Hey Coach and the Nick Saban Show | South Florida Week

The Alabama head coach joins Eli Gold and the Crimson Tide Sports Network to talk about the football program as they get set for Tampa this weekend.

The Crimson Tide Sports Network hosts its weekly "Hey Coach Show" on Thursday nights during the fall. The program is hosted live at Baumhower's Victory Grille next to the University of Alabama campus.

This week's edition is the fifth of the fall semester and Alabama football head coach Nick Saban will be in attendance to talk about the Texas loss and preview the upcoming matchup against the South Florida Bulls.

Eli Gold will be joined by Nick Saban as always, but the early part of the episode will be featuring Margo Geer from the Alabama swimming program, special guests from the tennis program and the media guest will be Jim Dunaway from The Next Round Live.

Dunaway will surely ask Saban about his comments on The Pat McAfee Show earlier today where he claimed to be nowhere near retirement.

"I think the rumors about me retiring started about five years ago and it's kind of laughable..

I love what I'm doing and I'm focused on the challenge" ~ Nick Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/YWpq7huGsN

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 14, 2023

Follow our Live Blog if you can't listen in as we'll update the highlights from the program below.

OUR LIVE BLOG EXPERIENCED SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES:

MORE UPDATES FROM HEY COACH: 

* Nick Saban "The motivation from the players has to come from them so we'll see how that continues to develop but I've been encouraged by what I've seen this week."

* Jim Dunaway "I had gotten my handicap in golf down to an 11 - I've not shot well one time since! Why does that happen to me? Why can't I sustain it?"

Nick Saban "I think you create expectations and the expectations make you a lot more outcome oriented rather than focused on the little things in front of you that get you the outcome you want to get. Whether it's how you practice, or how you focus on a particular shot, you're worried about 'Am I going to break 80?' We're in such an outcome oriented world because there's so much that affects our mindset it's hard to focus on what's right in front of you."

* Jim Dunaway "would you rather have 4 hours on a golf course or 4 hours on Lake Burton?"

Nick Saban "well we have a nice golf course on Lake Burton so why would I choose between the two of them when I can have both?"

* Restaurant Patron "Coach do you have any advice on how to maintain consistency?

Nick Saban "I guess if I had to refer to what I talked about before. I guess I'm just paranoid. I always think someone's out to get me so I'm always focused on what's coming next. You have to be a perfectionist of sorts. You have to have a very high standard of how you want to do things, not somebody else but what you want to do....everybody's been on a diet at some point and time. You've got the goal, you want to lose 10 pounds. Where do you fail? The process is defined the goal is defined but three days in your eating pie and ice cream. So you don't have the self-discipline to do the things that you need to do to accomplish your goal. I think routine builds confidence and I think that helps you do the things you need to do to be successful.

We all have self imposed limitations, that's your buy-in. In my own mind, this is the level of commitment, so you should have the same level of expectations. Everybody doesn't want to do hard..."

* Nick Saban, "if you want to be successful get paranoid."

*Harrison on the phone "How do you balance what you did wrong in the last game with preparing for the next game?

Nick Saban "I think that we give the players 24-hours, to celebrate a win or a loss. We'll take all the things on Monday everything that we messed up in the game and talk about what we need to improve on and then we turn the page and say ok here's a scouting report on the next team. Each day in practice the players know what we're going to practice."

* Jim Dunaway "what does it mean to you and the program when the players come back to watch?"

Nick Saban "it means everything to me. That players want to come back and that they have great pride in what they accomplished here and great experiences and made great relationships here. That they appreciate the fact that something was done to help them be successful."

Nick Saban "you're an Alabama Crimson Tide player forever."

* Jim Dunaway "what's the value in playing in Tampa?"

Nick Saban "Well Florida has been a real asset to us in recruiting for many, many years. For the players that we have on the team to be able to go back, that's a good experience for them. It's great exposure for the program to play in the state of Florida because there are a lot of good players in central Florida as well as all over the state."

Nick Saban "Pat McAfee is a hoot. I kind of enjoy doing it with him because you never know what he's going to say next."

* Listener question, "Can our assistant coaches go out on the road and recruit on Friday nights?"

Nick Saban "You're allowed to go out during fall evaluation time. If you send three coaches out this week that's three days. I try to keep a balance of which coaches do we want to be here with the team and which coaches do we want to go out?"

* Restaurant question "Coach are there any specific points of emphasis this week?"

Nick Saban "There's always points of emphasis. Our points this week really were about developing consistency in performance and not helping the other team to beat you"

* Jim Dunaway "What was your favorite part about Friday nights?"

Nick Saban "The old traditions that the community related to the school. Monongah, everybody that lived in Monongah went to the game. Everybody bet on the game! They used to stand behind the bench and say we got to score again so we can cover. Meffs was the little joint where there were two pool tables, a card table and a pinball machine. If you won we got a roll of nickels and we got to play the pinball table. If you lost, they wouldn't let you in because we were all underage."

Nick Saban's Final Word: "Well you know, we've all had to suffer through critiscim and things we didn't do well. We don't want to waste the failure that we had. Adversity sometimes breaks you and sometimes it makes you great. The players worked hard this week and I think we'll respond the right way. I'm really proud of the guys. I'm disappointed in the game like everybody else. There's good chemistry on this team. I think we've just got to get the right players in the right spot. If we learn from our failings we're going to have a chance to do everything we want to do."

Each week the hosts get insight from coaches and take questions from callers and crowd members in the restaurant. It's typically an opportunity for the coaches to show a bit more personality than in their traditional media settings and over the years the program has produced a number of memorable moments.

The program can be heard throughout the state by way of the Crimson Tide Sports Network affiliates and airs from 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. CT.

If you can't listen via the airwaves the TuneIn Radio App is a great way to listen live.

See Also: 

The Million Dollar Band on The Joe Gaither Show