On May 3rd, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban appeared on Atlanta’s 790 The Zone as part of the Chick-Fil-A Celebrity Golf Tournament. The following are the insights shared by this great leader.
- “You got a great player but you got a better person.” – Saban on the Atlanta Falcons drafting Julio Jones
- “There aren’t any perfect players anywhere.”
- “There is a difference between sheltering players and supporting them.”
- “We define what we expect players to do and then hold them accountable to do it.”
- “He (Jones) is all about what he has to do to become a great player.”
- “Getting drafted is the beginning of your opportunity, not the end.”
- “The first part of our Pyramid of Success is be a team. Respect and trust your teammates. Respect and trust the values of your organization.”
- “You can’t win together if you don’t work together.”
- “They can have more success if they (positively) affect other players.”
- “The thing that scares me the most (when recruiting) is what is the psychological disposition of that person to be successful.”
- “We love to have the guys that have the competitive character but you have to develop the other guys or you’re not going to have enough players to go around.”
- “The statue is representative of the team…It’s also a reflection of the institution.”
- “It’s not about who the head coach was. It was about who all made us successful.”
- “It’s the one (loss to Auburn) that give us the best opportunity to learn from in terms of not finishing.”
- “When you play good teams…they’re not going away…You have to play the next play.”
Here is a few additional quotes from other coaches at the event.
South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier
- “If I had another guy just as good, similar, the other guy would be in…But we just felt like he (QB Stephen Garcia) was our best player so we just lived with whatever mistakes he made.”
- “He’s (Garcia) not been arrested lately and hasn’t done anything too stupidly. He has some immature acts that causes some problems around the school.”
Miami Hurricane head coach Al Golden
- “How do we create more value from our 20 hours a week and our 4 hours a day than the other 14 teams we play.”
- “The best CEOs setup an organization that can endure year in and year out.”
- “We have to get the ‘Right 20’, not the ‘Best 20′” – On the 20 players the team recruits each year.
- “The best players don’t always make the best team. The best team always wins.”
- “Great teams have both the presence of wins and talent and the absence of distractions. We’ve got to get away from what we can and can’t do. We got to get to where we should and shouldn’t do.”
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