Tag Archives: Damion Square

Alabama’s Nick Saban says he’s happy at Alabama. (AP photo by Jeff Roberson)

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TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Alabama football coach Nick Saban says he isn’t headed to the NFL, despite speculation for weeks linking him to the Cleveland Browns job.

After the Crimson Tide completed its first practice for the BCS National Championship Game on Tuesday, Saban said he isn’t sure how to make the speculation go away.

“I’m not sure, regardless of what I say, that anybody believes what I say, because I say it all the time,” Saban said. “This is what we’re happy doing. This is what we like to do. But nobody really believes that.

“So, you know, maybe it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what I have to say or do, but it’s kind of funny to me.”

Saban is linked to Cleveland because he served four seasons there as defensive coordinator in 1991-94. Also, his agent is Jimmy Sexton of Memphis, who is the agent of the man man who is believed to be Cleveland’s next general manager, Mike Lombardi. The Browns’ current coach is Pat Shumur.

In a report Tuesday, ESPNCleveland.com claimed to have three sources saying there is “zero chance” Saban would join Lombardi in Cleveland.

Saban likely will be haunted forever by a comment he made Dec. 21, 2006, while coaching the Miami Dolphins when reports linked him to Alabama, which had fired Mike Shula: “I guess I have to say it. I’m not going to be the Alabama coach. … I don’t control what people say. I don’t control what people put on dot-com or anything else. So I’m just telling you there’s no significance, in my opinion, about this, about me, about any interest that I have in anything other than being the coach here.”

Saban has said privately he didn’t handle that situation well. But he insisted Tuesday evening he plans to stay at Alabama, which is aiming for its third national title under Saban. The Crimson Tide can clinch the crown by beating Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7.

“We’re really, really pleased and happy to be here,” Saban said. “We’ve been able to accomplish a lot.

“But like I’ve talked about before this is a work in progress all the time. You’ve got to stay focused on the process to try to continue to make the next game the most important game, the next season the most important season, developing the team every year. We certainly look forward to those challenges.”

Alabama senior defensive end Damion Square, one of the Tide’s three team captains, said Saban hasn’t addressed any coaching reports with the players.

“We don’t talk about that,” Square said. “It has nothing to do with this team.”

Saban finished his thought on the NFL speculation by joking about who makes his career decisions: his wife.

“Y’all asked the wrong person,” he said, smiling. “Miss Terry makes all the decisions about all this stuff anyway.”

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Nick Saban says getting stressed out doesn’t help a player’s performance. (AP photo by Dave Martin)

This is one of my stories for today’s editions:

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TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — As an entire state focuses on Bryant-Denny Stadium today, the guys in the football jerseys and helmets should feel a little stress, shouldn’t they?

Especially for the ones in crimson shirts and white pants, so much rides on this game. Not only can Alabama retain bragging rights for another year over Auburn, the Tide needs this one to qualify for the SEC Championship Game and keep its national title hopes alive.

Leave it to Alabama’s Nick Saban, the coach known for his focus on football, to put it in perspective. Leave to him to point out why his players shouldn’t sweat so much over today’s stakes.

“None of these things are bad things,” he said. “There’s nobody taking anybody out and shooting them behind the barn.”

And that’s the key to Saban’s approach to the Iron Bowl: Don’t add to the pressure the players must feel already.

“What I see happening is people get sort of emotionally stressed out realative to their circumstances, which is where they’re ranked, who they’re playing,” he said. “And all of a sudden you get tentative and don’t play aggressively, you don’t prepare the same way. You’re worrying emotionally, which affects your ability to focus and you don’t play as well.”

In the 1990s, Alabama players under then-coach Gene Stallings said he didn’t stress out over the Iron Bowl. Instead, he treated it as he did every other week. He went 5-2 against Auburn. His predecessor, Bill Curry, had a reputation of stressing over the game and went 0-3 against the Tigers.

Without referring to any former Alabama coach, Saban said if the coaches are stressed and act like it, it can bleed down to the players.

“Play your best football,” Saban said. “Play your best football game. If you’re not good enough to win, I’m OK with that.

“I just absolutely want the players to play their best game and have the right sort of disposition about doing that, rather than be caught up in the circumstances of what’s at stake or whatever.”

The Tide players say Saban emphasizes worrying about what you can control and nothing else. They say this is how he removes stress from them.

As this is Saban’s sixth year at Alabama, the older players now pass this along to the younger players. Fifth-year senior Damion Square said he has talked to the young guys about it, especially as the season gets to crunch time.

“Just trying to get their mind right, get them focusing on the right things, things that matter,” he said. “It’s easy to focus on things that we can’t control because the media sets you up to do that.”

In Saban’s words, just play:

“Don’t get emotionally stressed out or start playing to keep from getting beat and be tentative about your approach to what you’re doing,” he said.

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