Only Nick Saban would find a way to complain about winning a National Championship. "That damn game cost me a week of recruiting," Saban told Warren St. John in a recent profile in GQ Magazine. The biggest name is college football is only concerned with getting better and this article is an excellent look into the mind of one of the greatest coaches to take the field.
St. John is an Alabama native and former New York Times reports. He spent time with the Alabama coach over the summer for his piece, "Sympathy For The Devil." The title is a reference to Saban's nicknames like "Nicky Satan" or "the devil himself" given to the coach by those who secretly admire him.
"I obviously have grown up an Alabama fan, and I've watched him on the sidelines many times and in press conferences and interviews," St. John said in an interview with AL.com/The Birmingham News. "I had a view of him from the stands. I wanted to meet him and understand him a little bit and figure out what kind of guy he was when he wasn't coaching a game or behind a lectern at a press conference."
Several great notes came out of the piece. The biggest is just how focused on recruiting Saban is. Alabama has consistently turned out top recruiting classes under his watch which has resulted in winning three out of the last four national titles. Saban takes one small vacation during the offseason and the rest is spent meeting potential players, participating in charity golf tournaments or coaching in youth clinics.
"His job encompasses so many different roles. He is a head coach. He is a head recruiter. He is the face of Alabama athletics. He is a charity fundraiser, a university fundraiser. He is all these different things. So people might get the idea he is an incredible multi-tasker, a guy who does a bunch of things at the same time. And again, I found the opposite to be true," St. John writes.
Saban will once again take that mindset into the 2013 season. Alabama is defending back-to-back champions and the pressure is on to put together another top season. With a roster filled with new faces, a few young players are returning with bigger expectations.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper and running back TJ Yeldon both blew people away during their freshmen campaigns. Yeldon is already being placed in Heisman consideration since he is now the lead running back after Eddie Lacy left for the NFL. Cooper will headline the best receiving corps Alabama has had in years. With AJ McCarron manning the offense and Saban and Kirby Smart behind the clipboards, another top season is not that hard to imagine.