Terrion Arnold shares favorite Nick Saban story from his career

With legendary college football coach Nick Saban retiring, many of his players have come out sharing their favorites stories about him, even including some current guys on the Alabama team.

On Wednesday, not too long after the announcement came down from Saban, Crimson Tide defensive back Terrion Arnold channeled his best impression of the Alabama head coach to re-tell one of his favorite adages from his time in Tuscaloosa. Here was Arnold stopping by The Next Round to offer up a good Saban story.

“I mean, just one off the top of my head. My freshman year, actually getting to play Tennessee, he comes in, he says: ‘You know, guys we’re going to take control of it. And one thing about it, when people come in, you can’t let people take over your territory or piss on your grass,'” Arnold recalled.

Arnold was confused at first: “I’m like, what does that have anything to do with us?”

However, as always, Nick Saban would tie that line into a great lesson.

Terrion Arnold wanted to tell the story in full, so he explained that he’d have to do an entire Saban re-enactment to really paint the full picture. Here was that performance:

“I’m gonna tap in the character and become him for a second. I’m not Terrion. Here you go: ‘How’s everybody doing? Good? Okay, you know, guys we got a tough challenge amongst ourselves. We got to go out here, we got to execute and we got to take the game over,'” Arnold began.

“‘You know, me and Miss Terry, we got this dog, we got a little dog, little Chihuahua. You know, we always had this German Shepherd come in our backyard and when the German Shepherd came in the backyard, he would knock over Miss Terry’s plants, he would knock over the flowers, piss on our grass, and that little Chihuahua used to be in the house going crazy.

“Miss Terry, her being the nice person she is, she always says, ‘Nicky, it’s okay, it’s okay.’ Well, anyways, one day, this German Shepherd continues to come in the yard and when he comes in the yard and does what he does. Little dog is going crazy and Miss Terry isn’t at home, I’m at home. So I let that son of a gun out, and when I tell you when that little three-pound dog went and pounced on that German Shepherd, bit it in the neck. German Shepherd, crying, went away, never saw it again. The story is, guys, you don’t let them come in and piss on our grass. We’re gonna bring the fight to them.'”

Now finished with his Saban impression, Arnold noted, “I mean, that one right there.” That right there is a pretty darn good story and also a good lesson in both football and life in general.