Nick Saban tells what Kalen DeBoer needs to do after Alabama loses to Florida State

Syndication: The Indianapolis Star

Nick Saban offered some advice to Kalen DeBoer and his coaching staff after the Crimson Tide lost to Florida State to open the season.

The Tide is 0-1 for the first time since 2001, and the Alabama football program is facing a lot of scrutiny from a lot of different fronts.

Saban feels it is important for DeBoer and his staff to use this moment to teach.

“Basically when you have a negative consequence, and you don’t teach and do a good job of identifying what do we need to fix so the players have something that they can relate to, if you don’t teach it really creates, affects morale in a negative way,” Saban said on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “So, I think you got to be positive and show the players when they did it right, here’s the success we had. When we didn’t do it right, whether it was even one player, didn’t do it right, maybe that’s why they had success.”

The legendary head coach also feels it is important the Tide protects their players from the outside noise and from being outcome oriented.

“But one thing about coaching in Alabama, they expect you to win every game,” said Saban. “And there’s a high expectation and the standard is really, really high for what you’re supposed to accomplish and what you’re supposed to do. You need to protect your players from that and give them a different way to compete in the game. So, they’re not looking at the scoreboard, they’re not worrying about the outcome. They can stay focused on the things that they need to do to compete in the game for 60 minutes and play one play at a time. So, they’re not worried about that because that’s all they hear everywhere they go on social media, everywhere they go. They’re expected to win. So you can’t let that creep in and that anxiety about being outcome oriented affect their performance.”

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