Saban, Petersen just really ready to get this whole Peach Bowl thing going

Washington’s Chris Petersen and Alabama’s Nick Saban. (Courtesy Peach Bowl.)

They were as polite as they could be, the legend and the legend-in-training, answering all the questions about bowl-week pomp and circumstance with appropriate respect and gratitude. But you didn’t have to look hard at Alabama’s Nick Saban and Washington’s Chris Petersen, the coaches leading their teams into Saturday’s college football playoff at the Peach Bowl, to see that both of them were just ready to be done with all the preliminary silliness and get to the business of knocking helmets.

“The week’s been great,” Petersen said of a hype-week period that’s run from the day after Christmas right on through to kickoff, and has included everything from solemn visits to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church to milkshake-making competitions. “Our kids have really enjoyed it. But I think everybody here is to play well and try to win a game. At the end of the day, that’s the things you remember the most.”

“The thing you’re going to remember most about these games, any bowl game,
actually, but most especially a playoff game is what happened in the game,” Saban added. “You know, how did we play in the game. I think that’s what people need to zero in on and try to focus on and that’s what’s going to be remembered most.” So, with all due respect to bowl officials and their gift baskets and team-building outings … the team and the players have their minds on the field. (Well, most of them.)

At this point, there’s not much that either Saban or Petersen is going to say that would make news; both have their sidestep moves down pat. Petersen played matador on a question about a possible college football commissioner by suggesting that Saban would make a “great” one; amid the laughs, Saban played his usual role of Dad at Thanksgiving going along with all these shenanigans, and downplayed his ability to do such a job.

Saban did take the high road when discussing the exit of offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, he of the frequent missed buses. Kiffin had hinted that the Alabama atmosphere around Saban wasn’t exactly sweetness and light, but Saban didn’t even hint at any dissension. He concluded a long, complimentary answer with “I’m happy for him that he got an opportunity to be a head coach again, and we’ll help him every way that we can.”

Asked whether they had any final motivational slogans for their team, both coaches went with the expected route. “I think at this point, there’s not a ton of talking,” Petersen said. “We’ve talked to these guys for a long time and now it’s just, they know the plan and got to go play.”

And then, after the requisite photo op, both coaches shook hands and parted ways. They’ll next meet on the Georgia Dome turf, sometime around 7 p.m. Saturday evening, and one’s likely to be much less happy than he is right now.