As I see it, Nick Saban actually believes as Alabama prepares for Coastal Swamp Community College that his players will take the team lightly, Swamp's coaching staff will come up with some unique strategy that will allow an upset, Swamp's QB is about to emerge from his chrysalis as Aaron Rogers II.... His paranoia about these possibilities informs every staff meeting, every meeting and practice and as a result his team is prepared to dominate a team it should dominate whatever it sees from Swamp. There is never a sense of satisfaction with Saban but a wariness of how quickly everything can come undone.
And then there's Kelly. You have only to watch his Ball State week press conference, the absence of self-awareness of self-satisfaction, the knowing banter regarding the possibility of getting young players in when the blowout is underway ... whenever he's in that mode look out. Kelly discounts unknowns (they're going to do what they do; we've played before big crowds before and we practiced with loud noise: Miami, no problem); respecting "lesser" opponents, he discounts the value of beating ND to their program and its coaches and what they might do to achieve it. I think to be a consistently successful ND coach you can never be satisfied, always doubting yourself and always be paranoid about the things you do not know and cannot control and prepare accordingly. That may be why ND's greatest coaches did not have longevity. Who wants to live like that?
With Kelly ND goes up: you doubted me and we've made it ... then it goes down: we've got to change the culture and coach better ... and then it goes up ... and it who will be surprised if it's going down again.