re: Control or Coincidence ?

Nobody is capable of giving 100% all the time. It's just impossible. Coaches like Saban try to teach consistency and professionalism and keeping an even keel all the time, but humans are humans, and even the most even-keeled professional athlete on the planet isn't giving 100% all the time. Just look at how Olympic stars train for different events. There's just no way to be "on" all the time, and that goes like times a billion for baseball, which is famous for having fast starters sputter out early, and huge stars be known as perennial slow starters every year.

We're not even talking about players who just don't give a shite and don't take the sport seriously. That's a whole separate issue. We're talking just among people who try almost as hard as they can to maximize performance over the long haul.