When Alabama coach Nick Saban went on another anti-media rant on Wednesday, questioning why we even play the games if the media already knows all the answers, many people just rolled their eyes and said, “Here we go again.”

However, radio host Bo Mattingly said on Thursday’s episode of “Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly” that he thinks there may have been an ulterior motive at play.

He said he believes Saban uses rants like Wednesday’s to motivate his team and keep them focused on improving every day, instead of buying into their own hype:

“As soon as I saw what he said, I knew what it was about, and it was the edge for his team,” Mattingly says around the 12:45 mark. “It’s the idea that people are talking about Alabama as though they’ve already won the SEC championship. As a coach, you’re trying to not allow that to happen, because what is the biggest enemy and most evil thing in Nick Saban’s mind to Alabama’s program? [It’s] this idea that we’re so good, we’ve got it. We are fine now. We are OK.

“What he’s preaching is, ‘Can we get better today?’ It’s about you bettering yourself every day and it’s process, not about score, not about the team we’re playing. It’s about you got, we got, the team got a little bit better today.”

If Mattingly’s theory is correct, then we should expect plenty of rants from the five-time national champion in the future.