Nick Saban reverts to his days at Navy, lectures team on insubordination

Nick Saban and the Naval Academy have a lot in common. They’re fiercely loyal to tradition. They believe strongly in discipline. Each run the best programs of their kind. And also: neither abide insubordination, especially Coach Saban.

At his final Nick Saban Show before kicking off the football season, the Alabama head coach was asked about his time as an assistant coach at Navy back in the early 1980s and whether he still implements military ideals into his Alabama teams. Turns out, Saban shared he had just lectured his players the other day on not following rules, pulling stories from his time at the Naval Academy to illustrate the importance of doin’ as you’re told in Tuscaloosa.

“Yeah, it’s kind of interesting you would ask that question. I just did a lecture on insubordination this week to some of our players,” Saban said as the crowd laughed. “They didn’t quite understand the concept,” he added. “I used the military as an example. And I actually learned a lot of that at the Naval Academy in terms of seeing what those guys had to go through.”

Saban shares story from military officer

Saban then shared a story that someone in the military once shared with him. He said the military officer “was asked to comment one day” on the strict discipline of the military. He was asked “why you making these guys eat off the square, why do you make them do these little things?” And the officer responded, “well, when they’re flying over Libya, and we tell them not to shoot until they get shot at — gotta make damn sure that’s what they do.”

It can be life or death in that situation. Not quite that level of stakes at Bryant-Denny Stadium. But still, that commitment to discipline is what Nick Saban desires at Alabama.

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“Aight, so I kind of tell the players that story. And say…when you something that you’re supposed to do and you don’t do it, that’s considered insubordination to your organization. It doesn’t matter what organization you’re in. So if we allow that and we tolerate that, we’ll have one insubordination today, we’ll have three tomorrow and ten the next day. Then we’ll have chaos. So kind of interesting that you asked that question. I just had that lecture fresh in mind.”

According to Nick Saban, insubordination is a slippery slope. Cut one guy slack and you’re letting the place fall into frenzy, apparently. Not under Coach Saban, though.