{"id":2690114,"date":"2026-10-23T08:18:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T12:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignsaban-taught-us-excellence-is-a-process-not-just-a-result\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T08:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T12:18:02","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignsaban-taught-us-excellence-is-a-process-not-just-a-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignsaban-taught-us-excellence-is-a-process-not-just-a-result\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Saban&#8217; Taught Us Excellence Is A Process, Not Just A Result"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignsaban-taught-us-excellence-is-a-process-not-just-a-result%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2690114&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>Saban<\/em>, a new ESPN series examining the career of the longtime football coach and current ESPN analyst, takes a contrarian view toward the sense of entitlement plaguing our culture and today\u2019s college campuses. Modern society focuses on instant gratification achieved after little effort. (Take, for example, recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/11\/10\/outrage-at-harvard-grade-inflation-report-reveals-the-rot-in-higher-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">grade inflation in the Ivy League<\/a> stemming from both students\u2019 sense of entitlement and a belief that education is but a means to an end.) On the other hand, the film, and the coach at the heart of it, connect success with prioritizing <em>execution<\/em> more than <em>outcomes<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The end result: A film about a football coach who doesn\u2019t focus only on winning, but who is still widely known as one of the best. <\/p>\n<p><em>Saban<\/em> often sounds like a self-help video, emphasizing how details matter before wins and are a necessary precursor to them. In this mentality, the old parental adage \u201cDo your best\u201d doesn\u2019t justify subpar outcomes so much as it requires a pursuit of excellence through constant practice, discipline, and execution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Process Makes Perfect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The series\u2019 first episode, titled \u201cThe Process,\u201d examines Saban\u2019s first stint as a head coach at a big-time college program, when he helmed the Michigan State Spartans in the 1990s. Treading water as a middling coach \u2014 one focused entirely on game outcomes \u2014 he displayed the anger associated with someone whose job appeared in jeopardy. Footage of him from the time shows the kind of anger and control-freakery that famously got Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight fired. Calling a player a \u201cdumb f\u2014,\u201d as Saban admits he did, arguably should have gotten him fired \u2014 and it meant that neither players nor coach enjoyed the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Along came an influence on Saban\u2019s life that sounds like something out of a Hollywood buddy comedy. Seeking counsel and fearing his job, Saban sat down with Michigan State sports psychiatrist Lionel Rosen. To say the heavily bearded, hippie-like doctor and disciplinarian coach made an odd pair would put it mildly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And yet Rosen gave Saban insights that the latter followed throughout his career. Heading into a 1998 game against Ohio State, then the nation\u2019s top-ranked team, neither Saban nor Rosen gave Michigan State much chance. Rosen advised Saban not to focus on macro factors like the scoreboard, but the micro-factors the team could more easily control \u2014 just focus on winning the six seconds of each play, rather than executing over 60 minutes of football.<\/p>\n<p>By loosening up, focusing on playing within themselves, and executing on every play rather than trying to win the game, Michigan State actually did upset Ohio State \u2014 the biggest win of Nick Saban\u2019s career, and one that came to define his coaching philosophy. And, as he noted in an interview during the broadcast, Saban\u2019s college coaching record after that game (265-49) vastly exceeded the pedestrian mark he had achieved up until that point (27-22-1).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Process Fulfilled<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe Process\u201d doesn\u2019t always prove easy. The strict Saban continued to deliver what he calls \u201ca\u2014chewings\u201d to his players on a regular basis \u2014 albeit focused on a player\u2019s behavior, rather than the player himself. When the coach came to Alabama in 2007, the players, none of whom he recruited, necessarily bought in immediately. Quarterback Greg McIlroy noted that, if the players could have transferred to another university without penalty \u2014 as they can now \u2014 many would have done so.<\/p>\n<p>But additional episodes of <em>Saban<\/em> demonstrate how \u201cThe Process\u201d can lead to results. The most talked-about sequence of the documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Jalen Hurts getting benched during the 2018 National Championship Game. At halftime of the biggest game of the year, Saban decided to replace Hurts with Tua Tagovailoa, who went on to lead the Alabama Crimson Tide to a comeback victory over Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>As Saban <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/nick-saban-reacts-viral-jalen-200036264.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">himself acknowledged<\/a>, Hurts took the benching \u2014 painful though it was \u2014 in stride. He came back and led Alabama to a conference championship the following year. And in 2025, Hurts got the last laugh, leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/02\/10\/philadelphia-eagles-end-kansas-citys-quest-for-three-peat-in-spectacular-fashion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blowout win<\/a> in Super Bowl LIX. (For his part, Tagovailoa has yet to make it to a Super Bowl.)<\/p>\n<p>As for Saban, a total of seven national championships \u2014 six during his tenure at Alabama, and an earlier one at LSU \u2014 aren\u2019t anything to sneeze at either. Like Michael Jordan and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/05\/20\/5-big-basketball-changes-revealed-in-the-last-dance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Last Dance<\/em><\/a>, this ESPN documentary attempts to chronicle the secrets of Saban\u2019s success, but does so in a way that could deliver life lessons well away from the football field.<\/p>\n<p><em>Episodes of<\/em> Saban <em>air on the ESPN family of networks or are available on the ESPN app.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>   Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saban, a new ESPN series examining the career of the longtime football coach and current ESPN analyst, takes a contrarian view toward the sense of entitlement plaguing our culture and today\u2019s college campuses. Modern society focuses on instant gratification achieved after little effort. (Take, for example, recent grade inflation in the Ivy League stemming from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2690115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-21-at-6.37.08-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2690114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-21-at-6.37.08-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2690114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2690114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2690114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2690115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2690114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2690114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2690114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}