Saban Is Keen to Explain 'Process' MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - Alabama Coach Nick Saban climbed atop a stage on Saturday morning and spent an hour in one of his least favorite places on the planet: in front of the news media, obliged to answer any and all questions. He looked as if he would have preferred to run through a blizzard in a Speedo. Still, Saban proved a good sport. He answered dozens of questions on numerous topics, many of the inquiries repetitive, like Alabama's history compared with the history of Notre Dame, its opponent in the B.C.S. national championship game on Monday night. He even took several questions on his preference for a platoon system at running back. Inquiring minds and all that. Mostly, though, Saban clung to his fabled process the way other coaches cling to their favorite clichés, or the way children cling to their favorite blankets. Saban loves his process, loves talking about his process, loves explaining his process. One answer he provided at media day on Saturday went nearly 200 words - and that was just on what the process means, what the process is. "Well, the process is really what you have to do day in and day out to be successful," he said. We try to define the standard that we want everybody to sort of work toward, adhere to, and do it on a consistent basis. And the things that I talked about before, being responsible for your own self-determination, having a positive attitude, having great work ethic, having discipline to be able to execute on a consistent basis, whatever it is you're trying to do, those are the things that we try to focus on, and we don't try to focus as much on the outcomes as we do on being all that you can be. Eliminate the clutter and all the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you sort of go about and take care of your business. That's something that's ongoing, and it can never change. Saban added, "So it's the process of what it takes be successful, very simply." The rest of his thoughts on The Process came out in other answers. Saban loves to explain how the greatest athletes, like Michael Jordan and Mariano Rivera, understand that the "last race doesn't matter." They focus on the next game, the next quarter, the next pitch or shot. Saban pushes his Crimson Tide in much the same way. In the first meeting after Alabama won the national championship last season, he told the assembled they were not national champions. They may have played a title team, but this team was not that one. The questions kept coming. Saban talked about the leadership group he had put together and how he did not make major decisions without the leaders' input. He talked about the two players, freshman linebackers, he had sent home for curfew violations. He said he did not work out as much as people thought, that he couldn't run as fast as he used to. It is, after all, a process. Even aging.