Nick Saban reveals what he's telling Alabama players ahead of 11 am CT kickoff vs. Arkansas

Alabama doesn’t play early games very often under Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide are regularly national title contenders and are usually kicking off at 3:30 p.m. or later.

However, that will change this week, as Alabama will play its first game before 3:30 p.m. ET all year on Saturday against Arkansas.

Alabama will host the Razorbacks at 11 a.m. CT, meaning it will still be in the morning local time when the game gets underway.

Saban joined the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and shared what he’s telling his players ahead of Saturday’s early kick.

“We just try to get the players to understand that when your feet hit the ground on Saturday, because it’s an early game, you’ve gotta be ready to go. And your whole thought process has to change,” Nick Saban said. “You’ve got to speed it up. You don’t have the same sort of routine that you normally would go through to play an afternoon or a night game.”

Saban added that in games like this, it’s important to get off to a fast start. Alabama is currently favored by 20.5 points, and the Crimson Tide would like to build an early lead and not let Arkansas hang around.

He wants his players to wake up with the right mindset and be ready to go.

“This is really important that players understand that so you get off to a good start in games like this,” Saban said. “It’s not a great time to be playing, but we’re going to make the best of it.”

Nick Saban reveals what he likes most about coaching in college, what disappoints him the most

Nick Saban also covered a number of other topics with Pat McAfee, including what he likes most about coaching college football and what disappoints him the most.

“I really think coaching is teaching. Teaching is ability to inspire learning,” Saban said. “The thing I like most about coaching is relationships with the players, trying to teach them to help them be a better version of themselves, whether it’s personally, academically or obviously in coaching there’s athletically on the field in terms of what you can do to help them get better.”

Saban has been able to do that in a way where he consistently convinces his players that his style of building is the way to go about being a successful, high-level program.

He’s able to convince his players that they’re creating value for themselves every single time they step out on the field, which gets them focused at almost all times. It has worked. Again and again and again.

But that’s not to say Saban doesn’t also sometimes run into challenges.

“I think one of the most disappointing things is when you have a guy that has ability and you want him to sort of improve and take advantage of that ability that he has and the talent that God has given him, and he doesn’t want it as bad as you want it,” Saban said. “That’s one of the most frustrating things, I think. But I just enjoy teaching. I really do.”