Nick Saban is a walking soundbite.

The Alabama head coach always has something to say, often delivering a motivational message to his team through the media that Crimson Tide fans readily take as life advice.

Key in on Saban’s opening statement at press conferences, his weekly radio show or whenever he has a microphone in his face. He locks in on a main idea, whatever is pushing him and however he wants to inspire his team to reach that day or week’s goal — but remember, it’s not a results-oriented approach, it’s about the process.

Even midway through the 2023 season, while making a point about work ethic and how to get what you want, Saban emphasized “the importance of nothing.”

“You get up every day, you’re entitled to nothing,” Saban said. “Nobody owes you nothing. You could have talent, but if you don’t have discipline, if you don’t execute, you don’t focus, you get nothing. If you’re complacent, and not paying attention to detail, what does that get you? Nothing.”

He continued, “Nothing is acceptable but your best…Everything is determined by what you do and you trying to be your best, so that you can build on positive performance. That’s the only thing. There should be nothing else but that, for everybody.”

Saban is always teaching with what he says, but he’s also good for the occasional zinger. While attempting to contextualize a play Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson made during the fourth quarter of Alabama’s win over the Razorbacks, his analogy was, well, a choice. “That quarterback is a handful,” Saban said. “When a quarterback can take a major college football player and sling him off like a gnat on a fly’s ass. I mean, a fly on a, a gnat on a cow’s ass, I mean, that was one of the most impressive plays I’ve ever seen a player make.”

So let’s look back at some of Saban’s greatest quotes, most of them on the motivational side that’ll make players and fans want to run through a brick wall on gameday, and some that we’ll never forget mainly because they were just flat-out funny.

MORE: Ranking Alabama coach Nick Saban’s fiery rants over the years

“What I would like for every football team to do that we play is to sit there and say, ‘I hate playing against these guys. I hate playing ‘em. Their effort, their toughness, their relentless resiliency to go out every play and focus and play the next play and compete in the game for 60 minutes in the game — I can’t handle it.’…That’s the kind of football team we want.”

In his introductory press conference — held Jan. 4, 2007 — he laid bare his philosophy on coaching, competition and, well, life. He emphasized how he wanted to help his players grow on and off the field, and he really just explained what the next two decades of college football would look like with Alabama back on the mountaintop. Sixteen years, six national championships, eight SEC titles, four Heisman-winners, 44 first-round NFL Draft picks and countless All-Americans later, Saban more than delivered on his promises.

“It’s one game. What our players, fans, everybody needs to understand is it’s one game. We need to keep playing better and improve.”

After dominating Clemson 34-10 in the 2008 season-opener, Saban tried to get ahead of the hype. Everyone knew the thumping meant a sea change in the college football landscape, that Alabama meant business and would compete for the national championship that season, and in the immediate future. But Saban wasn’t satisfied, nor did he want his team reading their own headlines. Alabama would finish the regular season undefeated for the first time since 1992. While they lost the conference title game to Florida and the subsequent Sugar Bowl to Utah, it was clear the Tide was about to roll.

“How much does this game mean to you? Because if it means something to you, you can’t stand still. You understand? You play fast. You play strong. You go out there and dominate the guy you’re playing against, and make his ass quit! That’s our trademark! That’s our M.O. as a team! That’s what people know us as!”

Beating his former team in their own stadium certainly meant something to Saban, even if he wanted it more so for his players. Before his first game coaching in Tiger Stadium since he left LSU for the Miami Dolphins, Saban delivered a fiery pregame speech to his players, including the “Make his ass quit!” mantra that Alabama fans have adopted as representative of the coach’s entire tenure in Tuscaloosa. Perhaps this is the origin of “joyless murderball.” Alabama won a 27-21 overtime thriller.

“I want everybody here to know: This is not the end. This is the beginning.”

Seventeen years since their last national championship, Alabama finally reached the top of the college football mountaintop again after an undefeated 2009 campaign, culminating with a 37-21 win over Texas in the BCS title game. Instead of a parade, Alabama held a championship celebration inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, with Saban and the team on stage to recognize their achievements. On a frigid January day in Tuscaloosa, fans felt warm and fuzzy when even Saban suggested this title would be the first of many.

“Mediocre people don’t like high-achievers, and high-achievers don’t like mediocre people.”

A quote you often see shared by Alabama fans. Speaking in Coleman Coliseum, Saban delivered an emphatic message about team chemistry. He insisted that if everyone on a team doesn’t buy in to the same values and principles and work towards the same high standard, they will not achieve success. He compared it to his Tide team’s spring practice that season. “You know what my goal for spring practice is?” Saban asked. “Get the right guys on the bus. Get them in the right seats. And get the wrong guys off the bus.”

“Y’all don’t remember the Georgia Southern game, do you? I don’t think we had a guy on that field that didn’t play in the NFL, and about four or five of them were first-round draft picks. And I think that team won a national championship, but I’m not sure. And they ran through our ass like s–t through a tin horn, man. And we could not stop them. Could not stop them. Could not stop them because we couldn’t get a look in practice.”

The Tin Horn game. Bama won by 24 points thanks to Trent Richardson’s 175 rushing yards and two touchdowns, but the Eagles’ triple-option offense gave a historically dominant Tide defense more than it could handle at times. In fact, just watch Saban in the clip above.

“I believe in our team. I do believe in our team and we’re going to work hard to make our team better. And I hope our players respond the right way…If it was up to you, we’re six-foot under already. We’re dead and buried and gone — gone!”

After beating Georgia 38-10 amid questions of Alabama’s place in the college football world during the 2015 season, Saban delivered a passionate response to a question about focus. A reporter asked about keeping players dialed in with so much attention on the program, and Saban took a moment to remind people what was said about the team after they lost to Ole Miss just a week prior. The Tide would go on to win the national championship that year.

“I don’t have anything else to say about it. So don’t ask. There is no more. I know you would like to some kind of way extract something out of this bottle that’s not there. It’s not there.”

When reports surfaced that longtime Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart would accept the head coaching job at Georgia, the media asked about it, prompting Saban to try his hand at prop comedy. “I don’t have anything else to say about it,” Saban said, reaching for the Coca-Cola bottle sitting atop his podium. “So don’t ask. There is no more. I know you would like to some kind of way extract something out of this bottle that’s not there. It’s not there.” He then said media “speculate and create things and then you want people to respond to it,” then saying they could find an answer in the Coke bottle “because I don’t know anything more about it. I told you everything I know so you can ask the bottle but don’t ask me.”

“There’s no arguments, those are called ass-chewings.”

During the fourth quarter of a “cupcake” contest between Alabama and Western Kentucky in 2016, the Tide offense fumbled the ball to the Hilltoppers, much to the dismay of Saban, who ripped into Lane Kiffin, which he addressed in the post-game press conference. “There’s no arguments, those are called ass-chewings,” Saban said. Kiffin obviously took it in stride, frequently referencing Saban’s penchant for those particular sideline discussions. “I didn’t think that much of it at the time,” Kiffin said. “That was like daily for me at the time. It’s usually in the morning at 7:30 in the staff meetings. It just happened to be on TV, so everybody made a big deal of it. I was just like, ‘another day at the office with coach.’”

“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys. All that stuff you write about how good we are. All that stuff they hear on ESPN. It’s like poison. It’s like taking poison. Like rat poison.”

Once again speaking about the influence of outside voices on his football team, specifically when people in the media hype how great Alabama is after a big win, Saban made it clear what effect it can have on a team working towards the ultimate goal. The 2017 team would go on to win the national championship, and “rat poison” has come up a few more times since.

“I still like both guys. Both guys are good players. I think both guys can help our team, alright? So why do you continually try to get me to say something that doesn’t respect one of them? I’m not going to, so quit asking!”

After dominating Louisville in the 2018 season-opener, following speculation on the offseason quarterback battle between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, Saban snapped at ESPN reporter Maria Taylor during the on-field postgame interview. She asked Saban what he learned about each of his quarterbacks after watching them play, and he then vented, with Taylor unfairly catching the brunt of it. He wanted to protect his players from widespread media scrutiny, but he took heat for singling out Taylor when she merely asked about their performances after an impressive win. She took it in stride, and Saban later apologized.

“I hope we elect to kick ass.”

In November 2018, a caller during Saban’s radio show asked the coach about his plans for the coin toss the upcoming game at LSU. He asked: If you win the toss, Coach, will you elect to kick or will you elect to receive? Saban paused and then said. “I hope we elect to kick ass is what I hope we do,” he said, drawing laughs and cheers from the Baumhower’s crowd. Alabama won 29-0.

“If you want to talk s–t to the other team, join the g—— debate team.”

Speaking about seeing self-indulgent behavior from players bringing attention to themselves on the field thanks to a lack of discipline, the coach reminded fans bad decisions could result in penalties that could negatively impact their team. He said Alabama has always had a rule where the players don’t talk to the opposing team, with Saban telling players if they want to do that, they can join the debate team. “I’m really sorry for using the Lord’s name in vain,” Saban said. “I just really get hot about what I see in sports that we promote in the media and every other way that really is not a good thing.”