Football 🏈 Tony's takes: Breaking down what Saban said following Alabama's win at Kentucky

[Tony_Tsoukalas]

Alabama locked up the SEC West title with a 49-21 victory at Kentucky on Saturday. Following the game, Nick Saban praised his team, crediting his players for their improvement throughout the year. Here’s a transcript of what he said as well as my takes on his comments.

Opening statement

“So, look, I’m really proud of this team. This team has come a long way. These guys have worked hard. There’s great togetherness, good leadership on the team, a lot of guys have made significant improvement because they’ve stayed positive and stayed the course in terms of listening to what the coaches have to say about what they needed to do to improve and actually have really good relationships with each other on the team.

“So I was really pleased that the team didn’t buy into the rat poison or whatever you want to call it. I thought this was a little bit of a trap game, and I actually asked the players yesterday in the team meeting to stand up and say what they had to do, each position. Each leader at each position. And I told them before the game I trusted that they would go out and do that and that’s exactly what they did. So I trust in these guys, that they’re going to do the right things, make good choices and decisions, which is going to help them continue to grow and develop as a team and hopefully finish business throughout the rest of this season in terms of what we have to do to continue to get better and see if we can create an opportunity for ourselves.

Tony’s take: Following Saturday’s win, Terrion Arnold revealed the team deployed actual rat traps around its facility earlier in the week to prepare for a “trap game.” I’m not sure Saban was behind that, but it shows the steps the coaching staff took to make sure the players took this game seriously. Whoever was behind the rat-trap setup deserves some praise. Alabama came out sharp, scoring on its first three possessions while jumping out to a 21-0 lead.

On winning the SEC West

“Obviously it’s great that we won the West, and have an opportunity to play in the SEC Championship Game, which I’m very happy for this team that they were able to accomplish that. I think there’s very few people after the Texas game or South Florida game, a lot of naysayers out there never really believed in these guys, but I always believed in this team and trusted in this team that they would develop into something that’s special and it has been special. It’s been a great experience to see them grow and develop in the confidence that you need to really play really, really well. I think they were so excited about the fact – a couple guys came up to me – I always talk about when we play on the road if you empty the stadium that means you really beat the other team. So, a couple guys – I didn’t use that in this game, but they certainly got the message and said ‘hey coach, look around’.

“I’m pretty proud of them, the way we played today and obviously there’s some things that we can correct and fix. We made some errors that – obviously we busted on the 60-yard run at the end of the game when we put the twos in there, but these are all learning experiences that these guys will have an opportunity to get better at. Jalen played really well. I thought the offense came out and set the tempo of the game extremely well. He played extremely well, the whole idea was the way they play on defense is take what the defense gives and we nickel and dimmed the first couple drives and then we hit a couple big plays, so I thought they did a great job on offense and it was a great team win for us.”

Tony’s take: You can tell Saban really enjoys coaching this bunch. While this isn’t Alabama’s most talented team, it’s a gritty group of players who seem to be developing a championship mindset. For the second straight week, Alabama looked like a legit title contender. Who would have been able to say that two months ago?

On Alabama’s resiliency

“Well, I guess that’s what I was trying to explain, but these guys have had great perseverance, shown resiliency, been able to – you’ve heard me say this before ‘manage hard’. Whenever things got hard, they’ve always seemed to come up with, we can come back in the game when we’re behind 20-6, we can make plays when we need to make them. So I think that comes from confidence, but I think it comes from believing in each other and believing in what you’re doing and coaches have also done a really good job of selling the players on ‘if you do it this way, you’re going to have success’.”

Tony’s take: This reinforces the point I was making. Saban respects this team’s toughness and resiliency. It also sounds as though the players are buying into the message from the coaches. That’s not always the case, especially in the days of NIL and the transfer portal.

On shutting down Kentucky’s run game

“I think that was the key to the drill. Controlling the line of scrimmage in this game against this type of team, who prides themselves in being a physical team, I think was like our No. 1 objective. And I think we wanted to make them one-dimensional. I think we did except for the last run where we didn’t have any run support on that side. Yeah, I think it was really important that we won on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”

Tony’s take: Alabama allowed a 74-yard run to Ramon Jefferson in the fourth quarter. Outside of that, the Tide held Kentucky to 21 rushing yards on 23 carries.

Kentucky running back Ray Davis came into the game averaging 100 yards rushing yards over his first nine games. Alabama held the powerful back to 26 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 12 carries.

A week after slowing down LSU’s high-flying attack, Alabama proved it can also hold its own in a typical SEC slugfest. That will be important when the Tide faces No. 2 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game next month.

On the challenge of progressing the team since the loss to Texas

“Yeah, but it’s been fun. It really has been fun to see. I think that it seems like every team we’ve had in recent years, there’s these huge expectations, and you never want the expectations to impact you. But because there was such high expectations, it was almost like we were relieved to get the players to be where they needed to be so that they could have success. With this team, I didn’t have those expectations. I knew we could be good. I believed in them. But I knew it was going to be a work in progress. So it was like every day, you’re just trying to teach lessons that will help them grow and develop. And they’ve done a great job of that, and it’s been fun. And I didn’t put any expectations on them or myself, and they sort of blowing it out of the water in terms of how well they’ve done.”

Tony’s take: I don’t know how many times I can say this: Saban loves this team. The frustrations that come from coaching this buch stem from inexperienced mistakes, not a lack of discipline. You can see Alabama growing every week. While this team might require more effort from Saban, it seems like it’s one of his most rewarding coaching jobs.

On sticking with Kool-Aid McKinstry on punt returns

“Stay with him? What do you mean stay with him? What would we do with him? I love the guy. He’s a good returner. Look, the gunner on that side ran into him when he missed a punt. That’s the gunner’s responsibility. You can’t look up and catch a ball and worry about somebody that’s running down the field blocking for you running into you. So he tried to fair-catch the ball. I’ve got every confidence in the world.

“He’s been a good player for us. I just think the players around him have to do a little bit better job because when you get these radical punts – I’m going to call them – you don’t get easy balls to field. You’ve got to cover a lot of ground to catch it, and that launch point of where he’s catching it changes for the people that are blocking for him. So I’m not making excuses for anybody, but you can’t blame him for that one, in my opinion. I think that he did a great job of sticking it up the middle. We ran mostly middle returns today, and it was good to see us get one off to a big play.”

Tony’s take: Find you someone as loyal to you as Saban has been to McKinstry on punt returns. Despite yet another mistake Saturday, it still appears as though McKinstry is Alabama’s punt return man moving forward.

According to Saban, Trey Amos ran into McKinstry during his muffed punt return in the first quarter. Terrion Arnold said the same thing following the game. Regardless, it doesn’t appear as though Amos made much contact with McKinstry on the play.

I’m not the coach, but I don’t agree with Saban here. Even if McKinstry was averaging 15.86 yards per return like last year, using one of your best defenders in a position where he is susceptible to taking big hits. The fact that McKinstry is struggling should make it an easy decision to try another player in the role.

Alabama has plenty of capable options, including wide receivers Isaiah Bond and Kendrick Law, who have demonstrated the ability to make plays in open space.

On how players filled in for missing teammates

“We had more guys out today than probably ever before with Ja’Corey Brooks and Jermaine Burton. Jermaine is just sick. I mean, he was so sick he couldn’t even make the trip. Hopefully, he’ll get better and that won’t be a long-term thing. Ja’Corey’s got a shoulder. Jaylen Key, everybody knows, has got a thigh injury. It’ll be day-to-day again this week. Same thing with (Deontae) Lawson. We’ll just have to see how it goes. But I was really pleased with the way the guys that filled in today and took their place – and we had to shift guys around in the secondary – but I thought Trez Marshall, who has been hurt himself, did a good job today, and so did Jihaad (Campbell). Those guys got some valuable experience, and that’s going to help us down the road, I think, having some diversity in how we can play players.”

Tony’s take: Alabama was without three starters in linebacker Deontae Lawson (ankle), safety Jaylen Key (quad) and wide receiver Jermaine Burton (illness). Meanwhile, receiver Ja’Corey was out with a shoulder injury.

Kristian Story did a good job filling in for Key at safety, recording four stops, including a tackle for a loss. On the other side of the ball, Kobe Prentice had four catches for 74 yards while helping to step in for Burton.

On offense proving it doesn’t need explosive plays

“I think that’s important. In fact, there were a couple times when we threw the ball down the field that if we would have stayed with that, just take what they give you, we probably would have moved the chains. But I thought we did a really good job overall of taking advantage of that. But look, a 5-yard pass is just as good as a 5-yard run. It’s 2nd and 5 and you keep things moving. So we did a good job on third down again today. Kept the ball quite bit, so I think that was a real positive for us.”

Tony’s take: Alabama had four touchdown drives of seven or more plays. That’s a positive sign from an attack that was reliant on moving the ball through explosive plays earlier in the season. Alabama isn’t turning its nose up at big plays. All three of Milroe’s touchdowns were from 20 or more yards out. However, the quarterback’s improved decision-making in the pocket paired with the implementation of more creative short-yard routes makes Alabama’s offense a lot more sustainable.

On the importance of the open week for Milroe

“You’d have to ask him if the bye week… I don’t know if he took some Geritol or what. That’s my medicine, us old folks. You’d have to really ask him. I thought he was playing really well before the bye week. Obviously, the bye week helps a lot of players sort of recalibrate, self-assess how they’re playing, be able to work on some of the things that have been issues or problems for them, which helps them improve. You don’t have the pressure of another game plan during a bye week, so you can kind of focus on what you need to. So that’s probably a good thing for all players. But I think his confidence is growing, and I think the confidence of the players around him has grown and our production and performance has sort of mirrored that confidence.”

Tony’s take: It certainly looks like the light bulb has switched on for Milroe behind center. The redshirt sophomore looks noticeably better over his last two games. He’s stepping up in the boxes, making better decisions with the ball and seeing the field better than he has all season.

I also think we’ve seen an improvement from first-year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who appears to have finally found the right formula to get the most out of his quarter. It took some feeling out, but Alabama’s offense appears to be finding its footing at the right time.

 

[lainey2020]

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