On August 10, 2000, Nick Saban began teaching LSU that the future would be built by attending to the present.

Trusting the process became synonymous both with Saban and coachspeak.

LSU head coach Lane Kiffin opened his first fall camp in Baton Rouge this past Wednesday, beginning preparations for the Tigers’ September 5 opener against Clemson. Twenty-six years ago today, another first-year LSU coach in Saban gathered his complete team for the first time.

Times, of course, were a lot different back then.

On Thursday, August 10, 2000, Nick Saban conducted his first full-squad LSU practice (the article is dated August 9th, but that “Thursday morning” was the 10th). The Tigers worked in shoulder pads and shorts for nearly two and a half hours, much longer than Kiffin’s first practice, progressing from individual drills into team periods before returning for another session that evening. LSU preserved the original practice report.

Here were the first Practice Notes for Saban’s tenure at LSU:

Practice Notes:

• Soph. TE Soloman Lee (knee) and Soph. DT Byron Dawson (were the only Tigers wearing the “red jersey,” identifying players who are not 100 percent due to injury.
• Junior QB Rohan Davey practiced for the first time since tearing his ACL in late February. He will compete for quarterbacking duties with junior Josh Booty, junior Craig Nall, freshmen Marcus Randall and walk-on freshman Matt Mauck.
• Soph. CB Demetrius Hoofkin did not participate in the morning practice, however, he did attend.

Interesting, to look back at those names.

The Discipline of the Present Moment

With Clemson and perhaps the most trying schedule in LSU football history, Kiffin’s diligence will be tested. He has subtracted many of the vices holding him back, has recognized the fortitude it will take to win at LSU, and now he must devote unceasing, disciplined attention to the work immediately before him.

And, as it seems according to that NOLA.com headline linked above, that attention involves a “science to it.”

Saban’s “process” pressed upon players the utmost importance of concentrating on the present moment instead of riding emotional peaks and valleys inevitable to a football season. Every player was drilled to dominate the man in front of him, to complete the immediate assignment with precision, to extract everything possible from that one play and to then move on to the next one.

His opening remarks remain preserved by LSU.

“We’re going through a process with these players developing the mental and physical toughness I think we need to have the kind of well-conditioned team we need to have and we are going to work through that process.

We are going to practice at 9:30 in the morning, so we can practice at night and then we will go to the noontime-nighttime deal that was released to you before. Our objectives of this fall camp — we don’t have a game to get ready for, we don’t have any teams to worry about, there really are no standings to worry about — the big thing that we are interested in is the players developing the knowledge and the experience in the system that they are in, the skills they need to have physically to be able to play and be prepared to play well when the season begins and for the entire season.

I think that us being able to focus on the present moment and to work through one thing at a time is going to be important long-term for our success. We can’t be up and down. We can’t focus on the peaks and valleys, but we’ve got to try to develop consistency. I think that starts with guys taking the task at hand, focusing on that, getting the most out of it and going on to the next thing. Right now it’s get ready for the season by doing the things I just talked about.”

Not that Saban and Kiffin live necessarily by this particular Scripture passage from Matthew, although Saban is a Catholic, but its wisdom applies to both the gridiron and life, not to mention an article we put out on the Andre series. “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow,” Christ teaches (Mt 6:34). Another word here is “anxious,” an emotion based in fear of the future that can derail hopes on the field very quickly, both in a game and inside the longer season.

This, of course, does not prohibit planning and organization, even long-term vision, but it places tomorrow in its proper order. Tomorrow can’t become the excuse or the distraction in failing to take care of today’s business. Saban’s process translated that biblical language into football language, and it certainly seems Kiffin is doing the same at a much higher level in 2026.

Final Thoughts

Kiffin has recently described recovering a similar attention in his personal life. His son Knox challenged him to delete social media, and Kiffin said the change reduced self-comparison with others, while making him more present in his day-to-day. Being more present is synonymous with trusting the process, and it will be an intriguing story to see if he stays on this path. If so, it is a good guess that it might take his coaching and his football team to an even higher level.

Kiffin is now the leader of an LSU football program driven by championship expectations built largely because of Saban. He knows what Saban knew even before this century’s success on the national stage: that a college football team of young impressionable men is capable—on any day, or any hour with just interacting with the world on campus—of losing their edge and attention on the next practice, on the next drill, on the next improvement, on the next film session, all little opportunities to dominate that might make the difference in victory and defeat on Saturday.

On August 10, 2000, a national championship was not Nick Saban’s job in the present moment. Day one of fall camp practice was. The Right Lane for Kiffin begins with implementing the same discipline, not being solicitous for Clemson quite yet, and from what we are gathering, things are trucking along quite nicely.

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