Yahoo Sports Rat poison? Nick Saban asks media to write negative stories about Alabama
No. 1 Alabama beat No. 22 Texas A&M comfortably on Saturday, but Nick Saban, of course, still thinks his team has plenty to work on.
As his postgame press conference came to a close, Saban, seemingly in jest, asked the media to write stories about what the Tide did wrong during the game, instead of how good the team has looked thus far in 2018.
At first, it looked like Saban was going to launch into the newest edition of his “rat poison” rant.
“If what our team has accomplished to this point makes them in any way not take into account the teams that we have to play in the future, and they underestimate what we need to do improve so that we can become a better team and don’t take things for granted and think we’re going to show up and win the game because we got an Alabama uniform on, it’s not going to happen that way. It’s going to be everybody’s choice in the organization,” Saban said.
But then his demeanor changed a bit.
“So I’d appreciate it if, you know, you would sort of look at some of the things we didn’t do so well and write about that so maybe I can show it to the players and say, ‘Look here, man, here’s something you can do better,” Saban said.
He then strutted off the podium.
“Alright, see ya later.”
Last year’s A&M game prompted the infamous ‘rat poison’ rant
Last year, Alabama beat A&M 27-19 at Kyle Field. Afterward, Saban was not pleased whatsoever with the way his team played, and pointed to the media as somewhat of a culprit.
That night, the Tide went three-and-out on three of its first four offensive series. Saban gave the A&M defense credit for that, but said the media’s glowing coverage of his team led to complacency, something Saban hates.
“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys,” Saban said. “All that stuff you write about how good we are. All that stuff they hear on ESPN. It’s like poison.
“It’s like taking poison. Like rat poison.”
On Saturday, Saban said he did not want to go back down that road.
“I don’t want to get into the rat poison again. We got a good team, but our team needs to do a lot of things to improve,” Saban said.
Alabama improved to 4-0 with the win. Next on the schedule is UL-Lafayette before getting back into SEC play with a trip to Arkansas on Oct. 6.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• Urban Meyer greeted with applause as he walks into Ohio Stadium
• Texas superintendent resigns after racist remark about Deshaun Watson
• Report: Jimmy Butler to skip T-wolves media day after trade request
• Steelers great Hines Ward ‘embarrassed’ by Antonio Brown’s outbursts
