“With the addition of these folks in our family, I just seem to continue right on down the totem pole. I’ve always been behind the two dogs, but the line is getting deeper and deeper when it comes to Miss Terry,” Saban said in reference to his wife. “I’ve only made a few mistakes in terms of being a grandfather to this point. That’s after so many times of, as soon as the baby makes a peep, seeing somebody run to pick her up. You say ‘She’ll be fine, just let her cry.’ That was a mistake, now. That was a huge mistake.”
Along with queries about the new addition to his family, Saban fielded questions concerning one of the newest additions to the Alabama coaching staff: offensive coordinator and former USC and Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin.
“Well, I think anytime anybody has knowledge and experience, it certainly contributes a lot of value in your organization,” Saban said. “I think it kind of goes both ways, I think you learn a little from them, I think they learn a little from you. I think you can make subtle changes in what you do to make it more effective because of the input you get from your staff.
“The more experience that your staff has, obviously, I think the better they understand the big picture and have the kind of foresight that you need to have that you know when you make changes, what the cause and effect of those changes are going to be. Lane certainly has been helpful in a lot of those areas.”
Junior wide receiver Amari Cooper said Kiffin is installing a new offense that will help Alabama continue to contend for national championships.
“Coach Lane Kiffin is a great coach and a great person to be around,” Cooper said. “He brings that quality to the team. I think we can constantly compete for a championship. Coach is a likable guy. He wants every player to execute their job. He also wants you to have fun playing football.”
Saban said the team will face a number of new challenges on the gridiron, including the introduction of the College Football Playoff, which Saban said will make the national championship more difficult to win than before. The new playoff will rely on a 13-person selection committee to select the top four teams in the nation and send them into national semifinals played on New Year’s Day. The 2014 semifinals will be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and the Sugar Bowl at the Super Dome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“I’m hopeful that when we choose the teams that are in the Playoff, that we take the 13 years of experience that the BCS had in tweaking their system of picking teams so that they get the right four teams in the game,” Saban said. “I do think when you look at the history of the BCS, they usually got it right with their process. The criticism always came when there were more than two teams that were deserving. Now the same thing is going to happen with a four-team playoff because there’s always going to be a fifth team that could have been deserving that will create controversy.”
Saban said that he would be wary of expanding the playoff system to eight teams or beyond.
“I think if we continue to expand, whether it’s a playoff system or whatever it is, I think we’re sort of getting to the saturation point when it comes to how many games can a college football player play without sort of overdoing it relative to the responsibilities that he has academically and the other things that are going on in their life besides just play football games, because there’s a potential for a player to play 15 games in our league, with a championship game as well as two playoff games,” Saban said. “I think we have to take the student-athlete’s well-being into consideration if we continue to play more games.”
Saban said the Crimson Tide’s attempt to win the first College Football Playoff will be complicated by the lack of experience on the team, particularly at quarterback, on the offensive line and on defense.
“We’re basically an unproven team in some areas. There’s a lot of question marks because of the players that we lost and players that we have coming in,” Saban said. “It’s always our intent to do everything that we can to help our players be successful in every way, in their personal development as well as academically, being able to develop a career off the field, which is what is going to benefit them most in life, as well as their development as football players. That’s what we’re going to continue to try to do – our best, so that we can have the best possible program in the country.”
