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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: CLEMSON VS ALABAMAJanuary 3, 2017Nick SabanTampa, Florida GINA LEHE: Coach, before we turn it over for questions, if you could please make a brief opening statement regarding your preparation in the transition period between the Playoff Semifinal and National Championship game. NICK SABAN: Right. Well, this is certainly an honor for our team and something that they've worked very hard for, and we have a great appreciation for the opportunity that they've created for themselves against a team that has done a fantastic job all year in Clemson. In terms of what they've been able to accomplish, what they've been able to do and the challenges that they present certainly as a competitor is something that we all sort of look forward to and love being able to compete in these kind of games. I think this is a fantastic venue to be involved in, and our team is focused and trying to get ready to go in terms of our preparation. Q. I'm just curious as to what your thinking was with letting Lane go to FAU, and how is that going to change your offense this week going forward, or will it not because Sark has been around the program? NICK SABAN: Right. Well, we made a statement about this yesterday, and really don't have much else to say about it. It's difficult sometimes when you're in a situation when you have a new opportunity and a new job, and we mutually agreed that in the best interest of everyone that this would be the best thing for us to do relative to the experience that we had in preparation for Washington and playing in the game. You know, I don't think there's a whole lot more to say about that. Our coaches are working hard to try to put the best game plan we can together to play against a very good Clemson defense, and we're in the planning stages right now. I don't know why you all keep asking me what changes we're going to make. Dabo is a good friend of mine; maybe I'll just call him up and tell him what we're going to do. (Chuckles.) Q. I was curious, what kind of impact do you think Thad Turnipseed had on your program during his time with you, and are you surprised how much Clemson recruiting has taken off since he joined their staff? NICK SABAN: Thad did a fantastic job when he was here. He was a great asset to our organization, to our program, hard worker, made a significant contribution. He was sort of in charge of facilities and a lot of things like that here and did a lot of public relations work for us. He really was just a fantastic person and a great asset to our organization. I certainly don't think that it's any surprise to me that the things that he's responsible for because of the pride in performance that he has as a person, that he wouldn't do a fantastic job of. I know he's impacted their recruiting in a very positive way. Q. You've reached the greatest accomplishment in the sport not once but five times. What continues to motivate you on a season-to-season, day-to-day basis, and then as a follow-up, has there been a point where you thought things were getting stale or too routine, and how did you get over that? NICK SABAN: Well, that really hasn't happened, so I have not had to get over that yet. But I think that my motivation comes from the fact that this team, these players have worked really hard to create an opportunity for themselves, and as a coach, you want to do a great job for your players and your team. They're working hard. Everybody is working together to try to put them in the best position to have a chance to be successful as people, as students, and as players. That's our challenge, and that's what motivates us. When you play an outstanding opponent, that's something that in and of itself as a competitor is motivation. And that's certainly the case in this game, and it's certainly the case with this team in terms of what I would like to do as a coach to put them in the best position to have a chance to be successful in this game. Q. You've often said you're not defending anything from one year to the next, which I know a lot of people make a lot out of the rematch, but can you tell me some things you see that are significantly different between each team from last year's game to this year's? NICK SABAN: Well, I think there are some subtle differences. We're the same coaching staff. They're the same coaching staff. I don't think anything is significantly changed philosophically. I think some of the key players on both teams are still out there competing, especially for Clemson with their quarterback. Their skill players on offense are outstanding, some of whom didn't play last year in this game who have had fantastic years this year, whether it's No. 7 or No. 8, and so there's somewhat of a difference from that standpoint. But defensively they've got some -- a lot of new faces out there, and we've got a few new ones. We have a freshman quarterback, which makes us different. There are some of the obvious subtle differences, but philosophically, I think you have success because you do what you believe in and you try to do it well. I think that's what Clemson does extremely well, and that's what we try to do as a coaching staff relative to what we believe in. Q. You've been complimentary of Deshaun Watson. Can you go a little bit more in depth about how much improve he's made this year and how good he's looked? NICK SABAN: Well, I thought he played fantastic against us last year, and we thought he was an outstanding player last year when we played against him. Any comment that I make now is certainly not a disrespect to how we felt about him a year ago. He may be arguably the best player in college football. The guy is very athletic. He's got a great understanding of their offense. He does a really good job of executing for his team. He can extend plays. He can run. He can run quarterback runs. And he's a terrific passer. I mean, he is the complete package of everything that you could ever want or look for in a guy at quarterback, and he's been playing for a long time, so he has a tremendous amount of experience. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. You know, I think that that's why they're a very, very dynamic offense. Q. In regards to Lane, I know he made comments about trying to be with the team next Monday. Is there a possibility for that, or is he completely away from the program? NICK SABAN: No, it's really not even possible from a legal standpoint for him to do those things. That's not something that we're interested in pursuing. Q. How involved was Sarkisian in the offensive meetings throughout the year as far as him being involved in team meetings with you guys on offense? NICK SABAN: Well, if you understand the rules, you know, he's not allowed to be involved with the team. They're involved in the planning. They're involved in the organization. That's where they make their contribution, in the coaching meetings. They're not really allowed to be involved with the team. Q. And then the second thing, as far as when you moved Sarkisian to offensive coordinator, why wasn't there a situation where you just parted ways with Lane then and let him go his way and you go your way? NICK SABAN: Well, I try to make the decisions based on what's best for helping our players be successful, and at the time there was no anticipation that -- or thought that there would be any kind of problem relative to managing having two jobs at once, and when we sort of saw that that was -- and agreed that that was a little bit of a tough thing, then we decided to move in a different direction. Q. One more thing on that, then. Why do you think it was -- you said y'all discovered that it was tough to manage the two-job thing. Obviously other coaches have been able to do that, and we're only talking about one more week before he would have headed to Florida Atlantic anyway -- NICK SABAN: I don't have anything else to say about this. You know, we're moving forward. We're looking forward to the Clemson game. We did what we did for the reasons that I've stated many, many times before, and there's really nothing else to talk about. So there's no why, there's no if, there's no but. It just is what it is. The statement says what it is. We're moving forward, so let's talk about the game. I mean, it's only fair to the players who have worked hard on both teams to have an opportunity to play in a great, competitive venue, and that's what we'd like to talk about. Q. You're trying to stress to guys, several players on both of these teams sort of have followed what college athletics is really kind of supposed to be all about, playing athletics but getting an education, and why you think it's important you stressed that, why you want to win on the field but the education part of things to these guys and the success stories that you and Clemson have had. NICK SABAN: Right. Well, it's our philosophy to help our players be successful as people, as students and as players, and we tell guys when they come here, you're in the business of developing two careers, one off the field by graduating from school, and one on the field if you can become a good enough player to have an opportunity to play at the next level. And we work hard in both of those areas, and I think the key thing is the importance of education, the importance of developing a career off the field. If you're a great football player, which may be 1 percent of all college football players, you may play football for five, six, seven, eight years, probably more, which means you're 30 years old and then your career is over, and that's only 1 percent of college football players. What do you do for the next 50 years of your life, and that's what we try to emphasize with our players, and I think we emphasize it in recruiting, and I think they come here with that in mind, that they're trying to accomplish both of those things. Q. What has Reuben Foster's development as a senior meant to this defense, and not only to this defense but to him? NICK SABAN: Well, Reuben was a very good player for us a year ago and probably played in the shadows a little bit of Reggie Ragland, who was a senior and a captain, and now Reuben is a senior and a captain, and he's showing great leadership in terms of the example that he sets and how he impacts everyone else and how he tries to help everybody else play better on our defensive squad. I think he's done a really good job from that standpoint and had an outstanding season as an individual player in terms of his production and his performance. He's been all that you could ask for as a coach in terms of what he's been able to accomplish and do to impact his team and to be a productive performer. Q. I just wanted to ask, I know we ask you a lot about social media, but with this game so much in the limelight, do you address your players, don't respond to guys who are just trying to get a rise out of you on Twitter; do you put any emphasis on what to do on social media and don't do? NICK SABAN: You know, we're constantly trying to educate our players on creating a good brand for themselves based on what they post or what they tweet or anything that they do on social media, that it's a reflection on them. You know, so it's an educational process for us in terms of trying to get them to do the right things. Every now and then when we see or hear that that's not being done properly, we try to educate them further in how this can affect their future in terms of some of the things that they're trying to be successful at. This is sort of something that we're constantly trying to address with players so that they can brand themselves in a positive way. Q. When you are out evaluating prospects to play on your defensive line, do you find that those players that project to an elite level are harder to find on the D-line than other positions, and secondly, how important in winning a National Championship and succeeding at the highest level is it to have -- or advantageous is it to have a defensive line that can really control the line of scrimmage? NICK SABAN: Right. Well, I think defensive line is a really important position in terms of having a good defense. To be able to especially play in this day and age, it takes even a different sort of guy that's more versatile, more athletic, because of the pace of play as well as the style of play that has kind of taken over in college football relative to whatever you want to call the spread offense. So there's a lot more perimeter plays. There's a lot more passes. To find guys that are athletic enough to play that position but still strong enough and stout enough to be able to play gaps and play blocks and control the line of scrimmage is even more challenging than it's ever been before, and we've been pretty fortunate here to have some pretty good ones. I know Clemson has some really good ones, as well, and that's probably why they've been pretty successful, and it's probably a big reason that we've been pretty successful. Q. With Jonathan deciding to come back to school this season, he said it was a business decision, so I was wondering what you noticed from him that he improved on that he might be that top-five pick in the NFL Draft. NICK SABAN: Well, he was a very good player for us a year ago, and this year his production, his consistency in performance, his maturity as a player, his ability to sustain and just play a lot more plays this year are all things that I think has made him a better player in terms of -- like I tell players all the time, you can move up if you stay here, but you're only going to do that if you work hard and do things the right way, and Jonathan certainly did that in every aspect of how he could improve and get better, whether it was strength, conditioning, knowledge of the game, execution. So I think all these things have benefitted him tremendously. Q. And would you see him maybe as a guy that an NFL defensive line can build around much like you guys did? NICK SABAN: I don't think there's any question about the fact -- especially his diversity as a player, being able to play in or out, and good pass rushers inside are hard to find, especially guys that can still play the point and hold the point. And he does both those things very well. Q. Just your thoughts on looking at the Clemson defense and what you see in that unit, and what did you see specifically against Ohio State that was so effective? NICK SABAN: They played really, really well against Ohio State. They created a lot of pressure, a lot of negative plays, really affected the quarterback, and this is a complete unit. They have -- I've already mentioned the fact that they have really good guys up front. Their linebackers are athletic and very instinctive and can run, and they play really well in the back end. You know, this is a very, very good defensive team from top to bottom, and I thought they played just, you know, really, really outstanding against Ohio State in terms of well-prepared, knowing exactly what they had to take away, and played well together to get it done. GINA LEHE: Coach, we appreciate your time today and look forward to seeing you soon in Tampa. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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