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Football press conferences generally follow a pretty specific format.
The coaches gives an opening statement, then they field the questions they are asked by prying reporters and they leave. Simple.
So anytime a coach breaks that mold, it is likely because he’s had something weighing on his mind that the reporters didn’t ask him about.
During Sunday’s joint College Football Playoff presser with Alabama’s Nick Saban and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, we had one of those moments.
Swinney was answering a question about how he was going to handle the announcement of his player’s intentions to either stay in school or leave to enter the NFL Draft following Monday’s game.
After Swinney finished that answer, Saban jumped in and said that he had something to say about that process:
https://twitter.com/SDS/status/686209737344552960
Saban says he tried to rally support for coaches to change declaration date for underclassmen. Says he plans to call Dabo after the game.
— John Zenor (@jzenor) January 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/SDS/status/686209875274121218
It makes sense, and Saban is the only coach returning to the College Football Playoff for the second year in a row, making him the person that would best understand the added distraction that these NFL grades and decisions bring to a final four that is already filled with distractions.
He used the fact that the NFL has pushed the date of the draft back in recent years as reason that they could afford to also push back the timing for giving this information to kids playing in the late bowl games.
As it stands, the declare date is just a few days after the completion of the College Football Playoff, which forces the hand of players involved in the games to consider their decision prior to playing.
Nick Saban says NFL shouldn’t give players grades before end of year. ESPN reported Bama players voted to withhold info until after Mon.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) January 10, 2016
Alabama’s vote to withhold that type of information from its players until after the title game was likely a product of the way things went down last season against Ohio State.
For what it’s worth, Swinney backed Saban’s proposal wholeheartedly:
Swinney echoes Saban comments about changing the timing for underclassmen to declare and receive feedback.
— Chase Goodbread (@ChaseGoodbread) January 10, 2016
If Saban is ready to rally many of the game’s top coaches to back his cause, there’s a good chance that we could see some changes to the process in the not-so-distant future.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
