This week on Inside the Headset we are featuring Nick Saban’s General Session from the 2014 AFCA Convention in Indianapolis. Coach Saban delivered a passionate speech on coaching today’s athletes, and he shared stories that helped to pull back the curtain on his program at Alabama.

Coach Saban’s career began as a graduate assistant at Kent State for two seasons (1973-1974) before he was brought out full-time to work with the linebackers (1975-1976). From there, he coached outside linebackers at Syracuse (1977), and he coached defensive backs at West Virginia (1978-1979), Ohio State (1980-1981), and Navy (1982). Coach Saban was the defensive coordinator and coached defensive backs at Michigan State (1983-1987), and his first stint in the NFL was coaching defensive backs for the Houston Oilers (1988-1989). In 1990, Saban accepted his first head coaching position at Toledo. He returned to the NFL to serve as the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick (1991-1994). Coach Saban returned to lead the Michigan State program in 1995 before accepting the head coaching position at LSU in 2000, where he led the Tigers to the 2003 national championship. He served as head coach of the Miami Dolphins for two seasons (2005-2006) prior to taking over the Alabama program in 2007. Since then, Coach Saban has led the Crimson Tide to five national championships. He and his wife Terry are the co-founders of Nick’s Kids, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and resources for deserving organizations throughout the state of Alabama and Southeast.

• [1:15] Start of General Session
• [3:27] The importance of the individual
• [5:51] Developing well-rounded athletes AND people
• [9:12] The life-long impact coaches have on their athletes
• [12:00] Building relationships and mutual trust
• [16:45] The struggles that came prior to the success
• [21:51] Mindset, vision, and discipline
• [29:01] "Be somebody that somebody wants to emulate"
• [31:19] Working under Bill Belichick
• [34:29] The pressure on today's athletes
• [41:50] Responding to mistakes
• [45:00] Tremendous adversity leads to the greatest victories
• [51:12] Self-imposed limitations
• [55:38] Human condition is to survive, not to win the championship
• [59:50] "If you're not coaching it, you're letting it happen"

Have any questions, comments, or ideas for the show? Send us an email at [email protected].