TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban entered the media room with a laugh for Wednesday’s post-practice press conference. Perhaps thats a good sign for No. 8 Alabama as it prepares for this week’s trip to Kentucky.
The Crimson Tide can clinch the SEC West with a win over the Wildcats when the two face off Saturday at 11 a.m. CT in Lexington.
Here’s a transcript of Nick Saban’s final press conference before the matchup as well as my take on his comments.
Opening statement
“All right guys, so I think the most important thing is, the players were a little better today. A little sluggish yesterday, but responded a lot better today. I think it’s important. It’s tough to play in our league on the road. You have to try to be the most physical team, which Kentucky kind of prides themselves in being, and you have to have the right mindset and the right mental approach to be able to do that, in terms of how you practice, how you prepare, and what you do, for your mindset when the game comes, because you can’t just turn it on and turn it off.
“You can’t just say you’re going to be the most physical team. You have to be the most physical when the game comes. You have to have the right mental approach so you’re prepared, so you can execute, and be the most disciplined team when the game comes. That’s what we’re really focusing on, and I think the players were a lot better today. We’re making progress, and we want to continue to try and improve, but this is a challenging game the way these guys play on offense, defense. They have good players, so it’s going to be a test for us.
Tony’s take: This week’s matchup has all the makings of a let-down game. Alabama is coming off back-to-back wins over ranked opponents and will have an early kickoff time against a physical Kentucky team that has nothing to lose.
From an Alabama standpoint, it’s an encouraging sign that players are performing well in practice. We’ll see if they Tide is able to carry over that intensity into Saturday’s game. As Saban pointed out, it’s hard to play on the road in the SEC. It might be hard for Kentucky to beat Alabama, but the Wildcats can make things ugly if the Tide sleepwalks into the matchup.
Injury update on Deontae Lawson and Jaylen Key
“They haven’t been able to practice yet. It’s still kind of day-to-day. If guys can’t practice on Thursday, it’s pretty tough for them to [play] in the game. We’ll learn more tomorrow.”
Tony’s take: Saban isn’t going to completely rule out a player unless he is significantly injured. That being said, it doesn’t look like linebacker Deontae Lawson (ankle) or safety Jaylen Key (quad) will play against Kentucky.
If Lawson is out, Alabama will use Jihaad Campbell and Trezmen Marshall as its two inside linebackers. Marshall is back after dealing with bruised ribs that caused him to miss the game against Tennessee.
While Alabama would obviously prefer Lawson to be healthy, this is an ideal game for Marshall to fill in. The Georgia transfer is a solid run-stopper, and should help limit powerful Kentucky running back Ray Davis.
Alabama initially subbed in Kristian Story for Key when the starter went down in the first quarter of last week’s game against LSU. However, the secondary eventually shuffled as Malachi Moore moved back to safety, Terrion Arnold came inside to STAR and Trey Amos entered the game at cornerback. That might be the starting setup against the Wildcats.
On Kadyn Proctor’s improvement
He’s getting better. He’s playing better. He has more confidence. I think he knows what to do, and because of that confidence, he — he was apprehensive sometimes about doing what we was supposed to do even when he knew what he was supposed to do. All of that comes with confidence. It’s like young guys at any position, whether it’s making a call or whatever. They don’t want to make a call because they don’t want to be wrong. But when you get experience and you gain confidence — and you do that by making mistakes, then you learn from them. He’s continued to progress and is continuing to improve.
Tony’s take: Baby steps. It’s good to see Kadyn Proctor get some love after all the criticism he’s faced. However, true freshman is still a work in progress at the left tackle position.
Proctor was better against LSU, but he still gave up one of Alabama’s two sacks, bringing his total to 10 on the season. As Saban said, the five-star lineman should continue to progress. However, I don’t think Alabama’s problems at left tackle are suddenly solved.
On Alabama’s run defense
"We’ll be tested this week because these guys can run. They’re big. They’ll be in bigger-personnel situations. We may not have all of our defensive players ready to play, but we’ve got to get the guys that are ready to play to play physical on the line of scrimmage, strike blockers up front, have good hand placement, make good adjustments on the formations and motion so we have edges where we need to have them."
"So this is really a challenging game for us from that standpoint. So we’ll see how good we are against the run."
Tony’s take: Saturday’s game could develop into an old-school SEC slugfest. Davis is one of the SEC’s top backs with 903 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground over nine games. He’ll be up against an Alabama defense that 119.56 rushing yards per game.
As I stated earlier, this is a matchup where Marshall could shine for Alabama. The 6-foot-1, 236-pound linebacker brings a physical playing style and won't be afraid to come right at Davis and the rest of Kentucky’s backfield.
On Kentucky's success with explosive plays
"They play a lot of zone on defense and do a good job of matching patterns. They always try to get underneath the deeper and play deep to short making you be patient."
"I think offensively because they can run the ball really well, and they have really good play-action passes. Sometimes there are only two-man routes, but it’s great protection, so they have the opportunity with pretty good receivers to get downfield."
Tony’s take: Kentucky has done a solid job at eliminating explosive plays by their opponents. While the deep ball has been a big part of Alabama’s offense this season, first-year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees sprinkled in a few new wrinkles that could diversify the Tide’s attack.
Look for Alabama to continue to use sophomore receiver Kendrick Law out of the backfield as well as on screens and pop passes behind the line of scrimmage.
On Curt Cignetti doing well at James Madison
“Well, I'm glad that he's doing well. I know that he's done a really, really good job there. They had a good team. I know they bumped up [from FCS]. I hear people talking about the fact that they don't qualify to be in the playoffs or whatever because this is their first year. I don't know what the significance of that rule is.
“I coached for Frank, Curt's dad, so I'm very close to the family. He did a great job for us here. I'm always excited to see guys that did a good job for us when they get opportunities to have success and the opportunities to take advantage of those. He's certainly done that well.”
Tony’s take: I don’t have a lot on this one. Curt Cignetti served as Alabama’s receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007-10. He’s doing a good job with James Madison, coaching the Dukes to a 9-0 record in its second season transitioning from the FCS.
On Alabama’s slow starts on opening drives
“Like, the same thing that goes wrong on anything that doesn't work. Don't execute very well. Sometimes maybe they do a little bit something on defense or maybe what you thought they were going to play, they didn't play. As you get into the flow of the game and see what they're playing, guys execute a little better.
“It all comes down to execution, whether it's offense, defense or special teams, just like we gave up a touchdown on the first drive last week because we busted a coverage. It wasn't because it was the first drive, it was because we busted a coverage. They would've scored in the fourth quarter with one minute to go if we had played like that. It always comes down to how do you execute in what you do, and all 11 guys got to do their job, and that's the key to having success.
“It's great to start fast and it's great to finish strong, so to do both these things is something that we've been trying to focus on all year long. We probably did a little better job of that in this past game than we did all year.”
Tony’s take: Alabama has been forced to punt on its opening drive in each of the last five games. In three of those games— Texas A&M, Arkansas and Tennessee — the Tide has gone three-and-out during its first possession.
In total Alabama has scored on just two of its nine opening drives this season, kicking a field goal against Ole Miss and scoring a touchdown on Jalen Milroe’s crazy fumble recovery against Middle Tennessee.
Last week, Alabama’s offense was able to wake up relatively early as the Tide scored touchdowns on its second and third drives after punting away its opening possession. Perhaps that’s a sign of improvement in the future.
