Nick Saban had a confession to make.
"I've gotten soft around here," he said in March.
A smile spread across his face as laughter filled a campus barbershop where former Alabama stars Julio Jones, Ryan Anderson and Eddie Jackson were in his midst.
It was a surprising admission by a man who had long cultivated a serious, steely, unforgiving persona. It was also rather meta for the intensely guarded coach. After all, Saban made the remark during the first installment of Bama Cuts -- a video series distributed through the football program's Twitter pipeline showing the coach buoyantly chopping it up with Crimson Tide alums living their NFL dreams.