After his instantly infamous meltdown speech last week, Alabama Coach Nick Saban was probably relieved that his boys pitched a shutout during their landslide victory on Saturday. The Crimson Tide's 59-0 rout of Texas A&M is more like what fans and press are used to from the perennial powerhouse. But Saban let loose last week when a reporter asked him if he was frustrated. He let everyone know that the primary source of his frustration was the undue pressure placed on him and his boys every year and every week. But fans and press are probably just happy to see that Tide quarterback and Heisman candidate Blake Sims ran for a 43-yard touchdown.
Coach Saban, according to Mark Torrence of Bleacher Report, has the hardest job in college football. It's an easy argument to make. After all, Alabama has one of the most successful programs in the history of the NCAA. But it seems impossible for the Tide to please everyone all the time:
"Everybody's got such a high expectation for what our team should be. I was just happy to see our players be happy about playing a game and winning. And it really, sort of, if you want to know the truth about it, pisses me off when I talk to people that have this expectation like they are disappointed that we only won the game 14-13 and in the way we played... That's frustrating, to me, for our players, who play with a lot of heart in the game."
You could scarcely write a better monologue for a Hollywood movie. The coach of a team known for winning is just trying to get his kids to see the value of playing with heart and commitment. Oh, and the occasional blowout victory, if for no other reason than to keep people off his back.
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