Nick Saban wanted to learn from the best.
While the Crimson Tide were on break last week, Saban took a trip down to Tampa to see the New York Yankees in spring training and talked with legendary closer Mariano Rivera.
Saban showed the Crimson Tide video of Rivera before the BCS National Championship Game, and now Saban looked for advice on handling the success that came.
"I asked him, 'How do you deal with all the success you've had?' Saban said at a press conference this week. "He started (waving his hands around his head). You've got to get that out of your head.
You've got to think about the next play, the next pitch, the next out. You can't be worrying about the fans, you can't be worrying about what anybody thinks about you, what they wrote about you yesterday. It's all about what you do today. The next pitch, the next out, the next batter."
"I thought that was pretty interesting, and it's what we look for in good competitors. Guys that can sustain through thick and thin, play the game because they have a lot of pride in their performance and want to be really good players and it means something to go out there and contribute to the team and be responsibly to do their jobs. Those are the things we're looking for.
"We've got some guys that do that extremely well and have done it in the past. We obviously have a lot of other guys we need to get to that point so they can contribute in a positive way to the team."
