Nick Saban on Deion Sanders restarting Colorado practice after Baylor win: 'It's about changing the mindset'

Nick Saban joined The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, where he elaborated on his feelings regarding Deion Sanders deciding to restart Colorado practice over earlier this week, when he didn’t like what he was seeing from the Buffaloes.

Evidently, Saban never went as far to restart an entire practice, but he elaborated on restarting certain periods of practice. Regardless, he understood where his friend Coach Prime was coming from, as he’s trying to keep Colorado in a competitive mindset following their miraculous win over Baylor in Week 4.

“What I used to do is, not start practice over, but I would start the period over,” Saban explained. “Like, we’d be doing a good-on-good team run or whatever, and one side of the ball was just not responding, or the offense was getting stuffed, or the defense was getting gashed, I’d let them run eight, 10, 12 plays and I’d say, ‘This is not what we need,’ and start the period over. That usually got their attention, because they’d knew that we’d start the next period over, but I was always afraid to start practice over, like practice would be too long or something.

“It’s the same concept, you’re trying to change the mindset of how everyone’s approaching preparation for the game. It’s the same thing I said before about the Coach Prime situation, play poorly and win, that’s like the kiss of death, because guys don’t always want to respond. They look at you like, ‘Hey coach, we won the game, why are you all upset and making us practice and all that?’ If you lose, they’re saying, ‘When are we going to practice?’ Not, ‘Why are we practicing?’

“So, there’s a big difference in mindset, but the really great competitors, they always keep that same mindset, because they want to be the best that they can be, so it’s not about just winning or losing, it’s about being the best they can be.”

Alas, Deion Sanders’ tactic gets Nick Saban’s approval, which is all that really matters when you think about it. Time will tell if it works out in Colorado’s favor, as they’ll take on UCF in Week 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET.