Nick Saban is the best coach in the country, leading the best college football team in the country.

However, he wants you to think his team is terrible, and they don’t know how to play football.

On his weekly radio call-in show Saban found a way to compare his football team to nice, shiny convertible in a way that still criticized the Crimson Tide.

 

The full context of the quote was transcribed at Bama OnLine:

“We’re going to have to win games this year as a team,” Saban said. “… Every team has issues and problems, aight, and I hate it, aight, because all I hear about our team is how great we are. I actually had an interview today with ESPN, who’s trying to write an article like this is the best team ever. And I said, ‘Wait a while.’ I said, ‘We’ve got all kinds of problems on our team.’ Like every team, every team has problems. Every team has guys get hurt. Every team has areas of their team that have weaknesses that they’re trying to overcome. They’ve got players who have problems. They’ve got players who have trouble learning, who you’re trying to bring along, and you’ve got inexperienced players playing. I mean, every team has that.

“But people seem to look at our team like a convertible, aight, like a really nice convertible going down the road. Nice shiny, shiny wheels, really nice looking girl driving, aight. Everybody sees that. They don’t see the oil leaking, and they don’t see the bald tires. All they see is the girl and the car and the convertible, aight. So, we’ve all got problems. Every team’s got them. I mean, everybody’s got to sort of understand that you’re always having issues on your team and you’re trying to overcome obstacles. And our team is no different than that.

“And until you put a whole body of work in for a whole season so that you can play with consistency and the most important thing is can you improve, aight, through the course of the season, aight, in every aspect of your team. Sometimes that’s more difficult to do, especially when you have injuries and you lose experienced players. But all those things, to me, are what makes a team great, aight. What’s your total body of work at the end of the year. So, I hate it, I hate it when people sort of make these assumptions and analogies about our team that really creates an unrealistic expectation.”

One would assume the convertible Saban is referring to has to do with sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is leading the charge in the Heisman race on an astounding 75 percent passing with 1,495 yards, 18 touchdowns, and no interceptions.

The leaking oil and bald tires could be the Crimson Tide’s defense, which allowed 31 points to an Arkansas team that suffered a home blowout loss to North Texas.

While most of the players on Alabama’s defense were talented enough to be highly recruited by most major college football programs, one thing they do lack is experience, and that took another hit when starting cornerback Trevon Diggs suffered a season-ending broken foot against Arkansas.

Alabama fans understandably have high standards for their team’s defense, and one fan let Saban know she is not happy with the product on the field during his radio show.

 

Luckily for that fan, Saban welcomes the criticism from fans. It’s certainly better than rat poison.