Earlier this week, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders restarted practice because he didn’t like the effort his team was putting in.
Legendary head coach Nick Saban joined the Pat McAfee Show on Friday morning and gave Sanders some key coaching advice.
“What I used to do was not start practice over, but I would start the period over,” Saban said about his practice tactics. “Like, we’d be doing a good-on-good team run or whatever, and one side of the ball was just not responding, or the offense was getting stuffed, or the defense was getting gashed, I’d let them run eight, 10, 12 plays and I’d say, ‘This is not what we need,’ and start the period over. That usually got their attention because they knew that we’d start the next period over, but I was always afraid to start practice over like practice would be too long or something.”
“It’s the same concept; you’re trying to change the mindset of how everyone approaches preparation for the game. It’s the same thing I said before about the Coach Prime situation, play poorly and win, that’s like the kiss of death, because guys don’t always want to respond. They look at you like, ‘Hey coach, we won the game. Why are you all upset and making us practice and all that?’ If you lose, they’re saying, ‘When are we going to practice?’ Not, ‘Why are we practicing?’”
Saban, one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football, knows a thing or two about running a successful practice. Often times, after big wins, coaches will notice a bad week of practice because the team is riding high after a big win. Saban’s teams learned the impact of hard practices. In his career in Tuscaloosa, Saban lost just 29 games in 16 seasons.
“So, there’s a big difference in mindset, but the really great competitors, they always keep that same mindset because they want to be the best that they can be, so it’s not about just winning or losing, it’s about being the best they can be.”
Colorado kicks off Week 5 with a huge matchup against UCF on Saturday, September 28th, at 2:30 p.m. CT.
