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Nick Saban breaks down what "The Process" really is, and where his belief in it began

Jan 31, 2018 • 12:12 pm

"The Process" has taken on a life of its own as Nick Saban's most popular phrase when talking to reporters. Anytime he's in front of the microphone, chances are good that it's those two words are going to come up.

So how did The Process come to be?

Well, as Nick Saban explains in this clip, it all started with a single game where his Spartans were big underdogs heading to Columbus to take on the top ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

"There's probably one really memorable game that sort of almost changed the whole dynamics that changed the psychological approach that we use to motivate teams, and it happened when we played Ohio State in 1998," Saban open the clip by explaining

"They had been #1 all the way through, and we were 4-5 and not a very good team, and we won that game. We decided to use the approach that we're not going to focus on the outcome. We were just going to focus on the process of what it took to play the best football you could play - which was to focus on that particular play as if it had a history and life of its own."

"Don't look at the scoreboard, don't look at any external factors, just all your focus and all your concentration, all your effort, all your toughness, all your discipline to execute went into that particular play. Regardless of what happened on that play, success or failure, you would move on to the next play and have the same focus to do that on the next play, and you'd then do that for 60 minutes in a game and then you'd be able to live with the results regardless of what those results were."

Saban noted that win and their new approach as a major launching point to the program's success in the years that followed, as well as his success as a coach after he left East Lansing.

"I think that I've convinced myself through the years that the process oriented approach is much, much better, and it is much better for competitors because it keeps them focused on the right things. Not the results, but what it takes to get the results."