Every time Alabama is in the position to add another national championship trophy to its extensive trophy case head coach Nick Saban champions the same mindset over and over again to his players.
Don’t give in to outside distractions.
There have been times throughout the six-time champion’s tenure where this hasn’t been the case for his Crimson Tide teams. Whether it’s individual awards, trash talk or draft stocks, opportunities to lose focus on the task at hand will always circulate around a program and it’s up to the players to not give in.
So Saban must have had a grin on his face when hearing his Heisman Trophy finalist and starting quarterback Mac Jones call out one question about the prestigious award as “rat poison.”
“That’s a rat poison question,” Jones said when asked about preparing an acceptance speech. “I don’t know what to tell you. We were really focused on this game, which I’m really proud everybody just locking into this. We’ve won a lot of games, a lot of people are going to get awards. It’s just part of the team effort.
“Then obviously the most important thing is not letting that be a distraction for our next game because the next game is the most important game. That’s where we want to be. We’re finally here. We got to score one more point than the other team. That’s kind of our goal.”
Jones has been consistent about his thought process of focusing on the now rather than future accolades. It proved true during his performance against Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl after fielding questions throughout the week regarding college football’s top individual prize.
The Florida native put on a clinic completing 25/30 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns, three of which came to wide receiver and fellow Heisman finalist DeVonta Smith. Similar to Jones, Smith has not allowed the distraction of the award to hamper his play on the field, and he too shook off the question.
“Whatever happens happens,” Smith said. “I mean, I’m looking forward to the next game.”
The ceremony will take place this Tuesday, Jan. 5 in the first virtual ceremony of the award. And based on the two Alabama stars, if one of them were to win the people may be subject to some of the more tame speeches in recent memory.
And many mentions of preparing to play Ohio State.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
