Tyler from Spartanburg? Nick Saban Has His Own Way of Dealing with Expectations

Saban has dealt with expectations and complacency from fans throughout his time in Tuscaloosa — he simply doesn't care about the opinion from the outside.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was a part of one of the biggest stories of the college football season last week on his radio show.

A "Tyler from Spartanburg" called in and doubted the necessity for Swinney to make his large salary when the Tigers are underperforming, like they are this season.

Swinney essentially said that nobody can tell him what to do or how to act because of the past success of the program without much historical prominence.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been through the ups and downs as well, on a different degree. After six national championships in 13 years, two-loss seasons don't cut it in Tuscaloosa. Losing at home to Texas in September was another example.

On Wednesday's SEC teleconference, Saban said that his main priority is to keep the outside noise, well, outside.

"Well, I didn't really hear what [Swinney] had to say, so I can't really comment on it but the way I try to manage it is ... focus on the game we're playing," Saban said. "Trying to get our team prepared to play the best that they can play. Don't listen to the noise outside, whether it's good noise, bad noise, rat poison, whatever. And try to keep our team focused on the task at hand. You can have this go both ways. When you have success sometimes, you get complacent. When you get criticized, it's frustrating."

"But, best thing I do is just not listen to it either way and stay focused on what's in front of you. [...] I think that's what you count on [from] your staff, the people that work in the organization. [...] Outside noise, to me, whether it creates expectation or is criticism, is really insignificant. I don't know what some guy puts on the internet that's sitting in his basement all day with nothing else to do — I don't know what that means to us."

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