WATCH: Freddie Kitchens, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, made an interesting statement to this weekend's Alabama coaching clinic that Coach Saban shared with his team...



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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Freddie Kitchens was a guest speaker at the University of Alabama’s recent coaching clinic and said something that stuck with Nick Saban.

The current Alabama head coach relayed what the former Crimson Tide quarterback had to say about becoming an excellent or elite football player (or an excellent or elite anything, really).

“Freddie Kitchens made an interesting comment last night when he spoke to the clinic, and I actually shared it with the players today,” Saban said during a press conference following Alabama’s spring scrimmage. “We have about five choices in our life. I mean, we can be bad at what we do. I mean we can be average at what we do. I mean, we can be good at what we do, which is probably God’s expectation for whatever ability he gave us.

“Or we can be excellent or we can be elite. And everybody has a choice as to what they want to do and how they’re going to do that. But if you’re going to be excellent or elite you’ve got to do special things. You have to have special intensity, you have to have special focus, you have to have a special commitment and drive and passion to do things at a high level and a high standard all the time. And it doesn’t matter what God-given ability that you have -- that probably can make you good -- but without the rest of it I’m not sure you ever get excellent or elite, and that’s the part we’re trying to get to.”

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