Nick Saban reveals pregame and postgame messages he shared with his players

Nick Saban knew Alabama needed a rebound victory, and the Crimson Tide bounced back in a big way against Mississippi State.

The Crimson Tide tried to erase the memory of last week’s loss to Tennessee with a 30-6 drubbing of the Bulldogs on Saturday. Afterwards, Saban revealed his pre-game and postgame message he shared with his players that helped lead to the victory.

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“The game tonight, I challenged them in terms of how they were going to respond,” began Saban. “You respond with your ability, positive energy, how you block, how you tackle, the enthusiasm that you play with. I was pleased with the way the guys went out and competed, had fun. Wasn’t a lot of anxiety. Wasn’t always perfect execution, but to me that’s a start. It’s kind of time to answer the bell, and now the challenge is we need to build on that. We’ve got a bye week coming up, we’ve got a lot of guys that we need to get healthy. I think we’ll get some guys back. But I think the number one thing is we want to build on sort of the chemistry of how we competed in the game today.

“I thought the defense played well. We should be able to take the air out of the ball on offense. Couldn’t run the ball very well tonight, that’s something ee definitely need to improve on. So hopefully Bryce getting a week off here now will really help him maybe get back healthy. Guys had a good week of preparation. They went out and played a good game, and I’m really pleased and proud of them.”

As Nick Saban mentioned, now Alabama can take some positivity into their bye week with LSU and Ole Miss on the horizon afterwards. If the Crimson Tide can get through those challenges, an SEC Championship appearance is more than likely in their future.

Nick Saban explains decision not to suspend Jermaine Burton following incident with Tennessee fan

Furthermore, Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton was in the news this week but for the wrong reasons. A video showed him allegedly hitting a Tennessee fan while they were storming the field after the upset win at Neyland Stadium. Despite the incident, Burton played on Saturday night against Mississippi State.

Head coach Nick Saban explained the decision to play Burton and not suspend him. He said some people on the Alabama team were scared and now, the wide receiver is in a counseling program. Saban thinks if everyone knew the full story, they would agree with his decision to not suspend Burton.

“I don’t know how many of you have ever been in a situation like that,” Saban said. “But, I talked to him. He was scared, I was scared. Some of our other players were scared. I think you learn to respect other people because we have a responsibility to do that, regardless of the circumstance that we’re in. I talked to the guy. We have him in a counseling program.

“It’s not an anger management program as people announced today. Nobody ever said that. That’s not the problem, that’s not the issue. But, it’s about having the proper respect for other people. I didn’t think it was necessary to suspend the guy. If you knew the whole story, maybe you wouldn’t either but I am not going to divulge that.”

Burton was the second-leading receiver for Alabama on Saturday, finishing with 40 yards. Although he only had two receptions, it was a productive day for the former Georgiatransfer. While Burton continues to go through some things off the field, the production on the field has not been affected.