Nick Saban discusses Alabama’s ‘revenge factor’ against LSU after 2019 upset in Tuscaloosa
By SDS Staff
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Nick Saban doesn’t think “revenge” should be a team’s leading source of motivation, but he expects veteran Alabama players will be thinking about what happened the last time LSU came time to Tuscaloosa.
The Joe Burrow-led LSU squad that went on to win the national championship defeated Alabama 46-41. Alabama got revenge for that loss last year in Baton Rouge with a 55-17 blowout win. Crimson Tide players, however, may want a second round of revenge for the way the Tigers celebrated at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“Oh, I think they remember it,” Saban said Thursday night, per Charlie Potter of BamaOnLine. “I remember it.”
Saban shared more thoughts on revenge.
“I’ve always thought that revenge should not be a motivator,” Saban said during his weekly radio show. “But it is, I must tell you. When people disrespect somebody in some kind of way – and sometimes it doesn’t have to be that they said anything or did anything. Maybe it’s a humiliating loss or whatever that you had. I do think it’s a motivating factor for people from a pride standpoint to, I guess for lack of a better term, get even or whatever you might say.
“But again, it goes back to my thing of always saying players should wanna be the best players they can be because of who they are and what they wanna accomplish and what they wanna do. And revenge, to me, is an external factor. It’s an external factor that motivates you.
“That, to me, is not a great way to live your competitive life when you’re relying on external factors to get you motivated to play. You should do it because you wanna be the best that you can be and do the things you need to do to do that and create those habits on a daily basis.”
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
