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Nick Saban held his final press conference before No. 6 Alabama’s game against No. 24 Mississippi State on Saturday. Here’s a transcript of what he said and my takes on what it means.
Opening statement
"Well, we're certainly looking forward to getting back home and playing in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night. You know, homecoming is a great tradition, and I know it gives a lot of people who are Alabama folks an opportunity to come back and refresh some of the relationships and traditions they enjoyed when they were here and what they were proud of. We certainly want to play the game in a way that they can be proud of what we do.
"The big emphasis for the team this week is playing to win. There's a difference between playing to win and playing to keep from getting beat. When you're playing to keep from getting beat, the game isn't really about winning. It's about being afraid to mess up, painting negative pictures in your mind of bad things that can happen, and that doesn't help you have success. So we want to be positive, correct mistakes, have the goal to go out and be aggressive and execute the way you're capable of executing. Capability and reliability to execute under any circumstance. We certainly have the capacity to do that. We just have to do it with consistency, and that's what we're looking forward to trying to do.
Tony’s take: Earlier this week, Saban spoke about his players being a little tight for the game against Tennessee. Here, the head coach seems to be calling for more of a killer instict from his players, challenging them to be the hunter instead of the hunted. While Alabama needs to clean up its mistakes form last week, the team can’t afford to play scared moving forward.
On the passing of Mississippi State offensive lineman Sam Westmoreland
"We're really saddened to hear the passing of one of Mississippi State's players, Sam Westmoreland. Our thoughts and prayers go out to he, his family, his friends, the Mississippi State football team. This is terrible that a young person is not going to be able to enjoy a successful life. But with that, we're trying to get ready to play a game."
Tony’s take: It is always a travesty when someone dies this young. Westmoreland, a walk-on, would have turned 19 on Friday. He was majoring in industrial technology at Mississippi State.
On Mississippi State CB Emmanuel Forbes
"He's a really good player. He's a playmaker. Special teams, too. That guy's a really good cover corner. He's very aggressive. He's very instinctive. He's got really good ball skills. He's an outstanding player, no doubt."
Tony’s take: Forbes is tied for the nation’s lead with five interceptions, including two which he returned for touchdowns. He also blocked a field goal on special teams.
On what stands out about State's passing game, QB Will Rogers.
"Will Rogers had a great year last year. He's having an outstanding year this year. They've got a lot of really difficult passing concepts to try and defend. They've got really good players. They understand what they're doing. He understands the offense as well as probably the coach and goes out there and executes it. He's very accurate with the ball. He makes quick decisions and judgments. So this is a very challenging offensive team, and I think it's very quarterback oriented. Him playing well, which he has done all year long, certainly enhances their opportunity to be successful."
Tony’s take: Rogers leads the SEC passing yards (2,313) passing touchdowns (23) and completion percentage (71.2). The junior does an excellent job of running Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense and is a big reason the Bulldogs rank ninth nationally, averaging 333 yards per game through the air.
During last year’s loss to Alabama, Rogers completed 35 of 55 passes for 300 yards but threw three interceptions. If he can have similar success while taking better care of the ball this week, he will be a handful for Alabama’s defense.
On what information the team wants to gather on Jermaine Burton’s incident and if there is an update on that
"We handle discipline issues internally, and that's the way we'll handle this. But as I said today when I was asked about the whole [how] the league is trying to control people rushing the field. It's a difficult circumstance for the league. It's a difficult circumstance for the people who are on the field. But we got to go through those difficult circumstances and still respect other people. And I think that's on us to do that, and that's certainly a lesson for all of us to learn relative to this."
Tony’s take: Saban isn’t going to reveal how or if Alabama will punish Burton for his actions while leaving the field following last week’s loss to Tennessee. Saban realizes the position Burton and the rest of his team was in as fans swarmed around them on the field inside Neyland Stadium. However, he expects better discipline from his players.
On Mississippi State’s success with turnovers
“Right, well they’ve got a lot a lot of ball hawkers. They’ve got an experienced defensive team. They play a lot of pressure defense. There’s a lot of movement, a lot of stunting, a lot of blitzing, a lot of penetrating. They’ve got some good pass rushers.
“But we continue to try to create awareness with our team about attacking the ball. Sometimes you’ve just got players who do that, and sometimes it’s hard to get players to have confidence that they can tackle the next guy and can attack the ball. These guys got some guys that have some good ball skills in the secondary too, so that always helps.
“I wish we would get more turnovers, take care of the ball better, and we’re gonna have to that in this game cause that’ll be a critical piece to having success in the game.”
Tony’s take: Mississippi leads the SEC with 14 forced turnovers this season. That’s a stat Saban appears to be a bit envious of. It seemed like the head coach was trying to fire up his defenders here by stating he wished they approached the game more like Mississippi State’s defense.
On Jaheim Oatis’ maturity
“I think he’s done a really, really good job of being able to stay focused, know what to do. No moment’s been too big for him, and as a freshman, you’d never know he’s a freshman. I don’t think the other players on the defense look at him as a freshman because of his maturity and the way he goes about his business. He’s done a really good job for us this year.”
Tony’s take: Jaheim Oatis has been the MVP of Alabama’s 2022 recruiting class so far. Through seven games, the defensive lineman has logged five starts and recorded 20 tackles, including 1.5 for a loss with a sack. He also has two pass breakups and a quarterback huyrr.
James will have a nice feature on Oatis for Friday, so make sure to check it out!
On how the team has responded to the loss to Tennessee
“I think they responded. You know, I don’t think our players — they want to have success. I’ve said this before — fans get upset, people get upset when we don’t have success, but the players get upset, too. They’re probably more upset than anybody because they work hard, and they get frustrated when they don’t have success, and they want to know why and how they can fix it, and they work hard to try to do that. But I think it goes back to, you got to have the right mindset, man. We’ve got to get more positive toward how we approach beating the other team, and that’s something that were working on this week as well.”
Tony’s take: While Saban appeared to challenge his team a few times throughout the presss conference, it appears as thos his players are responding the right way toward last week’s loss. It will be interesting to see if Alabama comes out with more swagger and focus Saturday night.
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