Football 🏈 Tony's takes: Breaking down Saban's comments heading into Mississippi State

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Alabama will make its first SEC road trip of the season this weekend as it travels to take on Mississippi State on Saturday at 8 p.m. CT. inside Davis Wade Stadium. Wednesday, Nick Saban spoke to reporters in his final press conference before the matchup.

Here’s a transcript of what he said as well as my takes on his comments.

Opening statement

“I think it’s really important that our players have the right mindset going into this game. Play with the right energy level, have the right focus to execute and play to a very high standard against a very challenging team, playing on the road in the SEC. These guys are very aggressive. They’re very physical. They’ve got an aggressive style on defense, lots of pressures, lots of challenges for the offense. They’ve got really good players, good running back, good quarterback, good receivers on offense. So attention to detail is going to be really important for us.

“It’s like I said on Monday to the players, when you look at the film and things work and we do it right, why was it right? And then when it doesn’t work, why didn’t work? And most of the time, it’s something to do with us. Something to do with our execution, our fundamentals, our fundamental discipline, our eye high control, and whether it’s blocking, tackling, turning the ball blower, whatever, making good plays, making bad plays. So then you say to yourself, what if? What if I had the right sense of urgency? What if I had the right discipline? What if I had the right focus in practice to create the right habits? Because after the fact, you can only say, only if and regret that you didn’t do everything you can do to get ready to play. So our players have been pretty good this week, and we need to continue to do that and clean up some things so that we go over there with a lot of confidence in what we need to do to win.”

Tony’s take: Position between a big win over Ole Miss and a highly-anticipated trip to Texas A&M, this weekend’s matchup against Mississippi State has all the makings of a trap game. Saban can see that and stressed the importance of his team’s focus and attention to detail several times throughout the press conference.

On paper, Alabama shouldn’t have any problems handling Mississippi State. However, this will be the most hostile atmosphere the Crimson Tide has faced this season. The ringing of cowbells can do a number on your concentration, and if players aren’t careful, the Bulldogs have enough weapons to make things ugly.

On Jalen Milroe’s run threat forcing defenses to play zone

“Well, I think that’s one way to look at it. I think because of his ability to run, sometimes people run three guys and spy a guy. Sometimes they rush four guys and spy a guy. So that should be helpful in terms of us being able to protect better. I think when people play man-to-man and everybody turns their back, there’s opportunities to make plays if you can beat them one-on-one. But there’s also opportunities to take off. So everybody’s gonna have a different philosophy of how they want to play when it comes to how do we control the quarterback. Some may even say we’ll just rush five or six guys and make him be a passer. So you never know how a team is going to approach that, and we could see various things throughout the course of the year.”

Tony’s take: Alabama utilized Milroe’s athleticism more against Ole Miss, drawing up eight designed runs for the dual-threat quarterback. That opened up the Rebels defensive a bit, helping the redshirt sophomore complete 17 of 21 (80.9%) passes for 225 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

As Saban pointed out, Milroe’s ability to make plays with his feet can also help out Alabama’s pass protection as teams have to leave a defender to spy on the quarterback.

Mississippi State struggled against dual-threat quarterbacks the past two weeks, as LSU’s Jayden Daniels and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler completed a combined 48 of 54 passes for 649 yards and five touchdowns. First-year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees will look to make sure Milroe is in a position to exploit the Bulldogs in a similar fashion this week.

On the play of the wide receivers through four games

I would say (they've) played well at times, but need more consistency. We need to develop confidence in terms of playing together: quarterback, receiver. You're supposed to sit down if it's zone, I sit down, you drift in a zone and it's 3rd and 5 and now the ball comes out because a quarterback thinks you're sitting and now you're punting instead of getting first down. So I think all those little things and those details, I say this all the time but might be the most overused attention to detail term in the building that can make things work or not work.

I think we need to pay more attention to detail in that togetherness of how we execute in the passing game whether it's protection, where the quarterback reads, whether it's route running, the whole thing. If we can continue to make a lot of progress, and I'm not disappointed with the way that guys play; they've made some great plays. But I think that consistency would be helpful.

Tony’s take: For as much heat as Alabama’s receiving corps takes at times, it’s actually pretty solid. The unit has done a decent job of getting open for big plays as Jermaine Burton leads the team with three deep-ball receptions, while Isaiah Bond, Jalen Hale and tight end Amari Niblack all have two apiece.

Still, as is the case with several of the Tide’s position groups, consistency has been a bit of an issue. Perhaps having a set quarterback in Milroe will help the receiving corps mesh a bit better moving forward and clear up some of the communication issues Saban referenced in his assessment.

Injury update on Deontae Lawson and Terrence Ferguson II

“Both guys were unable to practice today so that will put them in a category of very questionable.”

Tony’s take: A source close to Alabama’s program told TideIllustrated that backup offensive lineman Terrence Ferguson underwent ankle surgery and will miss this week’s game against Mississippi State. The same source said Deontae Lawson’s ankle injury did not require surgery. However, given Saban’s response, it doesn’t seem like he will play against the Bulldogs either.

On Jaheim Oatis' growth

“Jaheim Oatis has been great. Our plan for every player is to develop them, help them build and grow to be the best player they can be. Now some players really buy into it and do all the things that they need to do to do it, and Jaheim's a guy that's done that: got himself in better shape, can move better and can rush the passer better. He's got more versatility as a player whether he plays five technique, nose, two technique, three technique. He's done everything we've asked him to do and I think his quality of improvement and his play and consistency has been really outstanding.”

Tony’s take: After lining up primarily at nose guard during his freshman year, Oatis has moved around across the defensive line this season. He’s been able to provide some inside pressure against the passing game while playing a key role in Alabama holding opponents to 2.97 yards per carry on the ground.

On the defensive line

“I think there’s quite a few guys on the defensive line that have made some contributions and continue to make contributions. I think we have some really good young players at defensive line. We need to get those guys to understand what it takes to play at a high level and get game-ready, in terms of preparation, how to practice, how to really understand the game plan, understand what the other team’s trying to do. But I’m encouraged by the progress that they’ve made. But I think that’s the number one thing the young guys need to be working on and focusing on.”

Tony’s take: Oatis isn’t the only lineman who has shined for Alabama this season. Redshirt sophomore Tim Keenan III has broken into the first-team unit, recording nine tackles and four quarterback hurries over the first four weeks. While they are listed as linebackers on Alabama’s roster, edge rushers Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell essentially serve as defensive ends in Alabama’s nickel setup. The five-duo has combined for eight sacks and nine quarterback hurries so far this season.

On the plan for Elijah Pritchett and Kadyn Proctor at left tackle

“Well you know, with other injuries on the offensive line, we’re moving guys around and we haven't made an assessment yet because today’s the only real practice — yesterday and I haven’t watched the practice film today. So we’ll make those evaluations on Thursday and Friday as to how we’re going to play guys in the game.”

Tony’s take: After playing both Proctor and Pritchett at left tackle against Ole Miss, Saban kept things close to the vest when asked about how he plans to use the two linemen this week. Given Alabama’s growing injuries up front, it’s not out of the question that either Proctor or Pritchett could move to guard. We might be able to dig up more on this later in the week.

On being approached by recruits looking to be paid for official visits

“Not that I know of. I don’t know of anybody that has asked us for that. But look, name, image and likeness is not really name, image and likeness. I think we all understand what it’s become and what we allowed it to become. I said long ago, and got very criticized, is this what we want college football to become? So, it’s becoming what it’s becoming. And that’s OK. I mean, we’ll just adapt and do what we have to do to compete, whatever the circumstances are. Do I think that it would be judicious to have some guardrails on some things? I think you can figure that one out just as well as anybody else.”

Tony’s take: Last week, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith spoke to the U.S. House of Representatives about Name, Image and Likeness in college sports. In his written testimony, he mentioned that “a practice of asking a school for a fee to simply visit campus has emerged,” stating that recruits have asked for $5,000 to take a visit to the school.

Saban isn’t going to admit to that happening even if a recruit did approach Alabama asking for a fee to visit. Regardless, I can’t see that being something the head coach would approve of in any circumstance.

Earlier this year, a report from OutKick revealed that Saban was approached by one of his starting players who was asking for $500,000 as well as help with getting his girlfriend into law school in return for that player remaining with the team. Saban responded by showing the player the door which led to him transferring out of the program.

 

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