I feel like I’ve been very blessed to have some great mentors through the years, starting with Don James, who was my college coach, who really inspired me to want to be a coach, which is not something that I really had in mind. – Nick Saban
You can blame the other guy for saying it, or you can look at yourself and say, ‘I must have contributed to this.’ – Nick Saban
When you play quarterback, you have to process information quickly, get the ball out of your hand to the right guy. – Nick Saban
Mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people. – Nick Saban
When I talk about a successful program, define that. It’s not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that. – Nick Saban
There’s certain things that I was taught growing up about not quitting and seeing things through. I think if I would have come home and told my dad that I was going to quit the team, I think he would have kicked me out of the house. I don’t think I’d have a place to stay. – Nick Saban
The way I look at it is, if you don’t want somebody to know something, don’t say it. If you don’t want them to see you do something, don’t do it. – Nick Saban
One of these days when I’m finished coaching at Alabama, I’ll write an authorized book because there’s only one expert on my life, and guess who that is… me. And there won’t be any misinformation. There won’t be any false statements. There won’t be any hearsay. There won’t be any expert analysis from anybody else. It will be the real deal. – Nick Saban
Everybody thinks when I say a guy is a good game manager, that’s a negative, but I think it’s a real positive. You have the ball in your hand every time when you’re a quarterback. Whether you’re handing it off or throwing to somebody, I think that’s extremely important. – Nick Saban
The thing I like about college football so much is you can affect these guys a lot more when they are 18-22, 23 years old in terms of people and having a chance to be more successful. They are still a value type development, where you have a chance to help them mature a bit and help them be a little more successful in life. – Nick Saban
I think people always assume that every team has great intangibles, and that’s not necessarily right. – Nick Saban
I think a lot of times you have to face your fears. I think everybody has to face their fears. – Nick Saban
I want what’s best for people who want to improve the quality of their life. I hope whoever our leader is will do all that he can do to make our country safe and improve the quality of life for a lot of the people we have in our country, and I don’t think I am qualified to determine who that should be. – Nick Saban
One thing about championship teams is that they’re resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity. – Nick Saban
I think anytime you play somebody on a yearly basis, you develop a history for what they like to do. – Nick Saban
We all have anxiety about things. We all have little insecurities, but eventually you have to face your fears if you want to be successful, and everybody has some fear of failure. – Nick Saban
What makes Freddy Krueger such a horrible character? What makes him scare you to death? You can’t get rid of the guy. He never goes away. – Nick Saban
