T he Alabama Crimson Tide football team took its practice inside Wednesday as it prepares for the season opener against San Jose State. Alabama football coach Nick Saban explains the decision below.
Alabama Moves Indoors for San Jose State Preparation (via UA Media Relations)
The Alabama football team moved its preparation for the season opener against San Jose State up a day by practicing in shells for two hours inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility Wednesday afternoon.
In his post-practice press conference, head coach Nick Saban said the change in schedule will help give the Crimson Tide a break from full-contact practices in order to be fully rested on Saturday.
“We want to use the two days in shells to try to get the players sort of recovered a little bit,” Saban said. “We had two days off before, after camp, and I thought they responded with pretty good intensity today. I think everybody is looking forward to playing a game and not practicing against one another.”
With the switch to shells, instead of the normal full-pad workout, players have the opportunity to utilize the week’s remaining practices to focus on mental preparation.
“It’s much better to learn your lessons before, relative to mistakes, than it is after,” Saban said. “Hopefully our guys are preparing and doing the right things they need to do to play their best football in this particular game. I think the things that are important to that right now are mental practice and going over the things that you’re going to do because the physical practice is going to be limited. You can accomplish a significant amount if you do a good job of mental practice.”
The Tide will conduct the week’s final practice on Thursday and hold a walk-through on Friday. All practices are closed to the public. Kickoff for Saturday’s game against San Jose State at Bryant-Denny Stadium is scheduled for 6:07 p.m.
