Saban, Tide trade pads for Internet meetings

Alabama coach Nick Saban is adjusting to the fact that the Crimson Tide will not have spring workouts this season. (Courtesy Unv. Alabama Media Relations)

By TIM GAYLE

Alabama’s football team would have reached the midway point of spring practice today in preparation for its first spring scrimmage on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Instead, the coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of practice and created a ton of uncertainty and hypotheticals that head coach Nick Saban won’t address.  

“I never really answer hypothetical questions,” he pointed out in a Thursday teleconference. “I’m sure that everybody’s going to want me to speculate on what’s going to happen in the future and nobody really knows. It’s very uncertain times.”

While others will speculate about the possibility of no football this fall, or at the very least a shortened season, Saban continues to work, doing a lot of his coaching and recruiting through video conferencing.

“I think the whole world is turned upside down so it’s a little bit different for everybody,” he noted. “But I think the best thing we can do is adapt and adjust to it the best we can.”

In a 22-minute teleconference with the media on Thursday, Saban pointed out that spring football is about teaching, adding that he would like to have those days back in the summer – if the coronavirus threat abates by then – rather than extending the fall preseason practice, as some have advocated.

“You know, if there was some kind of way that we could have 14 days of teaching with our players some time before fall camp happens, I think that would probably be beneficial,” he said. “I’m not talking about having pads on or anything, but just be able to teach. We’ll have to evaluate the players based on fall camp.

“I think the how to do it or the why it’s important to do it that way probably has a lot of carryover (from the spring), that’s why we do it. I don’t personally think that making fall camp longer is going to get anybody any more ready to play.”

One area that could have suffered was offseason conditioning, which starts in February and goes through the end of March, then starts again after the conclusion of spring practice in mid-April. Saban praised the performance of David Ballou, director of sports performance, and Dr. Matt Rhea, director of sports science, two new hires that replace former strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran as the Tide is building a new department to train its athletes, the Integrative Center for Athletic and Sport Technology. 

“I actually think the addition of the strength and conditioning coaches that we have now has been a huge positive for us,” Saban said. “Dr. Rhea actually has a PhD … and a lot of technical-type testing that you can do with players and the new training programs that the players have really liked. Hopefully, this will help us with some injury prevention and help us be able to perform better when the time comes. 

“And they were very instrumental in setting up this whole program with the players in terms of Apple watches for their workouts, apps on their phones for weight training programs. We had issues with some players not having a place to work out because high schools are closed (but Ballou and Rhea) have done a really, really good job of managing this and the players have done a good job of responding to it.”     

Meanwhile, Saban continues to film public service announcements and do his part to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

“We made a pretty significant contribution to the food banks in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Montgomery as well as the 211 program … and we’ll continue to try to help wherever we can,” Saban said. “I’m just trying to encourage people to … be responsible in terms of social distancing (and) staying at home whenever possible. I certainly have a great appreciation for those on the front line in the healthcare system that are trying to fight this disease off.

“This is a very uncertain time for a lot of people, it creates a lot of anxiety, but what we’ve tried to emphasize to people is not to worry but to try to make good choices and decisions about what you do so you can stay safe.”