Nick Saban’s ‘Rat Poison’: Reasons Behind CFB GOAT’s Mind Games Exposed by Ex-Alabama Coach

The former head coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide was known to be a force to be reckoned with. Nick Saban established himself as one of the most successful college football coaches and from 2007-2023, he led the program to unbelievable heights with over 6 national championships. The veteran coach has been a sports analyst with ESPN ever since retiring from the sport earlier this year. While he was the head coach, the Alabama players were known to follow a strict regime set by him and as per recent revelations, Saban wouldn’t let the success of the team go to their heads in the slightest. The term ‘rat poison’ is particularly famous in Tuscaloosa due to Nick Saban coining it ironically during his 23-year career with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

On the 25th September episode of the ‘Games with Names’ show, Bill O’Brien came on to the show to talk about all things football and elaborated upon his time with the Alabama Crimson Tide as an offensive coordinator for the 2021 season. During this segment, the host Julian Edelman asked O’Brien about the correct interpretation of the words, ‘rat-poison’ and he narrated the entire perspective of Saban on such a mentality.

O’Brien laughed at the question before explaining the entire thing. He said, “A lot of these kids are on their phones or reading things like “Hey, Alabama’s unbelievable. They’re never going to lose, they’re going to run away with the national title. That’s just pumping them up and giving them a false sense of confidence. It’s rat poison, and they’re going to lose if they don’t pay attention to the details.” Thus, the giant of the world of college football never wore the golden crown and didn’t let his players do it either. Moreover, here’s a trip down memory lane to the time when Saban spoke about “rat poison” in 2022.

Nick Saban and his thoughts on “rat poison”

When it comes to football, Saban has always been a strongly work-oriented coach who didn’t give a lot of room to his players to goof around, unlike the current regime of Kalen DeBoer. Yet, his military-strict training ensured that Alabama was at the top of the table for almost a decade, and that doesn’t come with consuming the “rat poison.”

On one of the episodes of the FanNation show, a radio caller asked Saban about rat poison and how it can affect the performance of the team, and here’s what the HC had to say. Saban said, “I mentioned it earlier, there’s more rat poison around than I’ve ever seen before. And our fans cannot be that way. If you want to be fans, you need to support the team. You need to have energy and enthusiasm, and support the players. They work hard. You go to the game. You’re not always disappointed because you have this great expectation that we’re gonna win the game, 50-0. Hey, these are young players that are working hard to try to be the best they can be. They need to be supported. They need your energy and enthusiasm.” Thus, with Saban now gone, the team might be leaning toward a kinder future now but whether will it have the same level of success, remains to be seen.