‘Bama gonna ‘Bama, until it ‘Bamas otherwise

A stray thought on the just-concluded 2012 college football season:

“‘Bama gonna ‘Bama,” we said Monday night, observing how visibly Nick Saban’s star players had absorbed his obsession with perfection in all things. Comparing this:

Saban, not smiling, deadpans: “I’m extremely happy.”

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) January 8, 2013

with our all-time favorite Saban anecdote, one can safely conclude it’d be difficult not to take on Sabanian characteristics as an Alabama player via osmosis, if that’s how on-message he is from victory to victory and season to season. Yet even with his oft-implied conviction that maybe perfection still isn’t quite good enough, the fastidious emperor of the Crimson Tide must acknowledge leaps forward in evolution as they happen:

Saban on Gatorade bath: “It’s cold, it’s sticky. But I appreciate not getting hit in the head with the bucket. That’s an improvement.”

— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) January 8, 2013

By the time the Tide’s 2013 season opener with Virginia Tech rolls around, we fully expect Alabama players to have mastered the art of showering their overlord in sports drink without a single ice chip touching his person. Ever onward.