Everything Nick Saban said on Wednesday of Texas A&M game week
The Alabama Crimson Tide is at the midpoint of its preparation for this Saturday’s matchup with the Texas A&M Aggies.
As is custom each and every game week, Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban addressed the media following Wednesday’s practice.
Coach Saban would cover a variety of topics leading up to Alabama’s matchup with the Aggies including the state of the team, the quarterback situation in regards to Bryce Young’s health and how the team feels about Jalen Milroe, and others notes regarding the football team as it prepares for Texas A&M.
Here is everything the seven-time national championship-winning coach had to say on Wednesday evening.
Opening statement
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“I think this time of year with these kinds of challenges coming up, it’s so important – and I talked about it last week – about maintaining intensity for the entire game. And I think the important thing about that is you have to do it in practice. If you can do it in practice even when you get tired, even when you don’t feel like grinding on, it gets easier to do it in the game because you’re creating a mindset, basically to, enough is never enough. So you wanna keep on working to try and improve and get yourself ready to learn from what you did today and do it again tomorrow so that you can keep making progress.
“We’re playing a very good team this week that has a lot of good players. They’re very well-coached. So this is gonna be a very challenging game, so we’re working on it.”
On if Jalen Milroe has "won" the team
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“I think the players have responded really well to what he’s had to do. What we try to get our guys to do is focus on doing your job and if everybody does their job, we’re gonna have a chance to be successful. It doesn’t really matter who’s in there playing. I got to do my job. And when I get the opportunity to do it, I got to get prepared to do it and go do it well. Sometimes that’s harder for guys to do who aren’t starters but I think it’s a real test to your character if you can do it so you can take advantage of the opportunity when it comes. Which I thought Jalen did a pretty good job of last week, and hopefully, we can build on that if he has to play this week.”
On the physicality of the offensive line this season
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“I think in the last game they showed signs of it. They showed signs of it at times throughout the year, I just think your whole body of work is based on consistency and performance. That’s what defines success so that’s what we gotta keep working on with them and I do think we’re making progress and I do think that this last game was probably the best that they’ve been all year.”
On the Texas A&M secondary
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“Their secondary is good. They’re big, they’re physical. They’re very athletic at corner. They’re long. They got good size. Tackle well. Antonio is a really, really good player so they move him around some, he plays some different spots. But they’ve got, they’re a good defensive team. A really good defensive team.”
On the defensive line batting down passes
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“Obviously we work on matching a hand in pass rush all the time. Trying to get guys to do that. We emphasize it. I think it’s a batted ball, it’s just like defending the guy and knocking the ball off him. It’s a very important play and it can create turnovers. I think you do it best when you push the pocket in the middle so you’re closer to the quarterback when it happens and you’re defending the middle of the field so he can’t see. You try to match the hand where he’s throwing it and that’s where you get batted balls. That’s something we emphasize all the time.”
On how Kool-Aid and Terrion have separated themselves from other corners
AP Photo/Vasha Hunt
“I think both guys have played well. Haven’t given up a lot of big plays. I think that’s the key to the drill: keeping people cut off in the deep part of the field, playing the ball in the deep part of the field. They’ve been good tacklers, they’ve played the ball in the deep part of the field and they play man-to-man fairly well. So those are probably the most critical factors for them to be successful and the other guys are doing fine, too, but these guys have been the most consistent.”
On trying to matchup with Aggies RB Devon Achane
Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
“Well, it’s hard. First of all, a running back is a mismatch position in the passing game and they do a great job of running them on difficult routes to cover, especially if you’re trying to play man-to-man. He’s very elusive, he’s got great speed and he’s a great returner on kickoff return. If this guy gets in space, he’s got a burst so you gotta do a great job playing team defense against guys like that and try to minimize the opportunities where he gets mismatched on somebody. I think that’s the biggest issue, but the guy’s really, really a good player and a good receiver, good runner. He’s a good all-around player.”
On Jaheim Oatis
AP Photo/Vasha Hunt
“Jaheim is a guy that has a lot of power. He’s got pretty good quickness for his size. He’s gotten in a lot better shape so he’s moving better and he did a really good job in the last game of pushing the pocket, being involved in a couple of sacks. But it’s important that you have more than one guy doing it so you don’t get imbalanced in the rush especially if you’re playing against a really athletic quarterback like last week and probably this week. So I think pass rush lanes are important. Guys can push the pocket, know when to turn, speed to power so they don’t get pushed by the quarterback and stay in the lane — all those things are really important and he’s learned to do that more and more effectively all the time.”
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