Nick Saban: 'Why do we even play? Why do we have practice?'

— -- Alabama?coach Nick Saban isn't a fan of preseason predictions, especially concerning his players, as evidenced by his rant Wednesday when asked about linebacker Christian Miller.

With the Tide's opener against Florida State?looming on Sept. 2, Saban was asked how Miller was faring in practice. That was all the opening Saban needed to start venting.

"Oh, I don't know. You guys make all these predictions about everything, about guys who are going to be great players, that have been here for two years. Who's gonna win all the games? I don't even know why we play," Saban told reporters. "Why do we even play? Why do we even have practice? Why do we compete? Why do we coach guys? How they need to improve. I mean, you guys got all the answers to how guys are gonna be, what they're gonna do.

"Sometimes I wonder ... why do we play? Why do we even have practice? Because you guys have got all these conclusions already drawn about who's what, how good they are, what they can do. So why would you ask me? That's what's puzzling to me. Why would you ask me? I read stuff all the time, like, 'Oh, that's nice to know. Where'd that come from?' And then you ask me?"

Saban then cracked a smile and chuckled as he answered the question amid laughs from the media gathering.

"But Christian Miller has done a nice job," he said. "He's had a really good camp. He's doing a good job. He had a lot of production points in the scrimmage, so we're really happy with the progress."

It isn't the first rant of the season for Saban, who has won four of his five national championships with Alabama. After the team's first practice of the spring, the coach took issue with a reporter's suggestion that the Crimson Tide would be using a conservative approach on offense this season.