Nick Saban preaches importance of fundamentals ahead of A-Day

Nick Saban has his plan in place for A-Day this weekend. As part of that, the Alabama headman has been preaching one thing during practice in the days leading up to the Crimson Tide’s spring game: fundamentals.

Saban said fundamentals have been a huge part of Alabama’s practices this week leading into the spring game, which kicks off Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. He added it’s part of his plan to start preparing the Crimson Tide for the regular season, and that preparation starts in spring ball.

“Fundamental technique and discipline will eliminate a lot of bad plays,” Saban said. “Whether it’s depth of a route, a read of a quarterback, whatever it is. Defensive player not having the right eye control, looking at the right things.

“The real emphasis in practice these last two days has been getting fundamentally better execution and trying to show the players that if they do this, that’s the best chance that we have to have team success. I think the response has been really pretty good.”

Nick Saban outlines plan, format for A-Day ahead of this weekend

A-Day is the first chance for Alabama gets ready for its first taste of a game atmosphere since January’s national championship game. Prior to the event, Nick Saban outlined the plan and format for the game. He said he’s not doing too much different from what he’s done the last few years, but the goal remains the same.

It’s all about getting the players experience in a game-like setting — and good matchups are going to be key.

“The first offense is on one team with the second defense,” Saban said Thursday, in part. “The first defense is on the other team with the second offense. So the ones play against the ones, the twos play against the twos. I’ve done A-Day games like 15 different ways, and [if] you get mismatches in the game, it can ruin the game. This is the best way that the good players play against the good players, the most experienced players play against the most experienced players. It’s more challenging for them. It’s better for us in terms of evaluation, and I think it’s more game-like, which is really the ultimate goal out of A-Day.

“Even though the coaching staff’s split up, we want to get bench organization for the game. We want players to go through what they go through in pregame, what they go through in halftime. This is kind of an exhibition game type experience that we want to try to utilize the best we can so it helps our team grow and develop.”