Alabama will return to Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first time in three weeks Saturday when it hosts Tennessee in the schools’ annual cross-division rivalry game.
On Thursday evening, Nick Saban appeared on his weekly radio show “Hey Coach Show with Nick Saban” to talk about the game.
Here were the highlights:
FOURTH SEGMENT
-- Saban said Brian Robinson has been a “real workhorse” for Alabama this season.
-- Saban said it is important for the team to prove their identity and legacy. Players have a chance to earn or lose respect from their teammates. “I think we need to have an outstanding, enthusiastic, passionate crowd that is really going to enhance our opportunities to maintain intensity,” he said. “This is a big one for us. I think it’s a big one for us.”
-- Eli Gold says the term “shit through a tin horn” that Saban used in the prior segment was originally used by general George Patton. “I can tell you this, I read a few of his books, but that’s not where that came from. That came from standing on the sidelines feeling helpless because you can’t stop the other team,” Saban said, chuckling.
THIRD SEGMENT
-- Saban received his traditional cake for his birthday. He will turn 70 on October 31. He said his family goes to Lake Burton every year and they take one day with about 12 couples in the lake house.
-- Saban complimented Mal Moore for re-doing facilities during probation so the department could be successful after probation ended. He said Moore came every Sunday and told him stories about Bear Bryant. After Mark Ingram fumbled in the 2010 Iron Bowl, Saban told Moore that he could get Ingram to always carry the ball in the right hand. Moore told Saban a story about Bear Bryant sternly saying not to mess with a player’s technique like that.
-- Asked if he would prefer a low-scoring defensive battle or a high-scoring offensive battle, Saban said he has “never thought of it that way” but when you feel like you can’t stop the other team’s offense, that is “not a good feeling.” He said those games mean one mistake or “one dropped ball” can be the difference, noting a dropped catch against Texas A&M.
-- Saban said NFL games are usually decided by one score and there are fewer in college, so players need to understand how to play situational football in close games. “That’s something that our players sometimes do well and sometimes they don’t do so well.” Saban re-told a story about facing Dan Marino’s Miami Dolphins when he was the Browns’ defensive coordinator, and Marino looked Saban and the Browns defense in the eye knowing he would beat them. “They went through us like shit through a tin horn,” Saban recalled.
SECOND SEGMENT
-- Saban said they starts practice with turnover drills and “it’s not worked so far this year, but hopefully we’ll get it turned around and we’ll get some turnovers.”
-- Saban said Jordan Battle has been one of their most consistent players. On the pick-six interception last Saturday, Battle anticipated the route, passed it off and picked off.
-- Asked about Traeshon Holden, Saban said he has “played really well” and made plays whenever he has been in the game. Saban thought Alabama had “great bench enthusiasm” and they were happy especially when Holden scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
-- Saban said he “got on” the players Thursday, which is academic day. They have a threshold for missed classes before they get “in the box” and get “penalties” for how many classes they miss. The same thing holds true for missed meals. He did not reveal what the penalties are. “Everybody, once they get in the box, they don’t miss anymore classes. They don’t miss any more meals,” Saban said. “So my question is, from a morality standpoint, to do the right thing there has to be some penalty involved to enhance us not to do the wrong thing?”
-- Saban: “Sometimes I wonder who really hears it and who it goes in one ear and out the other, who really gets the message and understands it. I can’t really tell.” He said the “good guys” respond well and there is 10 percent that do not do it right, and they are the 10 percent that does not listen well.
-- Asked by an 11-year old in the audience on his birthday about how Alabama will start on offense against Tennessee, Saban said is a “good question” and they have about 20 plays in a sequence for how they want to start the game. He said they make a similar list at halftime of games. “I’m not gonna tell you exactly what those plays are because somebody might be listening, but at least in format that’s what we try to do,” he said.
-- Saban said they have 12-14 plays that are “fastballs” and one-word play calls. “When the players are lethargic, the best way to get them going is to go fast,” he said. “Most of the time we do that, we have pretty good success.”
-- Asked about Bryce Young’s input in scripting the plays, Saban said, “I don’t really think so. I think we what we do is maybe do it in a different direction.” They ask all three quarterbacks’ input about what they like in each situation. They don’t want to run what quarterbacks don’t like, Saban said, but he believes coaches that have decades of experience can make better decisions about what is best for the entire team.
FIRST SEGMENT
-- Saban said, “I guess Tennessee is using this as a motivation for them, like we don’t have any respect for them because we made that our homecoming. That’s what somebody told me. I don’t hear what’s on the Internet.”
-- Saban said Mississippi State was their most complete game of the season. “We showed what we’re capable of doing,” he said, adding that it took them losing and getting humiliated to play well. “Now can we show that this is a part of who we are,” he said, “and we don’t have to lose to get motivated again, I hope, or we’ll never be able to accomplish the things that we’re capable of or the goals we have for the season.”
-- Saban said players have been good in practice this week and “hopefully” that means they can sustain for 60 minutes and play well.
-- Saban on Will Anderson: “He’s not just a good player on game day. This guy has got some of the best character, one of the best people we’ve ever had on on our team. ... Really is about as fine of a person as we’ve ever had on our team.”
-- First caller PeeWee said Nick Saban’s arm bruise looks better. Saban repeated that the bruise from the Texas A&M fan rush “keeps me motivated.”
-- Saban said the offensive line did well against Mississippi State. Saban said it is difficult in five-man protections to block six rushers and it is not always the offensive line’s fault when sacks are allowed. Saban thinks they can “help out” the offensive line more by “changing up” protections.
-- Saban said Tennessee runs a Baylor-style offense with “huge” splits for wide receivers to spread the defense out, which makes it more difficult to stop the run and have safeties support the run. “This is something that more and more people are doing, so we’ve had to change our style against that a little bit,” Saban said, noting Ole Miss runs a similar offense. Tennessee forces defense to stop the run with six players in the box and attacks vertically down the field.
-- Saban said it “doesn’t matter” which Tennessee quarterback plays -- Hendon Hooker is coming off an injury -- because both are good runners.
-- Tennessee is the fastest-running offense in the country, Saban said, noting they sometimes run plays with 32 seconds on the 40-second play clock. “It’s challenging to get that kind of look in practice because the scout team has to look at a card to know what play they run,” he said.
-- Saban noted Tennessee has lost two close games and could be a one-loss team right now. “They have made improvements in every part of their team, in my opinion,” he said.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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