When you win titles every other year and consistently bring in the nation’s No. 1 recruiting classes like Nick Saban does at Alabama, it would seem that you have plenty of reasons to be happy.

However, Saban rarely seems to be happy, and he’s always looking ahead to the work that needs to be done instead of enjoying the Crimson Tide’s success.

After watching Alabama lose the title game on Monday night, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on Tuesday’s edition of “First Take” that one positive to take away from the loss for Saban is that it proves that he’s right to never rest on his past success (video shared on YouTube by ESPN):

“I also think in this sense, (Monday) night, there was a positive and a negative, believe it or not, to (Nick) Saban. The positive is that when you get annihilated like that, all of this stuff — no matter how much they’re winning by, how Nick Saban stays on everybody, how he’s known as a curmudgeon to some degree, constantly berating, constantly going after it, so intense, never a relaxed moment — we’ve decried that from time to time. We see now why he’s that way, because you can never take any time off. You can never assume anything. You can never take anything for granted. And that’s an incredible lesson for him to learn. That’s the positive.”

As the Tide get back to work ahead of the 2019 season, look for Saban to have a renewed focus and even more fire.