Alabama football opens preseason camp practice on Thursday, but Nick Saban wasn’t in the mood to talk about that. When asked about his attitude entering camp, he gave an answer, but wasn’t thrilled about it.

“Does that have anything to do with Nick’s Kids?” Alabama’s head coach asked.

He went on to begrudgingly answer the question, speaking on where he wanted his team’s focus to be as the Sept. 2 season opener against Middle Tennessee State approaches.

“Talent is not good enough,” Saban said. “Because at some point in time you’re gonna come across somebody else who has just as much talent as you, so having the right mindset to go with your talent is really, really important. Things happen play-in and play-out in the game and obviously we learned that last year and put it on the players to execute every play. You never know when these plays are coming up and when you make mistakes at critical times they have huge impacts so hopefully we can get this team to be a little more focused on play-in and play-out and not so anxious about outcomes.”

Still, that wasn’t why Saban was standing in Bryant-Denny Stadium’s north zone. Wednesday marked his annual Nick’s Kids Foundation giveaway luncheon.

Nick’s Kids has given away nearly $12 million since it arrived in Tuscaloosa with Saban, who founded the organization in 1998 while at Michigan State.

According to Saban’s wife, Miss Terry, the organization was giving away “about $600,000″ on Wednesday. That money was destined for a variety of nonprofits that benefit children.

“I’m going to walk around and say hello to everyone and thank them, each of those charities, for what they do to help our young people,” she said.

Nick’s Kids is currently focused on building the Saban Center, a campus that will provide STEM and arts programs for children in Tuscaloosa. The organization has helped build 20 homes with Habitat for Humanity, among other projects in the community.

Nick Saban said he had watched the impact of the organization grow from Michigan State, to Baton Rouge when he was at LSU, to Miami, to Tuscaloosa. He said the organization had never been bigger than it was at Alabama.

“That’s because of all the support that we get from a lot of folks,” Saban said. “As well as Miss Terry’s commitment and the people around her’s commitment to really help other people. Obviously the success (on the field) helps that as well, but I guess pressure’s on me to continue to have that.”