Alabama's Nick Saban, who gave Jason Garrett his first coaching job in 2005 when he was the Miami Dolphins' head coach, joined KESN-FM 103.3 recently. Here are some highlights.
When you hired him (Jason Garrett), what made you hire him and did you foresee him being a head coach in the NFL?
Nick Saban: We interviewed about 10 quarterback coaches and finally we went to the Senior Bowl and everybody says, 'You need to talk to this guy Jason Garrett. He’s one of the brightest guys.' So I said OK, I mean, the guy’s never coached before and I’ve been trying to coach for thirty years to get a job like this ... now I’m going to hire a guy that hasn’t even coached. There was no doubt when we interviewed him as a staff that he was a hundred times better than the other 10 guys that had been coaching for a long time and had a significant amount of experience and that he had all the right stuff to be a great teacher and impact the players in a positive way and help them perform better. He certainly did that in his two years at Miami.
Do you have any good Jason Garrett stories that speak to how disciplined he is and how hard of a worker he is?
Nick Saban: I think when you play for a long time, you know as a player what your expectation for the team should be and the kind of discipline your team has to have to be successful. And I think players relish that; I think they love that. They really respect coaches that give them that. I think Jason really understood that from being a player and actually saw it in effect with us from being in Miami, but also it was his philosophy that that was important in being successful and he made a lot of good personnel decisions and always took into consideration the guys’ character and attitude. And I think he understands the psychological aspects of the game relative to what it takes to get the kind of consistency and performance you need to get to be successful.
How rare is that in a coach?
Nick Saban: I think that separates the men from the boys, I really do. I think a lot of coaches sort of overlook that part of it. The who-you-are part is probably more important than the what-you-do part of it. I think a lot of us sometimes skip over the who-you-are part and then a guy never develops like you like him to. You’re always wondering why but it usually it goes back to those psychological intangibles.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/da...r-than-the-other-10-guys-we-interviewed_.ece?
When you hired him (Jason Garrett), what made you hire him and did you foresee him being a head coach in the NFL?
Nick Saban: We interviewed about 10 quarterback coaches and finally we went to the Senior Bowl and everybody says, 'You need to talk to this guy Jason Garrett. He’s one of the brightest guys.' So I said OK, I mean, the guy’s never coached before and I’ve been trying to coach for thirty years to get a job like this ... now I’m going to hire a guy that hasn’t even coached. There was no doubt when we interviewed him as a staff that he was a hundred times better than the other 10 guys that had been coaching for a long time and had a significant amount of experience and that he had all the right stuff to be a great teacher and impact the players in a positive way and help them perform better. He certainly did that in his two years at Miami.
Do you have any good Jason Garrett stories that speak to how disciplined he is and how hard of a worker he is?
Nick Saban: I think when you play for a long time, you know as a player what your expectation for the team should be and the kind of discipline your team has to have to be successful. And I think players relish that; I think they love that. They really respect coaches that give them that. I think Jason really understood that from being a player and actually saw it in effect with us from being in Miami, but also it was his philosophy that that was important in being successful and he made a lot of good personnel decisions and always took into consideration the guys’ character and attitude. And I think he understands the psychological aspects of the game relative to what it takes to get the kind of consistency and performance you need to get to be successful.
How rare is that in a coach?
Nick Saban: I think that separates the men from the boys, I really do. I think a lot of coaches sort of overlook that part of it. The who-you-are part is probably more important than the what-you-do part of it. I think a lot of us sometimes skip over the who-you-are part and then a guy never develops like you like him to. You’re always wondering why but it usually it goes back to those psychological intangibles.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/da...r-than-the-other-10-guys-we-interviewed_.ece?
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