Coach Saban upset with high expectations

[BamaMoon]

Well bless your little hearts.

I'm not hurt or mad. I just expect more than what I saw last Saturday night. It was truly a comedy of errors out there.

But CNS is not paid to preach at the fans, he's paid to coach football and when he's contractually obligated to meet with the media, he needs to leave the fans out of it IMO.

 

[Probius]

I am torn - a part of me agrees with Saban that the fans just don't seem to appreciate what it takes to win on the road in the SEC anymore. You know that the SEC is the best conference in the country, and you know how tough the SEC West is, but a one point win against Arkansas is a disappointment because Alabama did not play to a standard.

On the other hand, the process is all about playing to a standard and not getting fixated on the scoreboard. Alabama did not play to their standard, and the final score doesn't change that.

My concern really is that this is exactly the type of thing that will push Saban into retirement. Rip him for criticizing the fans and you may just be looking for a replacement.

That's my concern as well. The Bama fan base ran off Coach Stallings because he couldn't recreate the '92 season, and couldn't beat Spurrier. I have been thinking about this since Coach Saban was hired in '07, I wondered at that time how the fan base would handle the amount of success I knew would come.


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[Alasippi]

In the 64 NC season, every SEC game practically was a nail biter. We were behind late in almost all except Ga, Vandy Tulane and Auburn.
Bear was praised every week, even worshiped. We won the da_n games. 65 was just as ugly but what mattered was we won. I bet everyone on this forum knows how many NC"S we have.... and yes I remember many a dropped punt, interception, fumble and even a well regarded Q'back throwing the ball out of bounds to stop the clock when it was 4th down. But we won the games that mattered. Did we not win Saturday ? I'll leave to ya'll self appointed experts to tell the coach how it should have happened
Roll Tide.

I LOVE this post. I remember those days well and let me tell you, you are absolutely right..
Even in national championship years, many of Coach Bryant's teams had to struggle to win close ones.
I remember listening to John Forney, in 64, a championship season, as Steve Sloan drove the team 80 yards in a couple of minutes, against Ole Miss, to score, and win 10-8.
I was ecstatic. The fans were ecstatic. The world was great!
Nowadays, the thread titles would be, "Has Bryant Lost It"?, or, "We Can't Run or Throw the Football"...
The negativity this season really needs to change. It's not going to accomplish anything.
sip

 

[crimsonaudio]

Did we not win Saturday ? I'll leave to ya'll self appointed experts to tell the coach how it should have happened

Be honest - did the team you've see play this season (especially the last two weeks) resemble the paradigm that CNS has repeatedly put forth as to what the team should look like? Not even close, and that's the point. He has told us over and over what we should expect, he has everything any coach could ever ask for at his fingertips, yet when we expect the very things he's told us to, it's too much?

It appears some feel the coach is beyond reproach.

 

[alwayshavebeen]

Audio, I know where you're coming from, but he's been saying this same thing since he's been here, even in the national title years.
I'll say this--I've never seen so much fan negativity as this year. It started before the season, got a little better after the Florida game, and returned with a vengeance after Ole Miss and Arkansas.
One thing Coach Saban KNOWS, is that, in this day of constant communication, his players KNOW what fans and critics are saying about them. They read the papers, tweets, posts etc.
That makes the fans reactions more important than ever, because it can actually effect player attitudes in my opinion.
I mean, I don't know about everybody else, but if thousands of people told me how bad I was on a daily basis, it wouldn't exactly fire me up to try to do my job.
I think Coach Saban said what he said in defense of his team, because he knows they'll see him do it, and he's trying to turn it into a motivational positive.
He's a very smart man. He knows that fans are going to react, especially after a loss and a poor performance, so he suddenly goes on a mission to show his team how much he's in their corner, because he knows, they'll know it. They'll see the presser, or they'll read about it. It's naive to think they won't.
I think it's brilliant coaching, personally.
The players see that and they think, "Coach has our back".
Think about it. The guy's making 7 million a year, has an incredible record at Bama, and a talent base that will get better and better.
Do you really think he gives a whatever about high expectations? No.
He knew what the expectations were when he took the job, and he's performed beyond them, brilliantly.
The kicker here is, his expectations are higher than ours. Nobody wants to win championships more than Coach S.
That's what makes him the best coach in college football.
sip

You just said what I was thinking, except in far more words Coach is using one of the oldest and most effective strategies the game has ever known..."Leave my kids alone.They are playing their butts off" IMO he is rallying the locker room and the beauty is he hasn't ever used this before...Therefore it could be very effective. As sip said "brilliant"!

 

[RTR91]

Be honest - did the team you've see play this season (especially the last two weeks) resemble the paradigm that CNS has repeatedly put forth as to what the team should look like? Not even close, and that's the point. He has told us over and over what we should expect, he has everything any coach could ever ask for at his fingertips, yet when we expect the very things he's told us to, it's too much?

It's the players' fault, not the coaches.

It appears some feel the coach is beyond reproach.

Someone made a similar comment last year during the discussion about Mrs. Terry's entitlement comments and even made the comparison to how Penn State fans acted towards JoePa and the Sandusky situation. Some are getting close to that level with Saban.

 

[EscaTider]

I'll just add this: I respect CNS and I am VERY appreciative of what he has brought to the University and for the success we've enjoyed. I do, however, grow increasingly weary of constantly being told how to act as a fan. I also grow increasingly weary of the segment of our fan base that has the attitude of "Saban is ALWAYS right...how dare a meager fan question him...he'll fix it, he's Nick Saban...trust the process...it's always the players' fault, never Saban's... etc."

Folks, he isn't a deity. He's a football coach and he's one of the best...ever. But he needs to move past these trivial things that he's hung up on and work to correct the issues that are actually plaguing the team. He's being WELL compensated to run the program and that includes having to endure a restless fanbase from time to time.

 

[BamaMoon]

Audio, I know where you're coming from, but he's been saying this same thing since he's been here, even in the national title years.
I'll say this--I've never seen so much fan negativity as this year. It started before the season, got a little better after the Florida game, and returned with a vengeance after Ole Miss and Arkansas.
One thing Coach Saban KNOWS, is that, in this day of constant communication, his players KNOW what fans and critics are saying about them. They read the papers, tweets, posts etc.
That makes the fans reactions more important than ever, because it can actually effect player attitudes in my opinion.
I mean, I don't know about everybody else, but if thousands of people told me how bad I was on a daily basis, it wouldn't exactly fire me up to try to do my job.
I think Coach Saban said what he said in defense of his team, because he knows they'll see him do it, and he's trying to turn it into a motivational positive.
He's a very smart man. He knows that fans are going to react, especially after a loss and a poor performance, so he suddenly goes on a mission to show his team how much he's in their corner, because he knows, they'll know it. They'll see the presser, or they'll read about it. It's naive to think they won't.
I think it's brilliant coaching, personally.
The players see that and they think, "Coach has our back".
Think about it. The guy's making 7 million a year, has an incredible record at Bama, and a talent base that will get better and better.
Do you really think he gives a whatever about high expectations? No.
He knew what the expectations were when he took the job, and he's performed beyond them, brilliantly.
The kicker here is, his expectations are higher than ours. Nobody wants to win championships more than Coach S.
That's what makes him the best coach in college football.
sip

I see your point, but here's what I think might be more effective:

What if he "went off" on the team, instead of the fans, and told them, not the fans, he expects a better effort. He could continue by saying the Bama football program has the greatest fans in college football and they deserve better than what we are giving them.

It just seems to me that CNS's "anger" was misdirected today.

 

[alwayshavebeen]

Someone made a similar comment last year during the discussion about Mrs. Terry's entitlement comments and even made the comparison to how Penn State fans acted towards JoePa and the Sandusky situation. Some are getting close to that level with Saban.

That is utterly ridiculous. Period.

 

[BamaMoon]

I'll just add this: I respect CNS and I am VERY appreciative of what he has brought to the University and for the success we've enjoyed. I do, however, grow increasingly weary of constantly being told how to act as a fan. I also grow increasingly weary of the segment of our fan base that has the attitude of "Saban is ALWAYS right...how dare a meager fan question him...he'll fix it, he's Nick Saban...trust the process...it's always the players' fault, never Saban's... etc."

Folks, he isn't a deity. He's a football coach and he's one of the best...ever. But he needs to move past these trivial things that he's hung up on and work to correct the issues that are actually plaguing the team. He's being WELL compensated to run the program and that includes having to endure a restless fanbase from time to time.

Good post!

 

[CullmanTide]

That's my concern as well. The Bama fan base ran off Coach Stallings because he couldn't recreate the '92 season, and couldn't beat Spurrier. I have been thinking about this since Coach Saban was hired in '07, I wondered at that time how the fan base would handle the amount of success I knew would come.


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The Bama fan base loved Coach Stallings and had zero to do with his departure. There was friction between him and then AD Bob Bockrath.

 

[B1GTide]

The entire discussion is subjective. Everyone is going to have an opinion, and opinions are going to differ widely. But blind support of Saban cannot and should not be compared to what happened at Penn State. That comes close to Godwin's Law.

If Saban is entitled to his opinion of the fans, so are the fans entitled to their opinion of him. In spite of his mistakes, my opinion of him is still pretty high.

 

[CrimsonForce]

What's ironic to me is CNS always preaches it's about the process and not about the results. But isn't the only reason he is proud of how the team competed because we squeaked out a 1 point victory? What if Arkansas had gone down the field on that last drive and kicked a field goal and won the game? I don't think CNS would be talking about how proud he was of how the team competed. Conversely, most fans are disappointed in the process, or the lack of preparation during the week which seemingly lead to the the lack of focus and effort on the field. You see coach, most fans are disappointed in the way we played, not the result. We appreciate all of the hard work that coach puts in. And like I said in an earlier comment, I don't expect to go undefeated and win the SEC and NC every year. If we lose to LSU, AU, OU, or another elite program I am generally not disappointed. If we start losing to OM and Arkansas, then yes call me disappointed..

 

[B1GTide]

What's ironic to me is CNS always preaches it's about the process and not about the results. But isn't the only reason he is proud of how the team competed because we squeaked out a 1 point victory?

My interpretation - he was proud of the players for continuing to play hard in spite of the adversity that they faced as well as their ability to overcome that adversity. I don't think that it is just the win, but also the attitude.

 

[westide]

Since there appears to be a transient kink in the process, I will lower my expectations. I just wish coach would tell me how much lower my expectations should be.

 

[Alasippi]

My interpretation - he was proud of the players for continuing to play hard in spite of the adversity that they faced as well as their ability to overcome that adversity. I don't think that it is just the win, but also the attitude.

Absolutely. A great coach is going to defend his players.

 

[CrimsonForce]

My interpretation - he was proud of the players for continuing to play hard in spite of the adversity that they faced as well as their ability to overcome that adversity. I don't think that it is just the win, but also the attitude.

I think you are right about that. I guess my point was that if you take the result out and just look at how we played, by almost any standard we played poorly. I think we had the lowest rushing yards since 2007 or something like that. And this wasn't a vaunted Arkansas defense. Not to mention all the other miscues in the game. Saban keeps referencing intangible things that are opinion based and can't really be quantified. Of course as has been stated by just about everyone, the coach is entitled to his opinion and the fans and everyone else are entitled to their opinion. It's just easier for someone to argue intangible facets of the game rather than the hard facts of what actually happened. Like someone else said, I just wish coach would take a cue from Belichick (SP?) and not give the media anything or react to anything they say. Seems like once or twice a year he blows up and gives Sportcenter and other news media a clip to play that looks like he's pitching a fit. They just show the clip of him blowing up without any context. I love coach and think most fans do and we are lucky to have him. I just don't have sympathy or don't know what to say to somebody who is seemingly complaining about expectations when that person is making over $7 Million dollars per year to coach football..

 

[RTR91]

That is utterly ridiculous. Period.

This overall "Saban is right; he does no wrong and can't take any blame for anything" mindset is the beginning to how Penn State fans felt about Joe Pa.

 

[TideFan in AU]

Be honest - did the team you've see play this season (especially the last two weeks) resemble the paradigm that CNS has repeatedly put forth as to what the team should look like? Not even close, and that's the point. He has told us over and over what we should expect, he has everything any coach could ever ask for at his fingertips, yet when we expect the very things he's told us to, it's too much?

It appears some feel the coach is beyond reproach.

I'm not hurt or mad. I just expect more than what I saw last Saturday night. It was truly a comedy of errors out there.

But CNS is not paid to preach at the fans, he's paid to coach football and when he's contractually obligated to meet with the media, he needs to leave the fans out of it IMO.

Do any of you not think CNS doesn't see the same thing? Do you really think he happy or satisfied with how we've played? He acknowledged the issues while most fans were basking in the glow of stomping UF. It's obvious to me that he is trying to resolve the issues, but non of the coaches can make the players make all the right decisions on the field. He obviously feels that this team has lost their confidence, and he thinks that positive reinforcement is the best chance of getting them to regain it. We went on the road last week and a lot of guys got physically beat up. I've seen teams get beat before and it affects you in the next game. There's the old coaching adage - "Don't let them beat you twice." - and I've seen it happen to teams after we beat them. We've seen whole programs seemingly fold up after some of our wins over them.

If CNS thinks that going to bat and tempering the expectations with this team will help them regain confidence, I can handle it. Would you rather see CNS panicking like many fans are? The chances are is that CNS really isn't talking to and about people that are pointing out the obvious problems and saying what we need to improve on. Everybody knows that. He's probably talking to and about the idiots out there that are tweeting at kids about the performance, bashing Blake, Christion, Kiffin, etc, etc. Look around other boards, facebook, twitter, and even some posts here and you'll see a whole lotta stupid. There's people out there that have screamed how "disgraceful" and "embarrassing" to lose to OM and almost get beat by Arky, and that is exactly what he means by a lot of fans not respecting our opponents. I agree with him on that. There's some truly embarrassing things that have been said, and if CNS is calling them out, I have no problem with it.

It is humorous to me that so many of you feel that it is totally fine to criticize CNS as much as you want, but if he says anything at all about the fans, it is "embarrassing the University", "He needs to shut up and coach", and "I'm tired of hearing whining from the gazillionaire and his wife". That's ironically ironic to me.

 

[CrimsonForce]

This overall "Saban is right; he does no wrong and can't take any blame for anything" mindset is the beginning to how Penn State fans felt about Joe Pa.

No one is, or should be, beyond reproach.