Every pro prospect in college football hopes to hear his name early in the NFL draft, but they don't all avoid the buzzword.
Alabama coach Nick Saban, who spent six years as an NFL assistant coach and another two as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, said the last word any prospect wants in his scouting report is "but."
"What's always interesting is, every report starts with what a good football player a guy is. He can do this, this, this, this and this. It's all good," Saban said on Thursday. "Then there are two words that come after that: 'but' -- and there's never anything good that comes after 'but' -- or there's 'and.' And he's really a good person, and he really does what he is supposed to do, and he is really well liked by his teammates, and he can be trusted, and he respects everybody, and he does the right things.
"'But' is not good because most of the time when there is a 'but' in that report, it usually goes downhill after that."
Saban's remarks come at the 4:15 mark of his Thursday press conference:
Saban's comments came after a question about reserve linebacker Tim Williams, who recently returned from a suspension that cost him 20 preseason practices. After sitting out nearly all of fall camp for disciplinary reasons, you can bet the sophomore has a "but" or two in Saban's assessment.
But with three years of eligibility left, he has plenty of time to eliminate "but" from any NFL scouting evaluations.
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