🏈 CNS talks about competing with former assistants

[Alabama17Tide]

Saban on rivalries with former assistants: 'It's not personal'
Tony Tsoukalas • BamaInsider.com@Tony_Tsoukalas

Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs after winning the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo | Getty Images

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It’s been four months since Nick Saban and Kirby Smart shared the same field. Their last meeting was a pretty big one.
Saban walked away with his sixth national title while Smart left heartbroken as Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed a 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith on second-and-26 in overtime to give the Crimson Tide a 26-23 victory over Georgia in the national championship game. Smart hasn’t forgotten that feeling, nor will anyone let him — not even during a charity golf tournament in the middle of May.

“Oh, yeah, I heard a few 'second-and-26s,'” the Georgia head coach said Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show while participating the Regions Tradition Pro-Am. “We’ll remember those.”

Smart once again competed against his former head coach as he and Saban both participated in the pro-am Wednesday. Smart — who worked under Saban at Alabama from 2007-15, as well as one-year stints with LSU (2004) and the Miami Dolphins (2006) — admitted before the event that golf brings out the competitor in him.

“I’d say the guy two or three behind me is competitive, too,” Smart said, referring to Saban. “I played for him for 10 years. …I didn’t talk back to my boss, I learned better than that a long time ago. But now I can. I just got to improve my game so I can do that.”

Despite their rivalry on the football field — and now the golf course — Saban says he shares a good relationship with Smart as he does with all his former assistants. That list now includes Smart as well as SEC head coaches Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee, Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M and Will Muschamp at South Carolina.

According to Saban, “it’s not personal.”

“I compete against my friends all the time,” Saban said. “Bill Belichick was one of my best friends. We were in the same division when we were in Miami, it didn’t affect our relationship. Kirby’s done a great job for me for a long time, and he’s doing a great job where he is right now. We compete all the time, but it’s not personal. Jeremy Pruitt, it’s not personal, he did a great job for me. It wasn’t personal with [Jim McElwain].
“Those guys call me on occasion and ask for help in situations. From a personal standpoint, we help them as much as we can, so we compete against our friends all the time. It doesn’t have to be personal. We all respect the fact that we’re trying to do the best for our players and the best for our institutions so we can have a successful program.”

Whatever help Saban provides ends when it comes to the football field. He’s never lost to a former assistant during his time at Alabama, boasting a sterling 12-0 record in which he has outscored his former understudies by a total of 453-134.

BamaInsider.com - Saban on rivalries with former assistants: 'It's not personal'

 

[TerryP]

“Oh, yeah, I heard a few 'second-and-26s,'” the Georgia head coach said Wednesday on the Paul Finebaum Show while participating the Regions Tradition Pro-Am. “We’ll remember those.”

Was that comment just playing to his audience? Or, do you really think they HE will "remember those" taunts?

 

[TUSKtimes]

Was that comment just playing to his audience? Or, do you really think they HE will "remember those" taunts?

Oh yeah, he will remember how that felt in his sleep. Smart will probably have posters of the Devonta catch all over the weight room. It's right out of the Nick Saban Manual, Chapter 2 page 26.

 

[TerryP]

Was that comment just playing to his audience? Or, do you really think they HE will "remember those" taunts?

Oh yeah, he will remember how that felt in his sleep. Smart will probably have posters of the Devonta catch all over the weight room. It's right out of the Nick Saban Manual, Chapter 2 page 26.

Well, not really.

That would be pictures of a title game with a huge assumption they aren't going to allow something like that to happen again. Problem is...having your eye on that game with that goal means you don't have your eye on the ball--in this case a couple of regular season games.

That's UGA football. Eyes on the prize without making sure each step you're taking is firm...and you slip. It's one of the main reasons I don't see UGA making it through '18 undefeated in the regular season.

 

[yellowhammer86]

I have them overlooking South Carolina in week 2. I think Muschamp and Co. pull the upset and possibly even win the East.

 

[TUSKtimes]

Well, not really.

That would be pictures of a title game with a huge assumption they aren't going to allow something like that to happen again. Problem is...having your eye on that game with that goal means you don't have your eye on the ball--in this case a couple of regular season games.

That's UGA football. Eyes on the prize without making sure each step you're taking is firm...and you slip. It's one of the main reasons I don't see UGA making it through '18 undefeated in the regular season.

You know when I said that I was thinking about the way coach Saban handled the 2008 SECCG loss. Posters all over the place of that game to instill in everyone the need to finish. Kirby probably helped hang them up. Personally, I don't think Kirby takes a dump without consulting the Saban manual.

 

[TerryP]

Well, not really.

That would be pictures of a title game with a huge assumption they aren't going to allow something like that to happen again. Problem is...having your eye on that game with that goal means you don't have your eye on the ball--in this case a couple of regular season games.

That's UGA football. Eyes on the prize without making sure each step you're taking is firm...and you slip. It's one of the main reasons I don't see UGA making it through '18 undefeated in the regular season.

You know when I said that I was thinking about the way coach Saban handled the 2008 SECCG loss. Posters all over the place of that game to instill in everyone the need to finish. Kirby probably helped hang them up. Personally, I don't think Kirby takes a dump without consulting the Saban manual.

The first I can remember this morning was the Never Again posters hung up in the weight room. That was a year following a loss to Auburn.

For the summer of '09 the biggest thing that comes to my mind is that's when the wins were vacated. I'm thinking you're a little ahead on which season they started.

 

[TUSKtimes]

The first I can remember this morning was the Never Again posters hung up in the weight room. That was a year following a loss to Auburn.

For the summer of '09 the biggest thing that comes to my mind is that's when the wins were vacated. I'm thinking you're a little ahead on which season they started.

Could be, that stuff starts running together. Maybe the barner loss was the year they went full monty on the posters. I do remember some of the players saying how they had pictures on the wall reminding of the 2008 failures.

This was one article that I found that eluded to some of what I mentioned:

McElroy was a sophomore when Alabama lost its final two games to Florida and Utah. He remembers receiving visual and verbal reminders of how the 2008 season ended and is certain this year's team is getting the same type of motivation after having finishing the 2013 season with losses to Auburn and Oklahoma.

"They have pictures on the wall," McElroy said. "They have things all around the complex, reminding those guys not to start out where they left off. They want to start off above that. I know he's reminding them. I know he was with us after the 2008 season and I know we went in really hungry in 2009."

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Wonder if AU has pictures of Mercedes Dome where they lost last 2 and have loaded Washington coming in...lol

 

[rammerjammer]

I want to say the first "picture" reminders was after the 2007 inaugural CNS season. Scoreboard of the Miss St game. The difference in that game was an interception by a lineman that ran it back for a pick 6, just as we were about to go up and possibly put the game away.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

I want to say the first "picture" reminders was after the 2007 inaugural CNS season. Scoreboard of the Miss St game. The difference in that game was an interception by a lineman that ran it back for a pick 6, just as we were about to go up and possibly put the game away.

Yeah....remember that game well....bama was inside 5 with lead and wilson made stupid throw.........that was a bad year....the "process " wasn’t accepted by bama players yet....