Alabama coach Nick Saban has a reputation as a no-nonsense coach who devotes long hours preparing his teams for success. That means assistants have to work long hours, too.
On Wednesday, the five-time national championship coach was asked if the high turnover on the staff in recent years is any indication that he’s difficult to work for.
“Well, I don’t know,” Saban said. “You have to ask some of the people that work for me. Always interesting that, you know, they may say that, but then when they get a job and they go do it, they do it exactly like we did it. So, I don’t know.”
Saban said being a head coach is more difficult today than when he first started in the business. Recruiting is year-round, there are 125 players on the team to manage and lots of tough decisions have to be made.
“So am I willing to do that? Absolutely,” Saban said. “So you have to make a choice and decision: You want to do it right, or you want to make everybody happy? No different than raising your children. I go through this with Terry when we’re raising our kids. She wanted to make them happy, and I wanted to make them do right.
“I like for them to do right and be happy doing right. That’s what I’d like for them to do. And that’s the same thing I like for our coaches.”
