Alabama Football:

Nick Saban Monday Press Conference Report

In his Noon press conference today, Nick Saban said the Alabama Crimson Tide needs to take care of business against Texas A&M by staying focused and playing sound fundamental football.

Alabama Football: Nick Saban updates Alabama fans as the Tide preps for Texas A&M.
Alabama Football: Nick Saban updates Alabama fans as the Tide preps for Texas A&M.
Johnny Manziel and the Aggies notched the only mark on the Tide’s loss column last year, jumping out to a three score lead in Tuscaloosa and winning a nail-biter in the fourth quarter.

The Alabama Football coach was questioned repeatedly in the press conference about the emotional aspect of the rematch set for Saturday at A&M’s Kyle Field. He repeatedly referred to his philosophy of focusing on fundamentals and individual assignments: holding blocks, making tackles, and being in the right position to make plays.

“We have to play our game and take advantage of opportunities,” Alabama football coach Nick Saban said. “We have got to be able to adjust. Have more guys play disciplined football. Last year we didn’t do that and we paid for it.

“We can’t have any lack of focus and discipline. We have to take care of the little things. You take care of the cents; the dollars add up.”

Saban acknowledged that emotions will be a factor in the upcoming game. But he said emotions can cause negative results. And he said he had zero tolerance for trash talk.

“It (trash talking) is not a part of our game,” Saban said. “There’s never a circumstance you need to talk to another player.” He said the Tide should be “businesslike” and do its job.

“People who get emotional sometimes don’t make the best decisions,” the Alabama football coach said.

Saban had high praise for the Aggies superstar quarterback Johnny Manziel and for Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin. Saban said he once tried to hire Sumlin as an assistant at LSU, and Sumlin’s record “speaks for itself” with a successful tenure at Houston and an 11-win season last year with A&M.

Speaking about Manziel, Saban said, “He’s gonna make some plays.” Saban said Manziel has good instincts, and shouldn’t be thought of as only a scrambling quarterback. He said his defensive backs would have to be careful to hold their coverage on receivers. Saban said Manziel will not throw to a receiver who isn’t open, but when he scrambles his receivers will go into “scramble rules” mode. They will adjust their routes to shake a defender who is too focused on watching Manziel’s movement.

“Don’t allow him to make plays because of what you did incorrectly on defense,” Saban advised. He said his defensive backs can watch NFL games on Sundays if they want to watch quarterbacks. If they get caught up trying to spy on Manziel, “You’re going to get busted,” Saban said.

Saban said the key to the game would be how well his “team” plays against Texas A&M’s “team.”

Asked about A&M’s offensive philosophy, using a fast tempo, Saban said he believed his team has adjusted well to what had become a common offensive strategy.

“We’ve adjusted to it,” Saban said. “We played against it eight or nine times last year, and we’ll see it that many times this year. It’s becoming more the norm.”

He said preparation was the key to adapting to the fast pace: “What did we see and how much did we see it? And how did our practice reflect that?”

Alabama Football Injury Update

Alabama Football Injury Update: Saban said freshman defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson will be out for the season. He had surgery following the Virginia Tech game and will require four or five months of rehab.

6 thoughts on “Alabama Football: Nick Saban wants Tide focused”

  1. Speaking of focus: Love how CNS uses press/media meetings to talk to his team. Everything is focused on doing the little things in the game that make a difference in the overall picture. Even in the press briefings, CNS continues to coach his players on what they have heard on the practice field. Hope they are listening from the start of the game this year.

  2. Alabama lost last year because Nick Saban failed as a coach. He says as much here. If a team doesn’t know how to adjust and plays undisciplined football, that’s the coaches fault right? Isn’t that what he is paid $5 million a year for? But he says it himself, “We have got to be able to adjust. Have more guys play disciplined football. Last year we didn’t do that and we paid for it”.

    Why didn’t more guys do that, why weren’t they able to adjust? You’ve recruited the best high school football players in the nation. If they didn’t/don’t do it, it’s your fault coach. After all you are their coach and decides who plays and who doesn’t. Right?

  3. What’s your point, ‘Shit For Brains’? All good coaches take credit for the losses. Manziel had never played like that before Bama. 1. Nobody knew the Bama game would be his Heisman Moment. 2. AJ confessed that the team was tired and emotionally drained after the LSWho game where we Had to beat your asses in Baton Rouge in your ‘Revenge Game Of All Time’. There were rumors that LSWho dedicated the whole season to beating Bama and practiced at least 1 day a week against Bama the whole season. 3. AJ had broken ribs which was why we started slow. The idea was to try and protect him and win with defense. When that didn’t work he sucked it up and started throwing anyway, which is why we won the last 3 quarters 25 to 9. And fuck face, so what???? Everybody in the nation lost at least 1 game last year. There hasn’t been an undefeated Super Bowl champion in longer than I can remember. One loss doesn’t mean shit. If Saban did a shitty job of preparing them for A&M, it worked anyway cause Bama is the National Champion. And if Saban failed as a coach and is paid 5 million, Then in comparison to what has been accomplished in the past 5 years, you should take Miles out behind the barn and shoot him along with all the lame horses. Bwaa Haww Haww! You stupid Corndog motherfucker. RTR!

  4. My only point was to get your drunk ass all fired up and make you demonstrate your low level IQ and vocabulary which consist mainly of cursing and name calling and stupid statements like what you just did. So I guess it worked. Bwaa Haww Haww you redneck gump. I lead and you will follow. The mindless always do. LMAO

    1. Is it ironic to have spelling errors, grammar errors and sentence fragments when you’re calling out an Alabama fan on an Alabama fan site for his own spelling errors?

      Or is it just trolling?

      I struggle sometimes trying to understand what it’s like to have a team like the Alabama Crimson Tide get under a person’s skin so easily and so completely.

      1. Hey Conduit,

        Maybe you’re not any smarter than Crimsonite, but no where in my post did I call “out an Alabama fan on an Alabama fan site for his own spelling errors”. I made a comment about his vocabulary, not his spelling of his choice of words. See the difference?

        And I can only speak for myself, but to help you with your struggles the Alabama team does not get under my skin at all. It is the arrogant and sometimes ignorant attitude of a lot of the bama fans, who think they are better than anyone else or know more than anyone else because of what some 18-22 year old students accomplished on the football field last week, last year or 50 years ago. And it is encouraged by sites like this. Go back an read the tone of many of the articles written here. And yes I get that this is not a journalistic site, but a fan site filled with hype and that is liberal with the actual facts. But when you are going to write articles like that then you should expect some pushback from opposing fans. And if you can’t understand and accept that then I guess you just continue with your struggles Conduit.

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