Nick Saban's Coaching Process: Role Acceptance the Key To Alabama's Success

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fla.) There are more parts to the Nick Saban coaching process than ingredients in a seven-course French meal, and just like a great chef, Nick Saban has learned it's the blending of the ingredients that matters the most.

Too much of one, or too little of another, means that it may not taste well to the diner, and getting the diner, or players in this case, to eat the whole meal depends on mixing everything just right.

One of the most important ingredients that I've noticed in meeting and talking to the players on his team is role acceptance.

More and more during Nick Saban's tenure at Alabama, the benches have been filling with players who were studs on their high school teams. These are young men much more accustomed to the starring role than the backup role, to being the source of the cheering, rather than cheering on a teammate.

To get these young men to swallow that bitter ingredient, many other things must be mixed in to make it palatable. For some, like Star Jackson, who recently left after seeing fourth place in the depth chart starring him in the face, it was just too much to swallow, but quarterback is that rare position where third or fourth string has little opportunity to contribute at another position.

But for others, like one of the nation's best defensive backs coming out of high school last year, Dre Kirkpatrick, other ingredients made cheering on teammates a lot easier to ingest.

First there was the ability to learn from the master at his position, so when his time did come, he would be better than when he came to the program. After all, having Nick Saban on your resume has certainly helped others make the NFL rosters.

Secondly, there was the ability to earn some playing time on special teams. For Kirkpatrick, it meant showing his speed and tackling ability as a gunner on the kickoff team. Gunner is the man whose responsibility it is to hunt and kill the return man by being the fastest and first down the field.

You can get a quick reputation on the special teams, and you're filling a very important role with that job. Kickoff and punt returns, or the lack of them, can change the momentum of a game in a heartbeat.

For others, it's filling a role on the scout team that prepares the first units for the upcoming opponents. It's maybe the most unseen role on the team for the fans, but one of the important pieces in making a team great.

Something I've noticed in almost every young man I've interviewed are the words, "playing my role," "prepare like a starter, play like a champion," and "opportunity."

Nick Saban is a master of not only getting young men to not accept their role, but to understand the importance of that role as well.

A good example comes from NASCAR.

Everyone sees the driver steering the car through the traffic, camera crews see the pit crew jump over the wall and gain their driver three places with a great pit stop, but if one of the dozens of employees back at the shop left a single bolt untightened on a shock absorber, the part fails later and the car slams into a wall and the whole team's day is over.

So Nick Saban pushes everyone to do their jobs, to prepare not only themselves, but their teammates to be the best they can be as well. He plays up the role the scout team has and makes the players there proud to be a member of it.

An old saying goes, "a championship team is deep to the last player on the bench, a good team has a good first unit only."

Secondly, because that old saying is so true, Nick has plenty of examples of second and third stringers who had to step up and contribute in a game, and even more examples of how their play helped win a game.

The time to get ready is not when the starter goes down, it's too late then; the time to be prepared started in the winter after the bowl game in the weight room. The preparation to contribute starts with the first practice and never ends.

Nick Saban instills in each man the desire to prepare like every game depended on you, because in the real world of college football with injuries and more, you never know when your time, or your "opportunity" will come.

Prepare like a starter, play like a champion.

Then the third part of accepting your role comes into place, opportunity.

When you talk to an Alabama player, you don't hear them say the words "playing time," you hear them say "opportunity."

A good example was someone I grew close to last year, Roy Upchurch, who spent more time on special teams than the running back position.

After one game, I asked Roy if he was disappointed in the amount of playing time he was getting at running back due to the success of Ingram and Richardson, and his reply was quick as lightning when he said, "we prepare because we all know that we will have opportunities come our way and just one opportunity can change a game."

That unselfishness is rampant on this team. I have yet to interview one player who was upset to play his role, to practice like a starter, with only the hope of playing like a champion and to accept his role.

Nick Saban's process is an ever evolving, multi-faceted, many ingredient course for a football player to digest; but just like a master chef, Saban has learned to mix it all together, blending different ingredients with different tastes into something that is not only easily swallowed, but pleasing as well.

Role acceptance may be one of the toughest for most to swallow, but somehow Saban has found a way to tenderize it and make it something to be savored. Maybe this is why so many of the future great ones still in high school are lining up to sit at the table in Tuscaloosa.