Football 🏈 Tony's take: Breaking down Saban's final press conference before Alabama's season opener

[Tony_Tsoukalas]

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban spoke to reporters Wednesday during his final press conference before Alabama's season opener against Middle Tennessee State. Here’s a transcript of what he had to say as well as my takes on what it means.

Opening statement

“It’s like I talked to you the other day about creating an identity as a team. Everybody wants to be special, everybody wants to be extraordinary, everybody wants to win. I mean, you could ask any team in the country, ‘Do you wanna be No. 1?’ and everybody would raise their hand. But are you willing to do all the things you need to do accomplish that, get out of your comfort zone, be accountable, have the discipline to do things day in and day out, play in and play out that will make you be able to accomplish and do things at a high level? And this would be true no matter what you do.

“And at this point, we don’t have a lot of practice left, but we have a lot of opportunity to get a lot of mental practice, which will enhance your preparation in terms of going out there and being able to execute, have confidence, not make mental errors and everybody be accountable to each other and create great team chemistry, which will be a real starting point of trying to create the kind of identity that we’d like to create.

“Every team that you play creates lots of challenges in terms of the way you technically have to prepare, and they all have players who can make plays. So it’s up to us to control what we do in terms of how we play and the focus that we have in terms of how we wanna go out and execute together as a group.”

Tony’s take: Saban used his final opening statement before the season opener to focus on the key elements he’s been stressing to his players all offseason — work ethic, accountability and attention to detail. If Alabama can excel in those areas, it’s overall talent should be able to handle the rest. Saban seems confident in his team, but he won’t stop stressing those points anytime soon.

On Ty Simpson

“Ty has done a really good job. I think all the quarterbacks have made significant improvement. I think Ty has made improvement. I think one of the hardest things to not get involved with is to be outcome-oriented and show your emotions when things don’t go exactly like you’d want them to. And that’s one of the things that I think has helped all of our quarterbacks, especially Ty, improve on. Mistakes are opportunities to learn, get better, grow and not get disappointed or frustrated in terms of how it affects the next play. And that’s something that he’s done a really good job of, and I think it’s impacted his execution in a really positive way.”

Tony’s takes: After answering a question about Jalen Milroe on Monday, Saban was asked about Ty Simpson’s development Wednesday night. While Saban said both quarterbacks have made “significant improvement,” his most notable comment on Simpson revolved around the redshirt freshman’s mental maturity.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard someone mention Simpson’s improvement in overcoming his frustrations. Alabama’s quarterback battle creates a difficult situation where passers feel as though they are judged under a microscope on every rep. That puts a lot of added pressure on a young quarterback and can often cause them to spiral into a funk following a mistake.

Multiple sources have noted that Simpson has developed a better understanding of the offense this fall and seems to be playing with more comfort than last year. A lot of that stems from his willingness to trust the process and focus on his overall growth at the position.

On Danny Lewis’ role at TE

“He’s probably more of a traditional Y type, although we’ve 4-5 tight ends that we think can provide some kind of ability to contribute in their own to what we can do, run or pass. But Danny is the traditional, in-line guy, but they all play both positions and have some opportunity to do that, as well.”

Tony’s take: While Saban considers Lewis to be more of a traditional in-line tight end, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound redshirt sophomore is also a capable pass-catching threat. Pairing him with Amari Niblack in a two-tight-end set could create several matchup problems for opposing defenses.

Along with those two, Alabama’s tight end room also includes Maryland transfer C.J. Dippre as well as Robbie Ouzts and Miles Kitselman. This could be the deepest the Tide has ever been at the position under Saban.

On Deontae Lawson’s leadership

“I think Deontae’s done a really, really good job. He’s kind of taken over the signal-caller duties, which I think is a huge responsibility but yet something that is probably the most important thing, especially for the front seven in terms of alignment, adjustment, calls that need to get made, whether you’re pressuring, getting lined up the right way to play whether it’s to or away from the back. And a lot of guys, they’re a little apprehensive about taking on that responsibility, and he’s very confident in it. He’s done a great job of it. He’s played really well, set a great example in terms of how he practices, how he plays, how he communicates. And I think that’s been a significant improvement in how we’ve played up front on defense, and it’ll be important that we can continue that throughout the season.”

Tony’s take: While we are still waiting on Alabama to name a starting quarterback, at least we know who will be leading the defense this fall. Most expected Lawson to step in as the Tide’s signal-caller at the MIKE linebacker position. Still, it’s reassuring to hear Saban’s praise of the redshirt sophomore.

On how the leadership council affects team unity.

“It’s probably too early to tell. As I’ve said in here before, some of the guys on the team in terms of being leaders, impacting other players, sort of trying to get people to adhere to the standard of how we’d like to do things, whether it’s practice and meetings, whatever. That’s a huge responsibility, not everybody’s up for it, but I like some of the guys that we have this year that are trying to do it and they’ve done a pretty good job of it. You never know the impact of all these things are until you start playing games and even when you start playing games you don’t know how it’s going to sustain itself throughout the season. So these kinds of questions are better answered at the end of the year, not the beginning.

Tony’s take: While Saban seems happy with the leaders on his roster, he’ll know more about what he has in that regard once the team has to face more adversity this season. Talk is cheap, and Saban will want to see his leaders not only take on a vocal role but also provide a good example through their actions.

On Malachi Moore

“Yeah, he’s been really good. He’s smart, bright, got a lot of experience, can play multiple positions, is a really good communicator, which is one of the things that we’ve been harping on with the guys in the back end. Because that’s just like the offensive line, everybody’s gotta be on the same page with how we’re covering people, what we’re doing, how we’re adjusting. So communication is really important. Confidence to communicate is important and Malachi is probably the best guy on the team that we have to do that right now, but we need to get more guys to be able to communicate, but he’s done a really, really good job with multiple positions.”

Tony’s take: Moore’s veteran presence will be vital as Alabama looks to break in several younger players in the secondary. The senior figures to start at the STAR position, a role that requires both complete knowledge of the defense as well as the abilty to communicate responsibilities to the rest of the secondary. If Moore remains at STAR, Alabama will also need someone to take on similar leadership role at safety where they can call out coverages and orchestrate the secondary from the back end.

On lessons learned from speakers

“I learned something from everybody. I think we had a lot of really, really good speakers and… You know, I think, mostly everybody is trying to get people to understand how they can elevate themselves, elevate their game, elevate whatever it is that they want to accomplish and what they want to do, but not really be depending on somebody else to motivate you to do it.

“We all get affected by external factors and some things that we can’t control. So, is that your motivation? Does it come from someplace outside of you or is it just because I want to be the best at what I want to do and I’m willing to work and invest the time to be able to be the best version of myself? Does that come from within me? Am I driven to do that? That’s the message I hope that every player on the team actually can hear, because we always, how many times, somebody says something bad about you and all of the sudden you’re motivated — well that’s an external factor. You get behind in a game and you’re motivated — well that’s an external factor. The scoreboard, we’re winning in the game and you let down - well that’s an external factor. So we’re all affected by those things, but the key to the drill is to not be affected by any of that stuff. The guy you’re playing against, I’m playing against an All-American this week so I’m really going to be jacked up to play the best I can play and play a great game and I’m gonna say to the guy, why didn’t you play that way last week?

“If you’re capable of being that good, why aren’t you that good all the time? So that’s kind of what I get out of what all the great people who’ve accomplished great things, they’ve all done it because of that. Not because of some external factor that gets them to want to do it.”

Tony’s takes: Saban has been stressing accountability and self-drive all offseason, so it isn’t surprising to hear he has brought in speakers who have touched on the same topics. This goes back to Saban’s opening statement. He feels like if he can establish the right mentality in his players, success on the field will follow.

On the progress toward reducing penalties

“Well, eliminating penalties has been something for our entire team. We got way too many penalties last year — got lots of penalties on the line of scrimmage, got a lot of penalties on offense on the line of scrimmage, a lot of pre-snap penalties — which those are sort of a lack of discipline. So we’ve tried to do things in practice to get guys to play with more discipline, to watch the ball, not jump offsides, not have illegal formations, have better communication with the quarterbacks so we don't have false starts. And I think we’ve made some progress in those areas.

“Every day, we track every penalty, and if anyone [gets] more than one penalty, their whole group is affected in some way. And I point out the fact that this guy got more than one penalty today. So, we’ll see if it works. But, heaven knows that’s something that we have paid great attention to. Sometimes you wonder if you pay so much attention to something — is that really helping or hurting it? I don’t know. If you tell somebody that they’re not very tough, they start thinking they’re not very tough. So, hopefully, we’re not telling anybody that — and we’re telling everybody they’re going to be disciplined enough to not get penalties.”

Tony’s take: Alabama averaged 7.8 penalties per game last season which ranked 126th out of 130 Division I teams. As Saban pointed out, the majority of those flags came from mental errors and pre-snap penalties. Fortunately, those types of mistakes can be drilled out of players through practice.

During camp that learning process has involved a bit of punishment as players have been required to perform up-downs following careless penalties.

"The first penalty that you get, you get 10 up-downs by yourself after practice," Moore explained earlier this month. "After that, you get one or more, it's 10 up-downs for every penalty that your position group gets.”

On how football relates to ordinary life

“I think everything I’ve talked about here today is something that can help you to be successful in life. You have goals and aspirations for what you want to accomplish or do. And then you gotta have an awareness of, ‘What does it take to do that? What does it entail for you to be able to accomplish these things?’ So that’s what I call the process — the definition of what you have to do to accomplish the goals that you have. And — are you willing to do it? Are you willing to do those things? Do you have the discipline to execute it every day? So that would be true in anything that you chose to do.

And then there’s work ethic, perseverance, ability to overcome adversity, pride in performance — all these things are common things that we talk about in athletics but it’s the same thing if you wanted to be the president of the company. But again, what motivates you to do that? Is it coming from within you? Or did somebody tell you that you couldn't do it so now all of the sudden you’re motivated to do it. It’s basically who you are. And I think everybody wants to do well. Everybody would like to be successful.

Everybody’s not willing to do the things you need to do to be successful. We had one speaker come here and show the biggest tiger I’ve ever seen — it took up the whole screen. He said, ‘Everyone wants to be the beast — but everybody doesn’t want to do what the beast [does].’ So, if you want to be the beast, you’ve got to do what the beast [does].”

Tony’s take: See my comments following the quote about the lessons Saban has learned from team speakers.