CECIL HURT: Saban says, 'It’s a work in progress’

If Nick Saban has instantly upgraded Alabama football in any area, it would have to be quotability.

Saban showed off that aptitude again at his Thursday pre-spring press conference, dashing off memorable phrases as if they were quick sideline passes, striking his targets efficiently.

Asked about team leadership, for instance, he deftly sidestepped the stock answer and made an incisive point.

“When we have a really good team here," Saban said, “we won’t need leaders.

“Sheep need a leader. Sheep need a sheepdog, right?

“Here’s my point. When you have a lot of people who set the right example -- and if I’m a player, that means I don’t need someone else to get me geeked up to play -- if you have a team full of guys like that, we’ll be much better off."

Now, “sheep need a leader" will probably enter the lexicon of most fervent Alabama fans. So will “making a pizza," a fairly graphic description of, well, the end result of the gastric disturbance that can afflict a player who isn’t in shape for a difficult winter workout. Saban used the euphemism in describing a player who was unable to complete the rigorous training regimen without “making a pizza." Most people caught on immediately to what he was saying, and understood that the (mercifully anonymous) player in question wasn’t likely to start spring practice on Saturday in the head coach’s good graces.

Those comments -- and a few others that were just as memorable -- will make perfect sound bytes, and will probably highlight the coverage of Saban’s press conference for the next day or two, at least until Alabama once again takes the practice field on Saturday afternoon.

That’s even more true as Saban adamantly and understandably refused to speculate on football players that he has never even seen in a practice.

He praised the team collectively as “very willing" in the off-season conditioning program, though yet another memorable anecdote, about the implied difficulty in running 10x10 sprints, indicated that there is still a long way to go.

With all the colorful answers and ringing extended metaphors, though, some of Saban’s more telling remarks seemed to pass by more quietly. In fact, his best answer may have come to a fairly offbeat question about whether he took “perverse pleasure" in some of his team’s shortcomings, since those inadequacies also create the easiest openings for him to impose the Nick Saban stamp on this team.

“I didn’t intend that," Saban said. Then he gave an answer that may have been more revealing than the questioner himself intended.

“Everybody wants to be successful," Saban said. “Does everyone know what it takes to be successful? The consistency, the commitment? It doesn’t please me not to be there. It will please me when we get there."

There are two ways to take that answer. The most obvious, of course, is as a direct reference, with Saban speaking to his team. But there was also an undercurrent that might have been flowing in another direction. Perhaps it was also implied that it’s not just 19-year old football players who “want" to be successful. After all, Saban said “everybody." So that might also means fans, and administrators, and everyone connected with the Alabama program. As Alabama struggles through one of its toughest overall athletic years ever, perhaps Saban was asking his question – “does everyone know what it takes?" -- to more than just his players.

Perhaps that’s reading far too much into a straightforward answer. Even with the support of another answer, to a question about what constitutes a successful spring, it could be a stretch. In response to that query. Saban said that the hallmark of a successful spring would include “consistency of performance," because that would have far-reaching ramifications.

“We’re building a program here," he said. “We’re trying to build every aspect. It’s a work in progress."

“Building a program" is not as colorful a phrase as “making a pizza" turned out to be. But it might be the more memorable – and revealing – answer from Thursday.

Cecil Hurt is sports editor of the Tuscaloosa News. Reach him at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225