Nick Saban hammers team's practice effort, coins term 'poor me's'

If there’s one thing to know about Nick Saban, it’s that he doesn’t mince words. In a press conference on Wednesday, he was brutally honest about his team’s effort in practice this week.

Alabama is gearing up to face Arkansas in Tuscaloosa this week. The Razorbacks are 7-3 this year, but have wins over Texas, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. Saban wasn’t happy with how his team looked early in the week given who they’re getting ready to face on Saturday.

“Yesterday was OK,” Saban told reporters on Wednesday. “Today, we had a lot of guys with the ‘poor me’s,’ whatever that means. You get into your feelings, you don’t do things the way you need to do them to have success and when you get that way, you don’t create good habits and that’s not a good thing. It’s not something that we can accept and it’s something we’ve got to do a better job of.”

The Crimson Tide are one game up on Ole Miss in the SEC West and can lock up the title with a win and a Rebels loss this week. Ole Miss is taking on winless Vanderbilt, though, which means Alabama’s title games hopes could come down to the Iron Bowl against Auburn on Nov. 27.

If Alabama makes the title game, it’d set up yet another Georgia vs. Alabama SEC Championship game. Considering they’re the top two teams in the latest CFP poll, that could be must-see TV.

Nick Saban: ‘We need to have the right mindset and preparation in practice’

Saban also talked about Arkansas’ physicality and what challenges that can present. He added they try to work on that aspect of things in practice, and the effort hasn’t met his standard so far.

“I think we need to have the right mindset and preparation in practice,” Saban said. “How we practice, how physical we need to be in terms of how we need to play in a game like this. That’s everybody’s choice. If you don’t have that choice, you need to change the way you think because that’s the kind of game this is going to be.

“We’re excited about playing at home, but we’re also trying to be excited about how we prepare, how we play, how we practice, the things we need to do to get ready to play a tough team and a good opponent in the SEC. That’s kind of where we’re at.”

Kickoff between Alabama and Arkansas is coming up Saturday at 3:30 pm. ET on CBS.