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Nick Saban on this unusual college football season: Our biggest opponent is the coronavirus
By SDS Staff
Published:
If you are unsure about the fate of the upcoming season, you aren’t alone.
Nick Saban is right there with you.
During his Tuesday morning appearance on ESPN morning show “Get Up,” the Alabama coach was asked to share his thoughts on all the work his program and his players are putting in just to see the field for training camp.
“The players have to make a tremendous sacrifice, you know, to stay safe in their personal bubble and, you know, sort of follow these protocols,” Saban said on the show. “The biggest opponent that we have this year is going to be Corona, and the coronavirus. Because if we can’t get people to have the personal discipline to manage their personal bubble in a way that they can stay safe, which I think is very possible, then we’re going to have guys dressed and positive other guys in quarantine. And this is going to create issues on, you know, anything that both definitely create someone on our team.”
According to Saban, the work being put in behind the scenes by his players has been incredible and displays just how much these players want to compete on the field this fall.
“It’s sort of overwhelming on our team that the players really want to play. You know I think they want the opportunity to compete,” Saban shared. “I think, you know, they have a lot of fun you know being on a team. I actually think you know when you’re a player you actually grow to enjoy the structure that you have, the competitive spirit that you have. So, a lot of the players really want to play. I think the key to the drill is, they do have to make sacrifices but we all have to make sacrifices.
“I think the good news is, this is probably not gonna last forever. You know maybe in six months or so we’ll have, you know, some kind of a vaccine or whatever. But you know what I worry about, and I think a lot of parents worry about, that’s my experience, you know we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what happens if we don’t play. Players are in isolation, they’re not a part of the structure of the organization that they’re used to and how’s that going to impact their chances of being successful? Their mindset, whether it’s academic or personal. I think you know you have to kind of look at both sides of this trying to balance it trying to help them become safe.”
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.