For those who don't know it's a weekly show broadcast live from a corner stage at Bob's Victory Grille in Tuscaloosa during the football season. As the guest you're responsible for asking a few questions over the course of an hour, and whenever I'm on I like to have a variety prepared depending on his mood.
Hey, it's his show, you know?
Saban always arrives at the last minute and this time it was obvious he was zeroed in on the looming game at Georgia. He was talking about how opponents have been so afraid of the Bulldogs' running game it's really opened things up in the air, how the vanilla play-calling against Louisiana-Monroe sort of handcuffed the Crimson Tide's offensive line, and outside linebackers Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd are the best pass rushers Alabama has faced this season.
And then he took a left turn.
Saban made a comment about the Wonderlic Test, which the NFL uses to test aptitude. I actually took one once and wrote a column about it for the Tuscaloosa News. The coach admitted that if there was a player he really wanted he would bring him in for a retake (it only takes 15 minutes).
"I would actually take the test out, look at it, tutor the guy a little bit, alright, before he took it," he said. "Maybe lose a few minutes on the timing part of it, so he had a little extra time ... and they would do better."
Wait, it gets better. That was just the first of four segments.
During the second segment Saban started getting back on track after my question about game-day "tells" he looks for about if it's going to be a good day or not. He talked about how the players had too much emotional, "frantic" energy the days leading up to the Ole Miss game, which played a part in the team's fumble-laden start (my words, not his, although he added before anyone could ask that the Crimson Tide had a good week of practice for Georgia). He also mentioned a player in his office that day who was frustrated about his playing time.
And then a man named Mitchell stepped up to the microphone to ask an in-house question. He said he's taking truck-driving course at Shelton State Community College and struggling with the clutch. He'd heard Saban had similar trouble during his younger years and asked: "I'd like to know what part of the process I can take to make me a better truck driver?
It might have been the greatest question ever asked in the history of the Nick Saban Show. For a moment the only thing I could hear was host Eli Gold laughing.
"I think you should do what your instructor is telling you," Saban started with. "He's your coach. But I'll tell you the hardest part is the hills, you know? When the truck wanted to roll back. I mean, when you have a big heavy truck and it rolls back and you have a car behind you and you have one foot on the brake, one foot on the clutch, how are you going to get the gas without taking one of those some other kind of way. So you have to do it quick and if you don't lean on the clutch, you're going to roll backwards."
Then came the punchline: "Hey, I was three-for-three, man. I went three summers, three clutches. And you're asking for my advice?"
(Credit AL.com for that quote).
When we came out of the commercial break I couldn't help myself, especially since Saban's family was in the audience. I asked if the Nick Saban Signature Series Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van he helped create had a clutch.
I always thought of him as a speed guy, you know? Maybe that's next.
However, that wasn't the highlight of third segment. It was Saban's comment on former walk-on Michael Nysewander scoring a touchdown last week.
"I gotta be honest about this: there's a special place in your heart sometimes for some of the players that you have on the team," Saban said. "Here's a guy that's been in the program for four or five years, walk-on, hard worker, I mean works hard every day, overachiever, does everything that any coach would ever want a player to do. And you can never be happier or feel better for someone when something good like that happens for them and they get an opportunity to score a touchdown.
"That almost made me cry, to be honest with you. I mean I just loved it for him and his family. Our players were so happy to see it because they have the same kind of respect for guys that do things that way, as well."
(Credit that one to BamaOnline.com. What can I say, everything is news with Alabama football).
The last segment of the show always ends with Saban's final comments, when he talks about whatever he wants about the upcoming game and fires up the fans. The coach was just getting to the meat of what he wanted to say when he put his bottle of water down right on the headphone cord and it spilled all over him. I grabbed the only thing I had within reach, my notebook, and immediately ripped out pages to help him out.
Here's the amazing part: Saban didn't pause or even hesitate, and kept talking like nothing happened (no one reported this because I was the only media person present, everyone else was listening to the broadcast). He actually handed me back the pages of paper so he wouldn't be distracted and kept going. After the show he talked to fans and and signed autographs like usual, and because he was wearing dark pants it didn't show.
Now that's focus.
[Special thanks to Crimson Tide Sports Marketing for having me on again.]
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