Earlier this week, Alabama head coach Nick Saban took umbrage with Crimson Tide fans who, no longer satisfied with simply winning, bemoan their team for not blowing out their opponents week-in and week-out. While Saban’s rant about “self-absorbed” fans made headlines, lost in his comments about certain fans was how the seven-time national champion supported his players by saying that kind of mentality was not fair to the team.
Saturday, Saban and his players got to reap the rewards of a victory that was far from easy to earn. For most of the Iron Bowl, the Crimson Tide was shut out by Auburn, which led 10-0 at the start of the fourth quarter. But on a 97-yard drive that began with 1:03 left to play, Alabama scored a touchdown to force overtime, in which they prevailed to win by a score of 24-22.
In the post-game locker room, Saban was seen celebrating with his players, showing off the 70-year old coaching icon’s more jovial side.
Earlier in the week, Saban had said that the mentality that Alabama should be winning by such-and-such score was not fair to his players, “because our players work their butt off to be the best that they can be.” Saturday, Saban’s happiness in his post-game press conference largely derived from how he felt the players came together as a team, and how they went from trying to avoid being shut out to stunning their most bitter rival on the road.
“I think I’ll remember this one for the way the players competed in the game. It was a great comeback,” Saban said after the game. “There [were] many times when those guys, we could have just thrown in the towel and said they had great field position, if they score one more time, this game’s probably over — and we’d always get a sack or a stop. It’s the feeling of being on a team.
“The feeling of togetherness of everybody making a commitment to each other, be positive, trust and believe in each other enough to go out there and make the kind of plays they made, especially at the end of the game, that makes it a special win. You don’t experience that a lot, so when you do — and we certainly did tonight — you always remember it.”
After a remarkable victory in rivalry week, Alabama’s next step towards trying to defend their national championship will be a showdown with the No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs in next weekend’s SEC Championship Game on CBS.
