Nick Saban Pleased with ‘Positive Leadership’ Among Players
Nick Saban Pleased with ‘Positive Leadership’ : Nick Saban’s Alabama football team had an attitude of entitlement and lacked leadership last season, two of his major complaints.
Nick Saban vented his frustration with the squad numerous times throughout the year 2021, both in news conferences and on his weekly radio show, Hey Coach! Despite Saban’s best efforts to change his 2021 team’s mentality from “the poor mes” to that of a leadership role, the group consistently refused to get to work.
No doubt some athletes stepped up to the challenge when Coach Saban asked for leaders. Some examples of leaders from the previous season are quarterback Bryce Young and outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr., however, it is understandable if it was challenging for the young guns to lead the older, more experienced veterans on the team given that both players were only sophomores.
This past spring, Anderson confessed that a lack of leadership was a major reason in the previous season’s poor performance. There was, however, something he said that gave me hope for 2022.
“I believe it’s something that we really needed last year, just very solid, strong leadership,” Anderson remarked in early April. I feel like this year’s leadership team has done a great job of getting everyone on board with the new norms and initiatives so far.”
That message from Anderson back in the spring was clearly a portent of things to come. Although 2021 was not Alabama football’s best year in terms of leadership, this year’s squad has learned from its mistakes and is not aiming to repeat them, as Saban and his players have stressed throughout the spring and now through fall camp.
On Wednesday night, at Saban’s weekly press conference, the newest evidence of leadership improvement was presented. In response to a question on the team’s leadership this year, Saban didn’t try to hide the fact that he’s pleased with what he’s seen from his guys in practice thus far.
Statements
With some “very positive leadership,” Nick Saban is confident in his team. “There are players that take the lead, and we have some really strong players doing that, but there are also players who need to learn how to respond to the leadership of others. That means they accept responsibility for carrying out the directives of the leaders, something for which each individual must decide and pledge their willingness.”
Nick Saban rarely gives credit to his team’s leaders, and he certainly hasn’t done so this early in the preseason. He was as keen to point out the need to not only have players set a good example but also learn to follow it. Saban’s tone in both accounts suggests a degree of satisfaction that is unusual for him at this stage of preseason practice.
Saban continued by giving an illustration to back up his claim.
Nick Saban remarked, “It’s one thing to command things, but it’s another thing to take ownership for yourself so that you can buy into what people are asking of you.” “I mean, I’m a leader, I guess, but when I say “Run to the next drill” and everyone keeps walking, am I a lousy leader, or are they just not responding to leadership? That is the million-dollar question.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Okay, so we have good leadership, but people need to learn to respond to it and take ownership for the standard, and the level of the leadership has an expectation for them to aspire to.”
The usual Nick Saban pearl of wisdom that can be applied to football and beyond was dropped. Saban posits that there are two distinct styles of leadership, each of which is essential in its own right. The first is the leaders themselves, who are the ones others look up to and want to emulate. Players like Young, Anderson and Will Ekiyor Jr. exemplify the first type of leadership.
Squad
This second type of leadership is often overlooked despite its critical role in society. That’s follower leadership in action. The act of following one’s leader’s example and helping set the standard for discipline and mentality is crucial, even if some might not consider it an example of leadership. Both the team’s overall cohesiveness and the leader’s individual leadership capacity benefit from this.
There is still a long way to go before the 2022 squad is ready to compete in a regular season, but the fact that Saban is pleased with his team’s leadership at this early stage is encouraging. However, it’s still too early to start selling t-shirts with the year 2019 on them.
Nick Saban will undoubtedly show his displeasure with the team on multiple occasions over the next few weeks and months. We can count on that happening pretty much every time. After all, if things don’t go smoothly in the second scrimmage this coming Saturday, we might hear Saban’s ire expressed sooner rather than later. Despite the obstacles, the Crimson Tide have had dependable leadership since the beginning of the season in the spring.
The team’s leadership was able to gel in the spring, and head coach Nick Saban expressed satisfaction in mid-August.