Szvetitz column:

HOOVER – It took 15 minutes, but he finally cracked … a smile, that is.

The question was simple: How do you deal personally with not being as successful over the last couple seasons compared to earlier successes?

The response said it all.

Nick Saban grinned – laughed even.

“Well, I try to get better, I guess.”

Nick Saban doesn’t like to lose. Period.

Show me a college football coach – or any coach – who likes to lose and I’ll show you someone who’ll be out of a job soon.

But it seems different for Saban.

It seems he doesn’t like anything. Especially a room full of sports writers on the second floor of the Wynfrey on Thursday.

“He’s ya’ll’s best buddy,” Alabama senior center Antoine Caldwell joked.

Saban, after floating through the masses in the lobby surrounded by University of Alabama officials, Wynfrey security and police, showed up in front of his “buddies” in the print media room wearing his game face.

He was all business. (When is he not?)

He wants his team to compete, play well, excel and, of course, win. Nothing more, nothing less.

He has no expectations other than to do the best he can as a coach, and he expects the same thing from his staff and players.

“That’s what I love about him,” Caldwell said. “He’s like one of us. When it comes to gameday or anything else, he’s the ultimate competitor in everything he does. In the meeting room, in the film room, whatever it is, he makes sure it’s done the way it needs to be done.

“And some people can’t get with that, and some people can …”

That’s Saban. You’re either in, or you’re out.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s what he expects. And it’s the only thing he expects. Because there’s something else Nick Saban doesn’t like: expectations.

Oh, he understands that there are a lot of them, especially at Alabama. But it’s not about where other people see you, it’s about where you see yourself.

“I think it’s important to all of us, that we create our own expectations, that we know where we are, we have a goal, and we want to try to achieve that,” Saban said. “… Someone else’s expectations of what you should accomplish, especially if it’s defined in results, can create a tremendous amount of frustration which could affect how you improve and how you develop as a player because frustration is not something that’s gonna help you.”

But how can you not expect big things from college football’s first $4 million dollar man who came to Alabama to restore its tradition and success?

How can you not expect big things from the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation?

How can you not expect something better than 7-6 and the Independence Bowl?

“You guys (media) use that word ‘expectations’ a lot,” Saban said. “And I try to minimize it a lot because I think it’s dangerous, because we’re trying to focus on what we can do to make our team the best that it can be.”

Dangerous? Yeah, it can be. But so is losing. Especially around these parts.

And Nick Saban knows that.

It is what it is.

And that’s why he is the way he is.

Nothing more, nothing less.