Nick Saban and Alabama football have had their fair share of freshmen step up in year one in Tuscaloosa, but he wants every freshman to understand it is not destined for everyone to play as true freshmen.
Saban discussed his feelings about this during his Monday press conference when he was asked about the Alabama football seniors, who waited for an opportunity to play.
“One of the big things that we try to get guys to understand is we have good players on our team, so you’re going to have a better chance to develop because of the competition in practice is actually going to be beneficial to your development, and I think that if guys can stay focus on long-term in terms of what they’re trying to develop and improve,” Saban said. “We have had all these freshmen, who wants to play as freshmen. We have had, I don’t know. You can count them up how many guys have gone out into the draft. If it’s 45 guys and I don’t know if is the right number or not. I’ve had 32 phone calls time 45, whatever that number is in the thousands. I have never been asked once how much a guy has played as a freshmen. Never, not once. Everybody wants to know what did you developed into, but yet the whole mindset is if I don’t play right away, but that expectation gets created by a lot of external factors too.”
The Crimson Tide’s seniors will be recognized Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium on senior day.
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Hali Cameron is a recruiting reporter Touchdown Alabama .
