Nick Saban emphasizes importance of finishing season strong

With back-to-back wins over ranked opponents, it’d be easy for Alabama to stop now. Yet, head coach Nick Saban isn’t a fan of easy. During an appearance on “Hey Coach & the Nick Saban Show,” Saban weighed in on the importance of Alabama’s remaining regular-season games.

“When you have two emotional games back-to-back, that kind of sets up a little mental trap for you,” Saban said. “It’s pretty much human nature and it’s pretty pervasive that when you have things like that happen, that people have a little like psychological let-down.

“It’s almost like watching a scary movie and you’re all excited and then, in the end, the bad guy gets killed, and everybody’s relieved. You have big games and you feel kind of the same way. It’s psychological in nature.”

Alabama has slayed several “bad guys” in the past two weeks. In Week 8, the team defeated No. 17 Tennessee 34-20. Alabama was phenomenal in the final two quarters, rattling off 27 straight second-half points.

The Crimson Tide rode the current into a 42-28 victory over No. 13 LSU the next week. In the win, Jalen Milroe solidified himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, tallying 219 passing yards while also rushing for 155 yards and four touchdowns.

Nick Saban refuses to let off the gas

Although Alabama is on fire, Saban knows how quickly a team’s flame can be extinguished. Alabama suffered two upsets last season at the hands of LSU and Tennessee, ruining its hopes to reach the College Football Playoff. Saban doesn’t plan on falling victim to the same fate this season.

“Everybody’s got to ask themselves how important is the season? How important is this game? How important is the opportunity that you’ve created for yourself?” Saban said. “Are you willing to choose to do the things you need to do to take advantage of that? You should have great gratitude for that.

“This team has worked really, really hard. They made a tremendous amount of improvement. It would be a real shame for them if they don’t finish the way they’re capable of finishing. That’s what we’re trying to get everybody to buy into.”

Alabama has no ranked opponents remaining in the regular season. Nonetheless, it won’t be a cakewalk, either. On Saturday, Saban and Co. will go head-to-head against the Kentucky Wildcats at noon ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.