"He told story of nine-inch frying pan": Alabama star reveals Nick Saban's inspiring locker room pep talk at NFL Combine

Tyler Booker has learned a lot during his stint under former Alabama head coach Nick Saban. The 7x national championship-winning coach retired after the 2023 season, passing the torch to Kalen DeBoer as his replacement. Booker played the 2024 season under DeBoer. After a 9-4 campaign, the OL decided to forego his final year of collegiate eligibility and declare for the 2025 NFL draft.

Tyler Booker was one of the Crimson Tide players invited to this year's NFL Scouting Combine. After his performance at the Lucas Oil Stadium, the OL was interviewed by NFL Network's Kimmi Chex.

During the interview, Chex asked the Alabama OL about the most valuable and important lesson he learned from Nick Saban. Tyler Booker decided to reveal a motivational story that Coach Saban would share with his players in the locker room every year.

"You had one of the most incredible and storied coaches in college football history in Coach Saban, all the way dating back to 2013. Any lessons that he taught you over the years that still stick with you now to this day?" Chex questioned.

"Don't limit yourself," Booker replied. "So Coach Saban, every single year, I'mma tell one of his secrets. He tells the same stories every year. So for all four years, he told us a story about the nine-inch frying pan."

"So he would go to the dock and fish with somebody, and the guy would catch a big fish, like 10, 12, 13 inch fish. But he was always going back because he had a nine inch frying pan. So the lesson in that is, don't limt yourself. Don't just keep a nine inch frying pan. Get about a bigger frying pan, so you can chase all your dreams and get the most out of life."

Coming out of IMG Academy, Tyler Booker joined Alabama in 2022. During his three-season stint, he played in a total of 38 games. The OL was honored as a First-Team All-American in 2024 and First-Team All-SEC twice in 2023 and 2024.

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Tyler Booker puts his faith in young Alabama OL to lead the program to success in the future

Tyler Booker has a lot of expectations for William Sanders. The former four-star prospect joined the program as a freshman in 2024. He redshirted his freshman campaign after making just two appearances for the team.

At the Combine, Tyler Booker stated that William Sanders has the potential to be great. He believes that in the next few years, he will be the one to follow in his footsteps in Tuscaloosa.

"I'm not sure if it will be next year, but in the future you'll be hearing about Will Sanders," Booker said. "That's a guy who's an Alabama native. He didn't have the biggest name coming out."

"But he's somebody who works hard every single day. He'll be borderline annoying sometimes...but I appreciate that from him because he had a want to learn. He wants to learn all the time and he loves the game of football...He wants to be great and he used somebody like me as an older guy to learn from. So I'm very excited to see how Will progresses over the next couple of years and I will always be rooting for that guy."

Tyler Booker failed to win a national championship with the Crimson Tide. However, it will be interesting to see if Will Sanders can live up to the expectations that his seniors have of him during his stint with the program.

The Crimson Tide begins spring practice on Monday, and Sanders will be someone to keep an eye out for in the upcoming season.