Everyone knows that the Universty of Alabama is currently one of the best college football dynasties ever. Since 2009 Nick Saban has guided the Alabama football team to 5 national championships. He has set a precedent at that school where the expectation is that every year they win the national championship. He has always been one of the most well-paid football coaches in the country, and the reason is that he produces results.
Like any successful person, sometimes we need to dig deeper and understand what it is that makes them succeed. Year after year players play Alabama Football and leave early for the NFL. It may seem like the team is depleted of all its talent and then they show up in the Championship game once again. That is not by luck; Nick Saban understands success and what it takes to get more of it.
Nick Saban Alabama Football Rules to Success
Focus on The Process
No one does a better job teaching and preaching the process than Nick Saban. He understands that success is not an event. Succes is what you do day in and out. Success is a habit you develop and once you prepare you can continue to be successful as long as you do not let your habits get away.
The process means that you don’t get lost in the big picture goals. You keep them in the back of your head, but you get to tomorrow by having a successful today. Focus on having a great day, and then you will eventually have a great week if you stack up enough great days. Most people focus on the event they want to happen, and it never comes because they let each day get away.
Do Your Job Well
The extension of focusing on the process means focusing on your job. Everyone has a role to play in life. If you focus on what other people are doing, that means you are not focused on what you are doing.
Nick Saban is always preaching to his guys that they need to focus on the play at hand. Don’t worry about the SEC championship, concentrate on getting this play right in front of you right. If all 11 men on the field do their jobs on every play, it will be impossible for them to fail.
Whether you lead a team or you are on a team, you need to know your exact role and make sure you execute it to perfection on a daily basis.
Learn From The Best
Nick Saban used to be the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns when Bill Belichick was the coach. It is no coincidence that one of the best NFL coaches mentored Nick Saban and helped him to succeed.
Mentorship plays a role in success in almost all fields and endeavors. There is no denying that having guidance from other people who are where we want to be can be a life-changing experience.
Raise Your Expectation
The best thing about Nick Saban is that he wants nothing to do with average. Nick Saban sets high expectations for his team, and he holds everyone around him to meet those high expectations.
Every year people outside of the Alabama Football fan base and athletic department expect that they will struggle. They have a million reasons why Nick Saban will struggle to succeed, and he proves them wrong.
His mindset is to dominate. Most people hope to win but not him. He wants to destroy the competition every year, and he does not want it even to be a close call. By doing this, what he does is create a culture that is always going to go above and beyond because success is not enough.
Recruit The Best
A big part of the success with Alabama Football is in his ability to bring in the best coaches and players. Nick Saban knows that you have to work with the best ingredients to make fantastic food. If you have subpar ingredients that final product will not be as good no matter how good the coach is.
Nick Saban has mastered landing the best of the best, but he is also very disciplined about who he recruits. He looks for particular athletes every year, and he knows when to pass on highly recruited players that may not fit his system. It takes discipline to know you can get almost anyone but sticking with the people you know will work out.
Anyone can apply this principle because we are always working with other people in some capacity. Any team that we lead we should be looking to work with the best of the best people. Using sub-par ingredients will only sabotage the taste of the dish in the end.
Mentor and Lead
Nick Saban has quite the coaching tree, and it makes sense. Everyone wants the type of success that he has had at Alabama. The best way to get that is to steal coaches on his staff. The list below shows that Nick Saban is a great leader. We know this because Great leaders produce leaders.
- Bobby Williams: Michigan State (1999–2002)
- Mark Dantonio: Cincinnati (2004–2006), Michigan State (2007–present)
- Derek Dooley: Louisiana Tech (2007–2009), Tennessee (2010–2012)
- Lane Kiffin: Oakland Raiders (2007-2008), Tennessee (2009), USC (2010-2013), FAU (2016–present)
- Mike Haywood: Miami (OH) (2009–2010), Texas Southern (2016–present)
- Jimbo Fisher: Florida State (2010–2017), Texas A&M (2018–present)
- Jason Garrett: Dallas Cowboys (2011–present)
- Will Muschamp: Florida (2011–2014), South Carolina (2016–present)
- Jim McElwain: Colorado State (2012–2014), Florida (2015–2017)
- Dan Quinn: Atlanta Falcons (2015-present)
- Adam Gase: Miami Dolphins (2016–present)
- Kirby Smart: Georgia (2016–present)
- Major Applewhite: Houston (2016–present)
- Mario Cristobal: Oregon (2017–present)
- Jeremy Pruitt: Tennessee (2018–present)
- Billy Napier: Louisiana–Lafayette (2018–present)
Make The Culture Stick
The one thing that no one has been able to fully duplicate the culture that Nick Saban has created at Alabama. That is the reason why they have had so many guys leave and go to the NFL, coaches leave for other jobs, and they keep winning.
A lot of it is because Nick Saban has built a winning culture. He has turned Alabama Football into a place you go to win football games and be great. You can take any of the parts away but you can never take that culture away from him.
Coach Profile
Position
- Head Coach of Alabama Crimson Tide
Previous Positions
- Miami Dolphins
- LSU Head Coach
- Michigan State
- Cleveland Browns
- Toledo
National Championships
- LSU (2003)
- Alabama (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017)
Height
- 5″6
Salary
- 8 years
- $74M
Nick Saban Family
- Wife – Terry
- They have two adopted children (Nicholas and Kristen)
Nick Saban Quotes
The process is really what you have to do day in and day out to be successful, we try to define the standard that we want everybody to sort of work toward, adhere to, and do it on a consistent basis. And the things that I talked about before, being responsible for your own self-determination, having a positive attitude, having great work ethic, having discipline to be able to execute on a consistent basis, whatever it is you’re trying to do, those are the things that we try to focus on, and we don’t try to focus as much on the outcomes as we do on being all that you can be.” – Nick Saban
“It’s not human nature to be great. It’s human nature to survive, to be average and do what you have to do to get by. That is normal. When you have something good happen, it’s the special people that can stay focused and keep paying attention to detail, working to get better and not being satisfied with what they have accomplished.” – Nick Saban
“We create a standard for how we want to do things and everybody’s got to buy into that standard or you really can’t have any team chemistry. Mediocre people don’t like high-achievers and high-achievers don’t like mediocre people.” – Nick Saban
“Your character is your accumulation of your thoughts, habits and priorities on a day-to-day basis.” – Nick Saban
“We have got to use every opportunity to improve individually so we can improve collectively.” – Nick Saban
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