There are many things a coach will say to fire his team up and make sure they're getting any sort of mental edge. Alabama coach Nick Saban sometimes takes that to the extremes.
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He has his players believing they're the underdogs despite being named the favorites by every sportsbook. He also doesn't think his own team is the best one in the country despite not having any blemishes on the record and facing a team with one blemish on theirs.
"I think that based on competition, competitors, you want to play, you should expect to play the best team," Saban explained, as transcribed by TigerNet.com. "If you're going to compete for a championship, and I think that Clemson deserves to be here, and I think they're the best team, and I think our team deserves to be here, and they've done a great job all year to beat a lot of good teams to have the opportunity to get here, as well."
Clemson played well except for the one game against Pittsburgh that resulted in a 43-42 loss. But whatever you have to do to get your team to play its best I suppose.
[h/t College Football Talk]
