In November 2021, former Alabama football head coach Nick Saban had one of the most memorable rants of his career.
On his weekly radio show, a fan called in to ask Saban’s perspective on the “rat poison” of media and its effect on his team, citing the Crimson Tide’s performance against Arkansas the week prior in which “we were supposed to blow them out” but won by a narrow margin. The three-minute monologue that followed spoke for all college coaches, representing their pent-up frustration toward fans and media alike.
“When I came here, everybody was happy to win a game,” Saban said. “Now we’re not happy to win a game anymore. We’re not happy to win a game at all. We think we should win games by whatever. … This is not professional football. These guys aren’t getting paid to play here. They’re representing you all. You should be proud and happy to support them and appreciate what they do and have some gratitude.”
Three years later, the 73-year-old sits comfortably at the desk of ESPN’s College Gameday, covering the sport he dominated for the better part of the 21st century. Why? The game had become too close to the pros.
“Seventy or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: ‘What assurances do I have that I’m going to play,’ because they’re thinking about transferring, and ‘How much are you going to pay me?’” Saban said in a 2024 interview with ESPN. “I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
With Saban gone, coaches like NC State football’s Dave Doeren and men’s basketball’s Kevin Keatts are left to navigate these waters. Both have brought their respective programs to the precipice of contention, thus inheriting the ever-growing expectations and pressures that follow. However, neither has fully adapted to the mindset the NIL era ushered in, remaining rooted in the idea of development while simultaneously trying to stay with the tide.
For clarification, both have pursued the transfer portal and brought quality players to Raleigh. Doeren added 15 players in 2024 while Keatts brought in four. The issue lies in an attempt to use the portal as a short-term save rather than a long-term strategy.
Keatts’ 2023 squad wrote a Cinderella story en route to the University’s first Final Four appearance since 1983. The lineup, led by former NC State transfers DJ Horne and DJ Burns, took four months to peak.
The eighth-year coach tried using the same formula in 2024 but to no avail, as the Wolfpack’s season essentially ended on Saturday night. It felt like another hit at the blackjack table or spin of the roulette wheel, hoping that ‘Red 23’ would win twice in a row. Like any gambler who loses big, Keatts has begun to point backward.
“Let’s not forget one thing,” Keatts said after his team lost by 25 points to Louisville. “Now, we did hang a banner — two of them. That hadn’t happened in 37 and 40 years. So, let’s have some respect for that part of it.”
Doeren has likewise used the past as a marker but in a different light. At the ACC Kickoff event this past preseason, he underlined football’s recent success in a slant toward the future.
“We’re one of five programs over the last four years that have won eight or more games in college football,” Doeren said. “We’ve sustained a level of competitive greatness that not many people have been able to do. With that being said, we want to win a championship. … What we did last year and the year before and the year before is good. Winning nine games is good. We don’t want to be good, we want to be the best at what we do. These guys understand that.”
After going 6-7 during the season following the raised expectations, the 13th-year coach struck a different chord at the spring presser, backtracking from his summer comments with bookended shrouds of confidence.
“I expect to win every game,” Doeren said. “I’ve never gone into a football game like ‘we’re gonna lose today.’ You don’t work like that. You guys put the expectations on us. You can run from them or not. Whatever you say publicly is not what it really is. There isn’t a coach in college football that doesn’t expect to win every game.”
At some point, the dissonance between words and results grows too loud to ignore. Fans and media have every right to expect what they expect because those within the program openly state that more is the goal.
NIL and the transfer portal have increased that accountability. If players are going to be paid and have the leverage of free agency, then the weight attached to those opportunities must rise accordingly.
Even still, these are college kids trying to earn a degree. No one is asking for perfection. In fact, Saban’s comments about fans’ criticism are, to an extent, desperately needed.
The pressure to win also doesn’t exist in a vacuum, as coaches like Doeren and Keatts are asked to chase immediate results without the same tools as schools with deeper pockets and better resources. NC State’s NIL funding estimates placed seventh out of nine ACC teams with available stats at $5.9 million — below the estimated $9.8 million average amongst Power Five programs.
The coaches’ and players’ sides come from a reality they face daily. But with stakes this high and resources this available, hoping for more shouldn’t be treated as some form of ingratitude — it should be viewed as a byproduct of a changing athletic landscape.
