Nick Saban Emphasizes Desire For a Self-Motivated Roster

The Crimson Tide is looking for fewer players requiring external motivation in order to reestablish the Alabama standard.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama Football concluded its 11th practice of fall camp on Tuesday as the start of the new year looms just 18 days away. Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban met with the media after practice and said the team needed more members committed to doing the little things that winning requires.

The leaders of the team are obvious. JC Latham, Kool-Aid McKinstry and Dallas Turner were on display at SEC Media Days in the summer and the average Alabama fan can identify Seth McLaughlin, Deontae Lawson and Justin Eboigbe as leaders as well.

In order to reach the goals established by the program Saban emphasized the need for more players to do the little things that winning requires. 

"You know there's a couple things about leadership," Saban said Tuesday night. "Everybody talks about leadership all the time. I think it's also important that, how many guys on the team need to be led? So if you've got a bunch of guys who are mature and going about things the right way, they're all setting a good example, they're all buying in. They're all doing the things they need to do so they don't really necessarily need somebody impact them everyday to do the right things. The more guys that we have that fit in that category, that's more important than the guys that are the leaders on the team because I think that's what you're trying to get. 

"Now, there are some guys that have an impact on other players. There's a couple guys on the offensive line that have provided some real good leadership. I think there's some guys on defense that have some maturity that've provided some leadership. We actually need it at every position because if you have guys at every position that are setting a good example everyday by what they do. It gives young players somebody to emulate and I think that's important. But I'll go back to my original point, the fewer guys that we have that need somebody to emulate the better off we're going to be."

Developing internally motivated players is key for the Crimson Tide to reestablish the "Bama Factor" that the coaching staff has been seeking for the last two seasons. It's clear Alabama has immense talent on the roster, but consistency in performance continues to be a theme of Saban's weekly meetings with the media through the first two weeks of fall camp.

See Also:

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