TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama passed its final road test of the season with a 30-24 victory at Ole Miss over the weekend. Now the Crimson Tide will wrap up its regular season at home as it hosts FCS foe Austin Peay on Saturday before taking on Auburn next week.
During his Monday press conference, Nick Saban spoke about his team’s win over the Rebels and what he is expecting from his players moving forward. Here’s a transcript of what he said as well as my takes on what it means.
Opening statement
The first thing, it was great to see our players happy and excited to be celebrating a win, a really good win for them, after getting behind in the game 17-7. To come back and sort of play the way we're capable of playing and do things with sort of a relentless competitive sort of spirit and enthusiasm and togetherness as a team, I think was great. And it was really good to see the players happy and excited and celebrating because they were happy that they had put something in something and got a positive result.
In reviewing the film, obviously I think that we always have to be able to focus on taking advantage of opportunities that we have. But we also have to focus on making sure that we learn the lessons of the things that we do that actually help the other team have opportunities in the game as well. Those are all lessons to be learned.
I think the focus needs to be on our team, what our team needs to do _ each individual on our team and each unit on our team _ what do we need to do to improve? What do we need to try to do a better job with consistency and execution in terms of what we do as coaches as well as how we get the players to stay focused so that we can execute with more consistency.
Great to see Byron Young SEC defensive lineman of the week. He had a heck of a game. Will Reichard made some real clutch kicks in the game. It's great for those guys to get recognized.
Tony’s take: Alabama needed a win over the weekend, so while Saturday’s victory against Ole Miss wasn’t the prettiest, Saban will take it. That being said, the Crimson Tide struggled for much of the first half and still has plenty to work on moving forward. Alabama should be able to build on its momentum with winnable games against Austin Peay and Auburn to close out the regular season. However, Saban will want to see growth from this period and will look to make sure his players don’t drop down to their competition.
On Austin Peay
Scotty Walden does a really, really good job there. For FCS, these guys are ranked in the top part of their division in just about everything they do. They're really good on defense. They've got one of the Top 10 defenses. They average about 450 yards a game on offense with a lot of balance. The quarterback does a really good job with them. No. 10, (Drae) McCray is a really explosive player that they do a good job of utilizing his talents. They've got a good returner.
Look, we need to prepare for this game like any other game that we play. We need to be ready to play well. They have enough people on their team to be able to take advantage of any lack of execution. And certainly we want to focus on us being able to execute in a really positive way and try to build on the momentum of having a good second half and improving to finish the season.
Tony’s take: Saban isn’t going to overlook any opponent, but Austin Peay shouldn’t pose a threat to Alabama in any aspect of the game. This is a team that lost 40-16 at home to fellow ASUN opponent Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks might have been a better FCS test for Alabama, but the team refuses to add in-state opponents to its schedule.
On if he can pinpoint what’s behind the lack of turnovers
I can't. It comes down to player awareness. It comes down to player focus. It comes down to, you know, on defense you've got to be physical. When you're physical, you knock the ball off of people. When you have good cleanup, which means a lot of guys are getting to the ball, a second guy in has a chance to take a shot at the ball. All these things are things that we emphasized and we actually did better in this last game. But only got the result of one turnover. Had another chance to intercept the ball and didn't make the chance. But we've just got to keep harping on it and keep working on it with our players to work on, how do you get the ball out? When do you take shots at it? And try to do it better, because this is something that has a significant impact on games. And we need to do a better job in that regard.
Tony’s take: This is one of the problems Alabama hasn’t been able to fix. The Crimson Tide is tied for last in the nation with seven forced turnovers through 10 games. Alabama did force a crucial fumble against Ole Miss, but as Saban said, the team missed a couple of opportunities to pick off overthrown passes.
On Bryce Young’s vision, footwork in the pocket when things break down
“We had three or four of our explosive plays in the game where whatever you wanna call him moving the pocket, making people miss in the pocket. He’s deceptively quick to make people miss, especially if they’re coming at him out of control. But he does a fantastic job of having a feel in the pocket of when he needs to do it, and he’s very good at doing it and his ability to extend plays. And then our receivers have done a really good job of when he does scramble of applying scramble rules to get where they need to get so they have an opportunity to make themselves available for the ball. That was good for us in te game. I mean, I think we made three or four big plays on that kind of thing.”
Tony’s take: Bryce Young’s ability to buy extra time with his feet is probably his best trait. The Heisman Trophy winner pulled off one of his backyard scrambles in the second quarter, ducking by defenders before dumping off a 10-yard pass to JoJo Earle. Later that drive, he juked a defender before hitting Cameron Latu for a 15-yard gain. Young’s third touchdown of the game came in the third quarter as he bought time with his legs by rolling out to his right, allowing him to find Ja’Corey Brooks for an 8-yard score.
On what is the next step in Ja’Corey Brooks’ development
“Ja’Corey Brooks has played really well for us. The guy’s a dog. He plays great on special teams. He’ll block. He’s physical, plays hard all the time, makes contested catches. I mean, I’m sure that if you ask him, there’s always things that you can improve on, whether it’s releases, separating at the top of the break, whatever, and I’m sure there’s things that he can improve on. But he’s one of the guys on our team that I think is a great competitor who has really played consistently all year long for us.”
Tony’s take: Brooks recorded his fourth straight game with 60 or more yards, pulling in four receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown against Ole Miss. The sophomore leads the team with 32 catches for 534 yards and six touchdowns this season and has been by far the most consistent member of Alabama’s receiving corps.
On what kind of weapon Brian Branch has been with his versatility
“Brian Branch is a very versatile player. He’s got good cover skills. He’s physical. He’s a good blitzer. For the most part, he’s a good tackler. Although on their long run at the end of the game, he missed the tackle. But I think he’s a really, really good competitor, and his versatility as a player playing Star, playing safety, playing Money, if you don’t have a few guys like that on your team then you don’t have any diversity in what you can do on defense. So I think he’s played extremely well for us and very consistently all year long.”
Tony’s take: Brian Branch is the Swiss Army knife of Alabama’s defense. He’s started nine games at the Star position and one at deep safety this season. He even worked at cornerback some in fall camp. Pound-for-pound, Branch is probably the Crimson Tide’s toughest player. The 6-foot, 193-pound defensive back is third on the team with 62 tackles. He also ranks third with a 76.3 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus.
On the challenge of getting the team to play with intensity when goals are off the table
“I think it comes down to a lot of things that we talked about last week in terms of, are you going to define your identity as a football player and as a football team? Or are you gonna let other people do it? And being the best that you can be as a player, taking some of the things that have happened to us personally in terms of your pride as a competitor and the consistency in our performance are all things that if you are a competitor, you’re gonna respond. And I think our players did that in this game. Now, the challenge is are we gonna continue it to finish the season?”
Tony’s take: I’m personally tired of talking about this question, so I’m sure Saban is, too. As he’s been saying for two weeks, the head coach is looking for his player to focus on doing the little things right in order to play up to the team’s standard. It takes a certain level of pride to focus on that rather than the result. We saw that at times against Ole Miss, but there is still work to be done moving forward.
On Terrion Arnold
“Well, I mean, you saw the game. I think Terrion Arnold plays really well when he plays with good technique, I think when he has bad habits in his technique, which I’m not gonna get into specifically, he allows the other guy to, you know, take advantage of him on release and doesn’t always put him in a great position to play the ball. But he actually played better as the game went on. And the guy has been a starter for us for half the season. So he’s got experience, he should be able to go out there and play with confidence. And we have confidence in him. But I also think he’s got to stay focused on doing things correctly because it helps him be able to put himself in the best position.”
Tony’s take: After missing the game against LSU with the flu, Arnold was called off the bench to replace Eli Ricks over the weekend after the starter suffered a head injury on the game’s first play from scrimmage. While Arnold tallied 10 tackles and a pair of pass breakups against Ole Miss, he struggled throughout the game, allowing six receptions for 92 yards on 11 balls thrown his way.
On Tyler Harrell
“Well, he’s learning. He’s healthy now. He’s learning. He’s getting lots of reps. The guy’s got really good speed, which I think could help us on offense. I think we need to find ways to try to use him in certain situations that could be helpful to giving us some explosive, vertical plays down the field, which there’s been a lack of recently. But he’s making really good progress.”
Tony’s take: Harrell played in just one offensive snap for Alabama against Ole Miss. The receiver’s sub-4.3 speed is intriguing, but he’ll need to show more than that to get on the field. Perhaps we’ll see him receive more reps against Austin Peay this week.
On the importance of unsung heroes
“Well, I think it’s important to have a whole team of guys like that. I think if everybody is putting the team first and want to do what they can do to help develop themselves so that they create value for their future and opportunities in their future, as well as whatever their role on is the team – you know, do it the best you can do it so the team has the best chance to, sort of, develop the kind of personality as well as the intangibles that you need to be a great competitor. Look, there’s a lot of distractions out there. Guys have to choose to focus on the right thing. Can’t worry about all the stuff – you’ve heard me talk about it before. External noise, rat poison, whatever you want to talk about, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. When you step on the field to compete, you need to be focused on what you need to do to play the best you can to dominate your box against whatever the challenge is, whether you’re an offensive lineman, a defensive back, a linebacker. It doesn’t matter.
“That’s a challenge. It’s more challenging now than it’s ever been before. But it’s important for guys that aren’t starters on your team, don’t even know if they’re going to play, aight, to get ready to play so they can take advantage of the opportunity when they do play. Because those opportunities will come at some point, and sometimes it’s when you least expect them. And some of the young guys on our team have done a much better job on that this year than I thought some of the guys did in years past.”
Tony’s take: Most of this response is the same rhetoric Saban has been repeating for the past two weeks. However, one aspect that stood out is what he said about how the young players have responded much better than they did last year. One guy I’d imagine Saban is speaking about is Kendrick Law. While the freshman receiver has just five receptions for 48 yards over eight games, he’s gained some praise from Saban for demonstrating a positive attitude and being a solid contributor on special teams. Last week that hard work was rewarded as he recorded three receptions for 26 yards while making his way onto the field with the first-team offense.
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