Nick Saban weighs in on current NCAA rules for practice, warns about tipping point

On this week’s episode of ‘Hey Coach‘ with Nick Saban, the Alabama frontman was asked about preseason practices. Which launched him into a compelling case for why the NCAA practice model is fine, but can’t afford to lose any more full-pads practice days.

Obviously, the movement to have less full-contact practices in the preseason has the players’ health in mind. With the goal of further eliminating injuries. However, Saban believes that lowering the number of full-pads practices will actually have a negative effect on the players’ health. According to him, the players need plenty of full-pads days to prepare for the physicality of the actual games. Or else, if a player is thrown out there in full pads without having practiced enough, he’s liable to get hurt because his body isn’t used to the hits.

An interesting argument from Nick Saban, who always has thoughtful opinions on big picture topics in college football. Here were his full comments:

“Well I think what we’re doing right now in college football — I still think that we’re doing enough. That we can actually develop players fundamentally in terms of what they need to do. The number of practices in pads that we have, the number of practices in shells (shoulder pads) that we have, and the number of practices that we have to go in spider pads, which is basically just a helmet, which is no-contact days — I still think we can develop players that way.”

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“I think football is a contact game. And I think that if we minimize it much more — the pendulum swings the other way in player safety. Because if you haven’t done enough conditioning to play the game, physically, then more guys get hurt when they do play. Because they’re not used to the physical contact and they’re not used to having their body accustomed to the things they have to do when they do play the game and it speeds up fast and people are making a lot of contact. So I think we’re okay where we’re at right now. But I do think the way we practice is geared toward continuing to improve throughout the season. I know a lot of people were a lot about keeping the players healthy.

“I’ve never coached football being afraid of guys getting hurt. I don’t think football is a dangerous game. I think if you practice the right way. You stay on your feet, you can play fast, you can play with contact, you don’t take people down to the ground. Most people that get hurt in practice are on the ground. You know, somebody falls on somebody’s leg, ankle, etc. That’s why when we practice it’s always good on good. Ones vs. ones. Aight, because they’re the guys with the most experience, they’re the guys that have the best balance and body control.