Alabama head coach Nick Saban shared his thoughts on the Middle Tennessee secondary

There are very few people who know secondary play better than Alabama head coach Nick Saban. In Alabama’s first opponent, Middle Tennessee State, he sees an impressive secondary for his team to compete with.

Ahead of the 2023 season opener, Saban praised the MTSU secondary, in particular for how aggressive the Blue Raiders are on the defensive side of the ball.

“Well, I think they play really well,” Nick Saban said. “They get a lot of turnovers but they create a lot of pressure. They’re a pressure defense and they put a lot of pressure on their secondary and their corners have played very well, whether they play off or man-to-man in press. Their safeties are very aggressive and make a lot of plays.”

Because of this aggressiveness, Saban sees an opportunity to take advantage of explosive plays against Middle Tennessee.

“So, I think there’s a little bit of big-little that goes with this team if you look at the statistics of the way they’ve played. They make a lot of plays on defense when it comes to negative plays that they create, turnovers that they, but they’ve also given up plays,” Saban said.

“And I think you have to have lots of patience, you have to have a good plan in terms of trying to minimize how much they can create negative plays but also maximize taking advantage of some explosive plays.”

Just last season, Middle Tennessee showed its ability to beat a Power Five opponent, when the Blue Raiders beat the Miami Hurricanes. Nick Saban knows that this isn’t a team that Alabama should overlook, or things could be closer than expected. In particular, because Alabama still hasn’t announced a starting quarterback.

Regardless of who Alabama starts at quarterback, it’s going to be their job to manage to play a competitive defense and take advantage of those big play opportunities.

Nick Saban on how Alabama can be dominant in 2023

Going into this season, the Alabama offensive line wants to become a physically dominant force. For his part, Nick Saban knows how they can do that.

“They want to be dominant and physical, that’s part of the identity that we’re trying to create and want to create at every position, not just in the offensive line. To be able to have balance on offense, you got to be able to control the line of scrimmage and get movement up front and play physical,” Saban said.

“It’s the same thing in the passing game. You got to be able to protect the quarterback and so you can make plays in the passing game. So we always want to be physical. We always want to be dominant, we want to be that on the defensive line. We want to be that on the offensive line, and style of play can determine that to some degree and but having balance and being able to do both those things, I think is the most critical factor.”