saban reveals his message to Alabama players after loss to Texas

Coming off their first loss of the season, Alabama players have been treated to a slightly different tone and tenor than they’ve been used to most of their careers, especially from coach Nick Saban.

First, it’s not often Alabama loses a game. But more importantly, how Saban handles the team after a loss is not quite the same as after a win.

“First of all you never want to waste a failure,” Saban said. “Adversity can break some people. Adversity can make some people great. It just depends on how you deal with it. I think we don’t want our players to waste a failing.”

To that end, Saban has been approaching players with a more positive, encouraging tone this week. They know they weren’t good enough; last weeks’ 34-24 loss to Texas is proof enough of that.

But what Saban wants them to learn is that it wasn’t necessarily one moment that lost them the Texas game.

“We want them to learn from the experience that they had so they have an opportunity to improve and get better,” Saban said. “And we always have kind of a 24-hour rule around here. If we win, 24 hours we’ve got to start all over and focus on the next opponent. If we lose we learn from the mistakes we made, we focus on the next opponent, try to get better. That’s how we try to manage it.”

So this week the Crimson Tide are focused on cleaning up all the mistakes against the Longhorns. Some of that is simply finding a way to protect quarterback Jalen Milroe better.

Other areas that can use work are penalties and undisciplined mistakes.

What Saban really wants, though, is for players to respect the opportunity they have in front of them. One loss does not derail a season, particularly one in non-conference play.

Everything is still ahead of Alabama, so long as the right messaging hits home.

“It’s a privilege to play here. It’s a privilege to be a coach here,” Nick Saban said .”And I think there’s an expectation that goes with all that, but I think we have to embrace that challenge and everybody should embrace it and be committed to doing the things they need to do to improve and get better.”