Nick Saban does not have a total eclipse of the heart today
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has no heart to watch the sky today for the solar eclipse. He’s too busy with his heart set to help his team win.
Prepare for the onslaught.
Millions of radio stations and other musical platforms will be broadcasting the famous song ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonnie Tyler, in light of today’s long-awaited solar eclipse. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime event up in the sky, and billions of people will stare up with solar eclipse glasses and perform other eclipsing festivities down on Earth.
Just don’t expect Saban to be one of them.
While the eclipse will reveal itself to Tuscaloosa at 1:30 CDT, expect Saban’s heart to be on football matters. After Saturday’s scrimmage, ESPN reported that “when asked if the team had any plans to watch the event, Saban said, ‘We’ll set it up so if the players want to go out there and get some sunglasses, I guess they can. That’s not something that I’m really that focused on right now.'” Saban also stated, “They’re already saying what it’s going to look like in every city in America. So what’s going to be significant? Watch the Weather Channel, and you’ll see what it’s going to be like in Portland, Oregon.”
Whether one agrees with Saban’s point about the eclipse or not, any Tide fan can understand the head coach’s attitude. His team’s chance of another national championship could be eclipsed by the team that they face on September 2nd. In Atlanta, the Crimson Tide will face the Florida State Seminoles in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
Sports Illustrated has Alabama ranked first and Florida State in second, with both teams reaching the College Football Playoff final game. While the renowned magazine has Alabama winning the championship, it also published an opposing coach’s take on strategy against the Tide: “You beat them by making contested catches one-on-one against those long corners.” The anonymous coach also stated, “We wanted [Jalen] Hurts to beat us throwing the football. He has a strong arm and he can get hot, but he isn’t consistent.” While the coach concedes that Hurts was able to lead his team down the field near the end the game to almost win the championship, the point has been made: Bama may be the best but they are not unbeatable.
For someone who cares so much about doing things the right way at the right time, Saban’s interest in the weather is totally eclipsed by the desire to fix the issues that daunted the team last season.
Sure, the offensive coordinator at Alabama has changed but “Saban said the Tide is experiencing the same problems that afflicted it at different points last season,” according to Rainer Sabin of AL.com. “One of the things that was a little discouraging today, we moved the ball early in the scrimmage a couple times offensively, stalled in the red area, turned the ball over in the red area […] We have to be able to finish drives. Score points.”
Defensively, the team is to be expected to be as strong as ever. However, good opposing quarterbacks were able to have success down the field, as the anonymous coach stated. It would be hard to think that Saban, who started as a defensive backs coach, would want to see another season of his corners and safeties being burned for big yardage through the air.
Next: All the latest chatter from the Saturday Scrimmage
The eclipse and all of the bad puns circling Alabama today will not distract the head coach, and he likely hopes that it will not distract his players. They still have a great deal of work to do. It may be a chance of a lifetime to see the eclipse today; however, it may also be a chance of a lifetime for these players to win a national championship and a chance for Saban to win his sixth title. Where does one think his heart should be today?