"Pressure is self-inflicted": When Nick Saban delivered clear verdict on dealing with mental health in college football

Young athletes often find the stress and challenges of college football overwhelming and hard to navigate. The new schedule filled with practices, conditioning, lifts, workouts, classes, set meal times, finding time to study, and having a social life can be physically and mentally draining.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban offered his opinion on mental health in an interview with Today in 2022.

"We're all gonna have bad things that happen," Saban said. "But our ability to overcome those negatives is going to go a long way in helping us be successful."

"Pressure is kind of self inflicted," Saban added. "And it's self inflicted because you're focused on results."

Saban has produced some of the most successful football players of the past 20 years and many of them have had to fight internal battles to get where they are.

"I don't think (talking about mental health is) as difficult now as it used to be," Saban said. "I don't think the players look at it as 'I have something wrong with me'. They look at it more as 'maybe I could use the help'. And it's always good to empathize with people: take help when help is there to be given. It's not a bad thing."

Today, college programs everywhere are putting more emphasis on access to quality mental health support. That goes from performance-based anxiety all the way to injury-related depression and conflict off the field with personal lives.