So, Alabama signs a 5 star guy, Antonio Alfano, who has a grandmother he's very close to. She's very ill and on life support. Seems to have messed with the kid's mind and word has it, he's entered the Transfunctioner Capacitator Portals thingy. To their credit, his parents say that the people at Bama have been very supportive; however, Lord Saybinz was just asked about it. His response was that the kid "basically quit".
I heard about it on sports talk this morning as I was coming to work. The first guy that called about it, "Little Al", said that "What Saban was really doing by calling him a quitter, was trying to motivate the guy. Get him to snap out of it and be a man."
The host, former Bama beat writer, agreed 100%. Lord Saybinz, the master psychologist, was just trying to get in the guy's head and make him grow up.
I recall a few years ago when LS went off on one of his numerous kindergarten temper tantrums at his weekly press conference, when asked about depth charts, or getting young guys experience against Cottonwood High School that week, or what he had for breakfast. This one was particularly childish and got a lot of attention. But, it eventually evolved into the narrative of "Saban was just sending a message to his players. He knew exactly what he was doing."
Right!!! And I'm sure there was an offensive lineman sitting in his dorm room that afternoon thinking, "Ya' know, Coach was really giving those reporters hell for asking about how long he wants to coach. I guess I really should work harder on my footwork. I hear ya' loud and clear Lord Saybinz."
The guy will go down as the greatest college coach ever. But, there's no way in hell his fan base, who he now wants to track their whereabouts and punish them if they leave a game early, will ever admit that he's just a short asshole with a Napoleon complex.