TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Following Alabama’s 30-6 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday, Nick Saban spoke to the media, commending his team on its ability to bounce back from last week’s defeat to Tennessee. Here’s a transcript of what the head coach had to say as well as my take on what it means.
Opening statement
“I was really pleased with the way our guys competed in the game tonight. I challenged them in terms of how they were going to respond. Respond with your ability, your positive energy, attitude, how you block, how you tackle, the enthusiasm that you play with. I was pleased with the way the guys went out and competed, had fun. There wasn’t a lot of anxiety. There wasn’t always perfect execution, but, to me, that’s a start. It’s kind of time to answer the bell, and now, the challenge is we need to build on that. We’ve got a bye week coming up. We’ve got a lot of guys that we need to try to get healthy, and I think we’ll get some guys back.
“But I think the No. 1 thing is we want to build on the chemistry of how we competed in the game today. I thought the defense played really well other than that last drive. But we should be able to take the air out of the ball on offense. We couldn’t run the ball very well tonight. That’s something we definitely need to improve on. Hopefully, Bryce getting a week off here now will really help him get back healthy. The guys had a good week of preparation, and they went out and played a good game. I’m really pleased and proud of them.”
Tony’s take: Overall, this was a great response from Alabama following last week’s loss to Tennessee. The Crimson Tide seemed to play with more confidence and never appeared to be in any trouble on the night. This is a good game for Alabama to build on heading into its open week and should provide some momentum entering the final month of the regular season.
On Mississippi State running against the dime package
“They got six points. We just did some things different after we got started and saw that they were running the ball. So we stopped the run pretty well after that. I’m pleased with the way we played on defense. A team gets six points and we’re gonna complain about they stopped the run? We were trying to stop the pass. So I thought we did that pretty well until the last drive. We had two fourth downs and could have got off the field and didn’t get off the field. And then we got a penalty in the end zone, another penalty in the end zone. They gave up six points. I think that’s pretty good. I’d let a team run the ball all day long if they only get six points. Would you be alright with that? Gotta find something.”
Tony’s take: Alabama combated Mississippi State’s “Air Raid offense” by working primarily out of the dime package. After allowing the Bulldogs to pile up 57 rushing yards in the first quarter, the Crimson Tide adjusted, holding Mississippi to 5 yards on the ground the remainder of the game.
On Eli Ricks
“I thought he did a good job. He gave up one throw. When you’re playing five under man, you’re supposed to be underneath the guy, so the guy shouldn’t be able to catch a comeback on you and caught one on him. Caught one on Kool-Aid on 4th and 10. But I thought he played well. He did a good job. He prepared well all week. I thought he played pretty well in the game.”
Tony’s take: Ricks played up to his five-star talent in his first start for Alabama, recording four pass breakups to go with a pair of tackles. Things might be finally beginning to click for the LSU transfer. If so, he should be a dangerous weapon for the Crimson Tide’s defense
On the intensity during the game’s final possession
“I think the guys got a lot of pride in what they do. The whole emphasis is get back to playing for 60 minutes, don’t look at the scoreboard. Quite worrying about outcomes and play one play at a time and keep playing in the game. And I thought they tried to do that. I just thought we had some opportunities to make plays in that drive and we didn’t, and they took advantage of it.”
Tony’s take: Despite having the game won, Alabama wasn’t happy about giving up a last-second touchdown to Mississippi State. It’s the first touchdown the Crimson Tide surrendered to the Bulldogs inside Bryant-Denny Stadium since 2014. Alabama could have kept that streak alive with a bit more discipline late in the game.
On the decision to play Jermaine Burton
“Look, I don’t know how many of you have ever been in a situation like that, but I talked to him. He was scared. I was scared. Some of our other players were scared. I think you learn to respect other people because we have a responsibility to do that, regardless of the circumstance that we’re in. I talked to the guy. We have him in a counseling program. It’s not an anger management program, as people announced today. Nobody ever said that – that’s not the problem, that’s not the issue. But it’s about having the proper respect for other people. I didn’t think it was necessary to suspend the guy. If you knew the whole story, maybe you wouldn’t either. But I’m not gonna divulge that.”
Tony’s take: Saban is all about second chances, so this isn’t too much of a surprise. While Burton definitely shouldn’t have struck a Tennessee regardless of the situation, he did find himself in a difficult situation. Without going into too much speculation, it sounds like there was more to this story, too.
On reducing the penalties
“It’s been something that we’ve been emphasizing all year long, and finally today, we had a little better discipline. But I also think we had a little better disposition about energy and enthusiasm and not playing with anxiety. And sometimes when you play with anxiety, you make a lot of bad decisions because you get a little too emotional about what you’re doing and you decide to hit a guy in the back or you decide to hang on and hold or whatever it is. I don’t think that’s the way you wanna compete in the game. You wanna have high achievement motivation and low anxiety and make good choices and decisions, and I think the players did a better job of that today.”
Tony’s take: After piling up a school-record 17 penalties in last week’s loss to Tennessee, Alabama was flagged just three times for 20 yards against Mississippi State. It’s the first time all season that the Crimson Tide has had less than six penalties in a game. Saban stated earlier this week that his team played tight against Tennessee. He has to feel much better about the way his players responded Saturday night.
On if opposing defenses are taking extra hits on Bryce Young
“You’d have to ask the other team that. I can’t really comment on that. We’ve gotta do a good job of protecting him so he doesn’t get hit. That’s what we can control.”
Tony’s take: I wrote about this. Mississippi State had three roughing-the-passer penalties against Alabama. While they weren’t all hard hits, it seems like defenses could be looking to give Bryce Young an extra pop when possible. Here’s an interesting quote from right tackle J.C. Latham on Young getting picked on by defenses.
“It really pisses us off because that’s our quarterback. We don’t want our quarterback getting hit. It’s kind of like poking the bear. That’s our guy back there, so we try to make sure he stays upright. So when guys take cheap shots at him or whatever the case may be, we’re going to take that personal.”
On Brian Branch
“Brian’s played well for us all year. I thought he had a really good game tonight. He’s the sixth DB. He plays the fifth DB a lot. Malachi plays it when we go to dime. He’s in a position that he’s actually almost playing like an outside linebacker, and he does a really good job of that because he’s a physical guy and he’s very instinctive. That’s how we got to stopping the run a little better by having some edge pressure with him, and that took them out of that. He did a good job the whole game.”
Tony’s take: Branch was one of Alabama’s standout performers against Mississippi State, recording a pair of pass breakups to go with four tackles, including 1.5 for a loss with a sack. The junior defensive back is one of the best tacklers on the team which allows him to play more as a linebacker on certain packages as Saban pointed out.
On winning big despite not being able to average much on the ground
“We didn’t play very well with any consistency on offense, and that starts with what I said before. We couldn’t run the ball very well. It affects play-action passes. I thought we had some RPO throws that we should have taken that we didn’t take, and we missed a couple. I think Bryce played really well in the game, but I think to get him back 100 percent will really help. And I think if he can practice some at some point in time before we get ready for our next game, that’ll probably help him as well.”
Tony’s take: Alabama was pretty horrible on the ground. The Crimson Tide entered the game leading the nation averaging 6.58 yards per attempt, while Mississippi State had been allowing opponents 4.59 yards per carry. Fortunately for Alabama, Young and the defense were there to save the day.
On younger defensive lineman stepping in
“I think that’s what we tell all the young guys, and it’s kind of a hard concept for them to understand sometimes that, ‘Don’t worry about what your circumstance is right now, but make sure you’re doing the work and putting in the time to prepare yourself so if you get an opportunity, you’ll be ready to take advantage of it.’ And I thought Payne did a pretty good job of that. We really only had four defensive linemen in the game. The most we ever played with was two, sometimes only one and played a whole bunch of ‘backers. So you get a little small, which can affect your ability to stop the run. But you’ve gotta scheme it the best you can with the guys that you’ve got. And hopefully, we’ll get some of these guys back. But it’s also a good experience for those guys, and they’ll be more ready to play the next time.”
Tony’s take: With D.J. Dale and Jaheim Oatis both in street clothes, Alabama turned to younger defensive linemen at times, working in redshirt freshman Damon Payne and redshirt sophomore Jah-Marien Latham. Payne finished with three stops while Latham had one and a quarterback hurry.
Along with dipping into its younger talent, Alabama also compensated for its lack of depth by using Will Anderson Jr. as a defensive end while only using two traditional linemen for most of the game. That led to Mississippi State having success on the ground early on. However, Alabama was able to recover, holding the Bulldogs to 2.4 yards per carry on the night.
On how the receivers helped Bryce Young
“I thought Mississippi State did a good job of mixing up their pressures, dropping eight guys. And I thought the receivers did a really good job on a couple scramble situations, which turned out to be a couple big plays, probably the only explosive plays we really had came off of those types of plays. But I think our receivers are making progress. I think they’re playing better. And I think it’s important that they continue to improve because when you have a guy like Bryce, you wanna be able to take advantage of his talent, and receivers doing a good job can certainty contribute to that to a large degree.”
Tony’s take: Alabama wasn’t spectacular through the air, but it see 11 different players record a reception. Of that bunch, Tyler Harrell made his Crimson Tide debut, hauling in a 12-yard pass on third-and-10 in the fourth quarter. Alabama likely won’t have a first-round pick at receiver in next year’s draft, but there is still plenty of talent in the unit.
On the status of DJ Dale, Jaheim Oats
“They’re day-to-day, but hopefully, we’ll get one back, for sure, maybe. Maybe both. But it’s probably too early to tell.”
Tony’s take: Saban didn’t give too much of an update here. Next week’s open date will provide the team with some much-needed rest heading into what is now a much bigger game against LSU.
