The travel plans of college football teams seem so insignificant when the country goes into just its second nationwide ground stop since 9/11. But disruptions always have a way of making it onto the football field, and few coaches have more experience managing them than Nick Saban.

The FAA ground stop affected the travel plans of at least 15 FBS teams with Saturday games. As a result, multiple game times had to be shifted, including an SEC showdown between Ole Miss and Oklahoma, which had to be moved to Sunday.

Saban spent much of Alabama’s 2020 national championship season navigating disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the Crimson Tide to adjust to schedule changes and an unprecedented level of uncertainty.

Drawing on that experience, Saban said a team’s ability to handle unexpected obstacles comes down to the players’ maturity level.

“I always told the players, ‘Who has the maturity to handle the disruption the best?’” he said on ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday morning.

With the Texas Longhorns being among the teams forced to adjust their travel plans ahead of a marquee road game at LSU, Saban said the key for coaches is to create as much of a normal routine as possible.

“Players love routine,” he said. “So if I were Texas, for instance, and didn’t get in till one o’clock in the morning, I would’ve done everything on Friday in Texas, just like we would’ve done in Baton Rouge. And then I would’ve pushed everything forward two hours today since it is a night game so we could get back on that routine.”

Saban’s comments resonated with fellow ESPN analyst and 1991 Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard, who added that veteran players can play a critical role in helping teams navigate unexpected situations.

“Yeah coach, as a player, I think this is where the veteran players need to really step up and take a leadership role because the coaches can’t do it all,” he said. “As a veteran player, what I would do is I would gather maybe my position group, and we would play cards, and we would do things to distract us from what’s going on outside- situations we can’t handle.”

This reinforced Saban’s belief that handling disruptions is ultimately a test of maturity, something the seven-time national champion said can make all the difference when a team’s routine is thrown off course.

“Maturity is really important,” he said. “We always talked routine to players, but now you gotta change routine, and you gotta have the maturity to do it.”