“We work hard not to have expectations for players,” Saban said on Marty and McGee on Wednesday night. “I think that’s one of the biggest things we have to overcome with players when they come in the program, the media and the attention they get as high school players whether they’re five stars, four stars, whatever they are. And then they come here with a great expectation for themselves of what they want to try to accomplish. And sometime they want immediate self-gratification, start right away. So they don’t really understand what it takes to develop. So what we really try to emphasize with our players is not to create expectations for them, but simply say ‘OK, this is what this guy needs to do to develop, this is what he needs to improve on, whether it’s physically or in terms of knowledge of the experience so that he can do his job on the field.’
“I think that works a little better. … If we have expectations then we get disappointed and the kids know we’re disappointed in them, they get frustrated and that doesn’t help their development.”