Nick Saban challenges Alabama 'to understand complacency kills momentum' amid Playoff push

The Alabama Crimson Tide gave a break in SEC action on Saturday as they will host Tennessee Chattanooga. The Mocs, on paper, are not considered a threat to the Crimson Tide in any way, shape, or form. Still, to prevent his team from having a slip-up, head coach Nick Saban has been driving home a message to his program in preparation for Saturday’s game. And he revealed just what that message is during his Thursday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.

“I think the big thing is people have to understand complacency kills momentum,” said Saban. “We’re a team that has improved throughout the course of the season. So we’ve sort of developed a rhythm of how we practice, how we prepare, how we’ve been playing that creates a momentum. Everybody that’s played sports knows that sometimes, during a game, you have momentum, and you play well, and you lose the momentum, and it’s hard to get it back.

“My emphasis to our team this week has been we need to keep the pedal to the metal, keep our foot on the pedal, and keep building on the rhythm and the momentum that we have; we don’t want to lose that. We don’t want to be complacent because that’ll kill our momentum in terms of what we need to do.”

Alabama has done a tremendous job bouncing back from their early season struggles. The Texas Longhorns went into Bryant-Denny Stadium and handed the Crimson Tide their only loss on the season 34-24. That game was followed by a near loss to USF on the road. Since then, Saban’s crew has been on fire, led by the stellar play of quarterback Jalen Milroe, and are on an eight-game winning streak.

Saban calls on previous history with the Mocs

Currently, Alabama sits just outside the College Football Playoff picture in a logjam of one-loss teams that includes the aforementioned Longhorns and the Oregon Ducks. Wins in their final two regular-season games and an upset victory over Georgia in the SEC championship game would likely catapult the Crimson Tide into the college football playoffs. It has been a long road for Alabama to get to this point, which is why Saban is challenging his team to look internally, lock in, and avoid an unexpected upset at the hands of Tennessee Chattanooga. And the Crimson Tide head man is calling on his previous experience of facing the Mocs to highlight his point.

“It’s important for every guy to do that internally and not think that this is not a good team that we’re playing. We played these guys in 2016, and there may have been not too many guys playing for us that didn’t play in the NFL, and not very many guys on their team that played in the NFL,” said Saban.

“We’re halfway through the second quarter, and we’re behind three to nothing. So that just kind of can tell you how important it is to stay focused, have a passion about what you wanna try to do, and have a mental toughness to be able to sustain and overcome adversity because those things can be momentum killers.”

Alabama and Tennessee Chattanooga face off on November 18 at 12 noon ET at the Crimson Tides home of Bryant-Denny Stadium. You can catch all the action on the SEC Network or on the ESPN app.