Saban to fans: Think long term

[DKW 86 7,451]

http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/i....xml&coll=1

I think Saban is finally smelling the coffee. If nothing else, he is trying to CYA just in case. The nose bleed expectations seem to have finally caught his eye and he setting up the blame to go around. I have to tell you guys this, if I was him, I would be doing exactly the same thing. I would make sure that the fans fully realize they have to get up off their rears and make BDS a home field advantage etc. Call them out on it. Get them totaly invested in doing their part. I dont see anyone turning a football team around in one year anymore. What CTB did was a fluke as we later found out. CNS is wise to already start spreading the blame should they not live upto the fans extremely high expectations for 2007.

Saban to fans: Think long term

Sunday, March 04, 2007By PAUL GATTIS Times Sports Staff paul.gattis@htimes.com

New Tide coach says 'positive energy' crucial

Second of two parts

TUSCALOOSA - Nick Saban wants you.

Like some modern-day Uncle Sam, with an index finger literally reaching toward you and the piercing eyes figuratively doing the same, Nick Saban wants you.

He wants your heart, your soul, your love, your support.

He wants you to make a difference, he wants you to believe that you can make a difference.

He wants you, in his metaphoric model of a championship football program, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him, with athletic director Mal Moore, with school president Robert Witt, with quarterback John Parker Wilson, with every Alabama fan you've ever met and every fan you've never met.

Nick Saban wants you to help the Crimson Tide win the national championship.

"Everybody just needs to do their part of that, whatever their role is," Saban said in an interview last week with The Times. "Whatever their role is is important to other people. Some people will have a larger role than others, but everybody has a role in it."

It's more of that unique perspective from Saban, who was introduced two months ago today as the successor to Mike Shula.

He called that day for positive energy from fans and talked of how fans could help shape the program.

And it's a message he will no doubt preach again and again.

The way Saban presents it, it doesn't reek of propaganda. Ask him direct questions about the role of fans in the success or failure in Crimson Tide football and he will give you direct answers.

All fans equal

More than once during the interview, Saban moved his hands from side to side - describing the program as a unified team with the coach, the AD, the players, the waterboys, the million-dollar boosters, the sidewalk alumni who exhaust their savings for one game a year all standing side by side by side.

It's not a caste system, it's not reflective of society. Not in Saban's mind.

It's not, in his words, a "totem pole" in which one person is more or less important than another.

"The role goes sideways," Saban said, hands moving from left to right to left again. "It's all dependent on each other. It doesn't go up and down. Everybody has a role in this."

It seems, gauging from his words, that the role of fans in the success of a program is one of Saban's absolute convictions.

"We need to have all shining lights, no blinking lights," said Saban, invoking another metaphor. "I'm not talking about just football players. If the people around this place want to have a great program and win a national championship, they need to contribute to it, too, by their positive energy and how they support the program. That's what good fans do.

"If they come with the expectation next year that we're going to go 12-0 and it doesn't happen and they're all upset about it, then that's going to hurt us getting where we want to go. It's just the way it is."

But it also seems that maybe there is a level of absurdity to it as well.

Are fans going to make a difference in the fourth quarter with the score tied against Tennessee? Are fans going to help the players survive another day of the winter conditioning program that's ongoing right now? Are fans going to help Saban and his assistant coaches draw the most out of each player?

Or is the coach trying to soften the impact of hard rebuilding days to come?

It's answers to questions such as these that fans must discover for themselves, to see if they want to be a part of the vision Saban described for winning for a championship.

Propaganda or not, though, Nick Saban wants you.

Long-term approach

"Everybody wants to win," he said. "But are we going to look short term or long term? That's my question. And how we support each other in what we're trying to do here and the positive energy that we support each other with is going to determine how successful we are long term.

"Once you establish this, this is going to become an always, all-the-time thing. I'm hopeful the fans here will be responsive to this kind of approach."

Is that what happened at LSU when the Tigers won the national championship in 2003 with Saban as the coach?

"Certainly," he said. "That's why I always say that what happened there was special. Everybody contributed to it, everybody worked hard. I just happened to be the leader. It wasn't because of me. The fans were great, the support was great, the people were great, administration was great, the athletic administration was outstanding.

"We built the things we needed to build and we changed the things we needed to change. We gave ourselves the best chance to be successful. A lot of people contributed to that."

Now Saban is trying to replicate that formula at Alabama. And it should be fascinating to watch.

This is, after all, Alabama football. This is the place where fans boast of having won 12 national championships, all the while looking for No. 13. This is the place where statues have been erected of the four national championship coaches outside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

This is the place that already has a vacant nook awaiting the next national championship coach's statue.

And this is the place with the nation's highest-paid college coach who has done it before and with fans who want to see him do it again.

This is the place where the mere hiring of Saban ignited white-hot expectations.

"Again, it's not what should be, it's not what could be, it's not what was, it's what is," Saban said. "So what are we all going to do to make it better? That's what everybody ought to focus on.

"And if they are really and truly supportive of this institution and this team, the athletic program here, that's the best way for us to get what we want."

Nick Saban wants you, Mr. or Ms. Alabama fan.

But with his vision, his out-of-the-box outlook and his desire for "positive energy", Mr. or Ms. Alabama fan, do you want Nick Saban?

"That takes a lot of people doing a lot of things together and everybody assuming their roles," he said. "And the more positive energy you can throw into that, the better off you're going to be."

[TitanTiger 20,530]

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

[bigsixfive 328]

"Again, it's not what should be, it's not what could be, it's not what was, it's what is," Saban said.

Whoa. Saban obviously isn't an Auburn guy based on previous character displays, but dang if he didn't sound like one with this line. How long have we been saying this? "You stink today, you stank 5 years ago, you stank 10 years ago. You stank 50 years ago. There was a little bright spot in between, but that ain't helping you now."

[TigerOne 1,153]

boy that tradishon don't mean much to Dr. Phil, I mean Saban

[jdub5793 0]

boy that tradishon don't mean much to Dr. Phil, I mean Saban

he's just saying this so he has something to fall back on when making excuses for not leading them to a championship of any kind, while walking out the back door on his way to yet another job.

[CircleDrill 178]

This article could be posted on 100 different websites, printed in 100 newspapers, every day between now and September, and it would not make one single bit of difference to bammers for THREE REASONS:

1) A lot of them can't read

2) They don't care about reality. They got their rockstar press conference that they needed to save face. They could care less about anything else right now.

2) Their INFERIORITY complex about their own inferiority to Auburn drives them so crazy that they will believe anything, regardless of source.

I will say this again. Saban will lose to Auburn in 07. Saban will lose to Auburn in 08 (game in Tuscaloosa). IF Saban loses to Auburn 3-in-a-row in 09, he will be GONE. He is looking down the road that far and even HE sees this. He knows they paid $40m to beat Auburn, and maybe win some other games along the way.

[SKCAUB 0]

Hold the rope???!!!

[AUdad4kicks 0]

Is there any significance that in this "motivational" article $aban never directly refers to uat? The closest he gets is "the program".

[DKW 86 7,451]

Is there any significance that in this "motivational" article $aban never directly refers to uat? The closest he gets is "the program".

sssssshhhhhhhhhh! We werent going to point that out yet....

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Let them keep believing that he gives a rats rear end about them...