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"The last time Alabama football wasnât good â back when Tim Tebow ruled the SEC and âWar Eagleâ was the Heart of Dixieâs dominant greeting â Nick Saban was standing inside the universityâs Hank Crisp indoor practice facility, his shirt tucked into belted shorts, a straw hat perched atop his head. And he was shouting.
Typical Saban, you might think, the late-2000s image mirroring so many snapshots of college footballâs de facto emperor a decade later. But this particular winter day was different. The subject of his ire wasnât a mere missed block. It wasnât shoddy technique or a gloomy attitude. It was a 6-foot, 205-pound Floridian with 4.4 speed struggling to cope with injuries, then with a program-altering transition, and now trudging toward an exit. Literally.
Roy Upchurch, hobbled by ankle surgery, had had enough. Sabanâs unforgiving demands had pushed him to the brink. With five minutes remaining in a conditioning drill, his sweat-drenched body and weary mind gave in.
Saban, as uncompromising as ever, rode the running back to the door, and later chided him with a piercing dig.
If you canât commit to this, Saban boomed â the exact words lost to time but the message still vivid â from now on, youâre going to be known as âIrrelevant Roy.â"
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Read the rest HERE
"The last time Alabama football wasnât good â back when Tim Tebow ruled the SEC and âWar Eagleâ was the Heart of Dixieâs dominant greeting â Nick Saban was standing inside the universityâs Hank Crisp indoor practice facility, his shirt tucked into belted shorts, a straw hat perched atop his head. And he was shouting.
Typical Saban, you might think, the late-2000s image mirroring so many snapshots of college footballâs de facto emperor a decade later. But this particular winter day was different. The subject of his ire wasnât a mere missed block. It wasnât shoddy technique or a gloomy attitude. It was a 6-foot, 205-pound Floridian with 4.4 speed struggling to cope with injuries, then with a program-altering transition, and now trudging toward an exit. Literally.
Roy Upchurch, hobbled by ankle surgery, had had enough. Sabanâs unforgiving demands had pushed him to the brink. With five minutes remaining in a conditioning drill, his sweat-drenched body and weary mind gave in.
Saban, as uncompromising as ever, rode the running back to the door, and later chided him with a piercing dig.
If you canât commit to this, Saban boomed â the exact words lost to time but the message still vivid â from now on, youâre going to be known as âIrrelevant Roy.â"
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Read the rest HERE
