Everything Nick Saban said following Alabama’s 34-20 win over Tennessee

Well, obviously a pretty fun second half. I’m really proud of our players. I walked into halftime, right after they scored right before the half, and said, ‘Everybody here has a choice to make. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do? Everybody has to choose what they want.’ We went out and scored in two plays in the second half on the first drive on offense. That changed the momentum of the game, and we played really well from that time on.

Tennessee has a really good team. I’m really proud of our player for the way they competed in the game and came back and the way they took care of business in the second half. We have a bye week coming up. Probably need to get a little rest for some of our guys. We have more business to take care of in the future, but for right now, everybody should enjoy this. It’s a great win for us, we had a great atmosphere in the stadium. Our fans were fantastic. They had a huge impact on the game, in terms of the penalties at the end of the game and not allowing them to score.

I can’t tell you how pleased and proud I am of everybody in the organization who puts a lot into it so we can have games like this, have atmospheres like this, and have the opportunity to compete like this. Really, really proud of our team, and it was a great team win. 27-0 in the second half, pretty good offense, and really good defense.

They like to get in bunch, so we had a check defense to go to, to get to like a gap eight, with two double edges, and folks in the secondary would roll if they brought the ball to the perimeter. But the guys up front just knocked them back. That was a huge stop in the game. We had two fourth-down stops in the game. They were really huge.

I know how much it means to our fans, this game, the rivalry with Tennessee, but I also wanted to thank them because of the job they did and the impact they had in the game, the atmosphere they added to the game. I think it kept the energy level up for our team and kept the momentum rolling in the second half for us. It was fantastic. I wish I could thank each one of them personally.

In the beginning of the game, we were trying to play odd because we were really trying to stop the run. They hit the big pass, we were in odd, didn’t play the coverage exactly right on that first touchdown. But as the game went on, we played a little more even, started playing the things we had played in the past. The players did a really good job. It helped us rush the passer better. Players did a good job of adapting. We had a better four-man rush out of it and played more of the coverages we normally play with a four-man rush rather than with eight dropping.

I love it. It’s been great. The challenges are great. I love coaching this team. That’s not to say they aren’t taking years off of my life, but I’m OK with that. It’s fun because they have a good spirit about them. We have good relationships on our team. Our players legitimately care about each other. They respond well to their coaches. It’s really fun to coach them. I don’t think we sometimes show the maturity, from a competitive standpoint, to do everything on a consistent basis, which is what we keep trying to work toward, but I’ll tell ya, eight weeks in a row, and the grind that we’ve had the last four or five weeks, with the games in our league, I think psychologically, we have a little bit of a tired team out there in the beginning of the game. I think the momentum of the game gave them the energy to play the way they’re capable of playing.

It’s great the way we played in the second half, but you could make an argument that we weren’t a finished product in the first half — really, on either side of the ball. But the resiliency that the players showed, their ability to overcome adversity — like them scoring right at the end of the half, us having an opportunity to score and turning it over, allowing them to go right down the field before the half. That was a big swing, from a momentum standpoint. It takes a lot of resiliency, a lot of perseverance, from those players to bounce back from that. It was a horrible way to end the first half. But they did a fantastic job of it. I can’t say enough about the competitive spirit that they have when they need to have it.

I think it was important. They still hurt us at times with quarterback runs. The quarterback draw a couple of times, they had a couple of perimeter plays with the quarterback. He’s a good player. He’s a big guy, he’s fast, he’s a very good athlete. That creates another gap for you to play — which was one of the reasons we wanted to play odd, so that we could play their runs and his runs better, but we didn’t feel like we were playing coverage the way we needed and get the rush that we needed. But they gained 230 yards rushing last week. I don’t know what they gained today. I know it wasn’t that much, so it was a pretty good job.

Trey played well. Played really well. Made some really good plays, was really aggressive in coverage. Had a couple of pass breakups. On the sack-fumble, for a touchdown, if the guy would’ve thrown the ball — he double-clutched it — but Trey Amos was going to intercept it. He was right in front of me. He double-clutched it and pulled it back and that’s when (Chris Braswell) knocked it out of his hand.  I thought he played really, really well.

Terrion has a slight concussion. He didn’t clear protocol, so you don’t play the guy. That’s for safety reasons. Hopefully, in a few days, he’ll clear.

Yeah, I thought Jalen played really well, especially in the second half. We missed a couple of reads in the first half on the quarterback runs, but he did a much better job in the second half. I think you need to get a feel for how the other guy is playing you. It’s a little bit like, if you are playing point guard, and the guy is slipping off, you shoot a three. If he’s guarding the post, you drive around him. But when you’re reading a defensive end on some of this stuff, you have to get a feel for it. I think, once that happened, he did a really good job. He made some really key runs. The scramble for a first down was big.

The thing that we emphasize with him against these guys, because they have really good edge rushers, is you have to step up in the pocket. On the touchdown pass to start the second half, edge pressure, stepped up in the pocket, threw the ball. Stepped up in the pocket on a couple of those runs. That’s something he used to do really well. I thought he made some really key plays today.

I really think, offensively — the shot that we took was a planned play, the touchdown to start the second half. I don’t think we ran a lot of different plays. I think we did a much better job of executing those plays. We had a couple others, if we just finished blocks, would’ve been more productive. But I thought Jase McClellan really ran hard in the game. That guy’s been beat up a little bit, but he’s one of the toughest guys on our team and certainly a great competitor the way he competed out there tonight.

Trezmen Marshall has bruised ribs. I always ask the player, do you think you can play? Even though he practiced a little bit — in a black jersey, which means nobody could hit him — so he can move around decent enough, but every time he bumped somebody, it was a problem. Hopefully, in two weeks, he’ll be OK. He’s been a really good competitor for us.

Those three guys (Deontae Lawson, Trezmen Marshall, Jihaad Campbell), they’ve rotated. Lawson’s missed games. Marshall’s missed game. Campbell, whoever’s missing, he takes their place. Lawson can play both spots. Trezmen usually plays MIKE and Lawson played WILL, but Lawson played MIKE tonight and Campbell played WILL.

All right. We good? Appreciate y’all. Thanks so much. Fun day.