Alabama will hit the road for the first time this season as it heads to Tampa to take on South Florida on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT inside Raymond James Stadium. Wednesday, Nick Saban spoke to reporters in his final press conference before the matchup.
Hereās a transcript of what he said as well as my take on what it means.
Opening statement
āThe focus that we have is trying to get everybody to play to their very best ability, everybody play to a standard, everybody buy into not just talking about what standard is but what do I actually have to do to be able to accomplish that, play that, prepare so that we can go take and play the games to that level and do it for 60 minutes in the game. And thatās something that weāve been talking about all week.
Players have responded pretty well to it. I think the preparation has gone fairly well. So weāve just gotta keep these guys focused on what they need to do. Obviously, the standard comes from here. Motivation comes from out there. And we would like for everybody to have pride in their performance so their standard is something thatās important to them and theyāre willing to do the things to invest in their future that they need to do so that they can be the best players that they can be.
Nobody can really have the poor-meās about my circumstance, my situation and how I feel. We lost a game. None of that. Donāt waste a failing. Do everything you can to try to improve and get better, and thatāll help our team get better, as well.ā
Tonyās take: Saban wants his players to walk the walk, not talk the talk. Itās one thing to say you want to play to the Alabama standard. Itās another to put in the work to do so. Alabama used up its wake-up call with its loss to Texas. Now, players will have to rise to the occasion if they want to save their season.
On Jalen Milroeās ability to react to blitzes
āThe issue in the game was ā I think we only got sacked once on the blitz, and the back cut the linebacker and he got up and still sacked the quarterback. The other issues were really basically four-man rush, three-man rush. So I think that he has done OK. I think that what we need to do as an offense is everybodyās gotta pay more attention to detail. We canāt give bird and rabbits so the other team knows when weāre passing so they can tee off, aight. All these little things sort of add up to create a disadvantage for you if you donāt get them fixed. These are all things that our players need to understand and need to do so we can protect better and the quarterback can have a better chance to operate.ā
Tonyās take: Texas recorded five sacks and four quarterback hurries without bringing the house against Alabama. While Milroe was met with plenty of pressure in the pocket, heās got to be better about getting rid of the ball quicker. According to Pro Football Focus, he leads all SEC starting quarterbacks, averaging 2.84 seconds to get the ball out on dropbacks that result in a pass. That being said, Saban is right that Alabamaās struggles with pressure against the Longhorns werenāt all on Milroe.
On the development of depth in the secondary
āTheyāve been good this week. Theyāve all been able to practice and do what they can do. Now, this teamās gonna go fast. Theyāre fastball, fastball, as fast as anybody in the country goes, so we probably canāt sub on third down. Youāre gonna have to play with whoeverās in the game. So when we tried to do that in the past against teams like this, we get caught with 12 guys on the field or we canāt get them off the field when they make a first down. So weāve been playing with those five guys. Theyāve all not had any issues this week, so hopefully, thatāll be beneficial in terms of practice reps, togetherness, communication and all that type of thing.ā
Tonyās take: There werenāt many injury concerns heading into this week. Still, itās nice to hear Malachi Moore and Jaylen Key werenāt held back after battling through injuries last week. Earlier in the day, Saban compared South Floridaās offense to Tennesseeās. While the Bulls arenāt as talented as the Volunteers, Alabama will still want a full secondary as it looks to stop their spread attack.
On the recruiting benefit of playing in Tampa
āI think anytime you play on the road and you play a quality opponent, which I think these guys have made tremendous improvement in their team and the quality of the players and all that. I mean, itās a game thatās gonna be on TV. Itās a good market for our fan base in Central Florida. I think itās all good. But I think itās only good if you play good. Image is something that youāve gotta work to really have in terms of what I talked about before in terms of standard, how you play and the things that you do. So that pride in performance is gonna be important no matter where we play.ā
Tonyās take: This might be a weird road trip for Alabama, but it does allow the Crimson Tide to travel to one of its biggest recruiting pipelines. Alabama has poached plenty of South Florida talents over the years, including Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, Patrick Surtain II and Dallas Turner among others. That being said, the trip is only an advantage if Alabama can put in an impressive performance.
On when to let a player develop or make a change at a position
āI think everything is performance-based. Like I said before, and I said this to the team ā if you want security at your position, then you have to play well. Thatās what gets you security at your position. If youāre not playing well, then weāre gonna evaluate can anybody else play that position more consistently, better, whatever.
āBecause everybodyās trying, everybodyās trying to give their best. People are sometimes critical of whatever. But nobody takes a loss harder than the players. Nobody takes a loss hard than the coaches. Because itās our blood, sweat and tears that we put into it, and we wanna do it better. And I think the players wanna do it better.
āBut we live in a result-oriented world, and we have to live with consequences of what we do. I mean, nobody plans on having a wreck and hurting somebody, but yet, that could create consequences for your future that are unbelievable. So you donāt it on purpose, you try hard, you wanna be the best that you can be and I think thatās the attitude that everybody should keep, regardless of what your circumstances are. Because even if you have a failing, you need to go work on taking advantage of the next opportunity that you have.
āI donāt know I can truly answer your question as to when do you make those decisions. I think itās truly gotta be based on someoneās performance and how itās affecting everybody else on the team.ā
Tonyās take: As much as Saban wants his players to succeed, there comes a time when a coach needs to make a change for the betterment of the team. It will be interesting to see if Saban follows up on these statements if Alabama continues to struggle in certain areas.
On lessons learned from the past about establishing offensive identity
āYeah, I think that we went through some struggles ā I forget what year, maybe 2013, 14, 15, somewhere along there ā where we were struggling early in the season. We lost to Ole Miss early in the season. We were sort of struggling on offense, couldnāt find an identity. Eventually found an identity and had a really good season. So you keep searching. I think youāve gotta get the right combination of players, youāve gotta get the right chemistry and everybodyās got to do a good job.
I mean, I donāt care what the identity is, it comes down to execution, whether itās running or passing or punting, aight. It all comes down to your ability to execute. And weāve had too many inconsistencies in execution. I mean, when you take drive-stoppers, OK, we had six offensive penalties. Those are drive-stoppers. Two of those penalties took points off the board. We got sacked five times. Sacks are drive-stoppers. Dropped balls are drive-stoppers. We only had one dropped ball. And turnovers are obviously drive-stoppers. The other team gets the ball and you donāt have it.
So when you add all those up, you should be at a much more efficient percentage than we were Saturday night. You can figure it out. So all those things come down to execution and peopleās ability to execute to eliminate that. So we can keep working on it.ā
Tonyās take: This comes back to what Saban said in his opening statement. Itās one thing for players to talk about what they want their identity to be, ājoyless murderballā etc. Itās another to go out and execute that on the field. The goal might be to establish a physical identity, but what Saban wants more than that is a winning identity. That comes down to execution and eliminating some of the fatal flaws, or ādrive killersā that it suffered against Texas.
On struggles in the intermediate passing game
āLook, when you have a pass play, itās not designed to go five yards. Itās not designed to go 10 yards. Itās not designed to go 20 yards down the field. You have a pattern, and most patterns attack various levels. And then you read the defense and you decide where should I throw the ball? Sometimes itās 20 yards down the field, sometimes youāve gotta take the checkdown and itās a five-yard play, aight. So we have made some explosive plays in our first two games. We have not been consistent in the ā what you referred to as the ā intermediate passing game and making decisions and get the ball out of our hand quickly and run good routes so weāre open and things are pretty decisive for the quarterback because of the picture. And everybody needs to do a better job. Protection needs to be better. The pocket doesnāt need to be collapsing on the quarterback with a four-man rush. So all those things need to get better, and weāre gonna work on it.ā
Tonyās take: Iāve written about this a couple of times, but Jalen Milroe ranks last among SEC starting quarterbacks with a 25.5 passing grade on balls that have traveled between 10 and 19 yards through the air, according to Pro Football Focus. As is the case with picking up the blitz, the fault doesnāt lie completely on Milroe. However, Alabama is going to need the redshirt sophomore to be more consistent and not rely on home-run balls if it wants to beat quality opponents.
On how he tells the team to block out outside noise from former players
āAgain, I talked to the players about internal standard versus external noise. I think that we didnāt play great. So people get upset that we get criticized. But why wouldnāt we get criticized if we didnāt play well? I mean, people call me and say, āHey, man. This guyās a jerk for saying this about you.ā No, he really isnāt. I mean, Itās right.
āWe didnāt play good. Iām responsible for that. So we did all these things on offense that I just talked about, add them up, Iām responsible for that. In the real world when you donāt perform and you donāt produce, you probably get criticized, sometimes get penalized. Some people lose their job when they donāt perform well. Thatās maybe even worse than losing a game when you canāt feed your family and your children and all that and make your house payment. I guess thatās worse.
āSo I donāt really know what the noise is. I havenāt listened to one talk radio show. I havenāt read one newspaper. I have been focusing 100 percent of my time on the next team that we play, the last team that we played and what we need to do to fix that. And I think all the players would be better served and everybody in the organization would be better served if they all did that. Because what somebody else thinks really doesnāt matter. Itās all about what you do and how you respond to what you need to do so that you have a chance to be successful in the future.ā
Tonyās take: Credit to Saban for not being soft. Too often we see coaches deflect blame. However, Saban is practicing what he preaches by taking his criticism on the chin and moving forward. If his players can do the same thing, Alabama should be able to learn and grow from the loss to Texas.
