Nick Saban sends Thanksgiving message, talks the team's plans for the holiday

With Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, Alabama coach Nick Saban took a moment at his press conference to wish people a happy holiday. Before getting into any talk about the Iron Bowl against Auburn, the Crimson Tide head man opened with a message reminding us what this time of year is all about.

“Happy Thanksgiving. I know this is a great time of the year to have gratitude and give thanks for all the things that we have,” Saban said. “I know we all spend a lot of time thinking about the things that we want and maybe not appreciating the things that we have. Relationships and all the other things in the world that we worked hard to try to accomplish. Hopefully everybody has an opportunity to do that and has a very enjoyable and happy Thanksgiving.”

Alabama won’t be taking the day off of practice for Thanksgiving, but Saban explained that players will still get the opportunity to spend time with their families. The Crimson Tide will begin their practice an hour earlier than usual so that members of the team can travel back to enjoy a turkey dinner.

Players who live too far away to make it back home will have the opportunity to join Saban and his wife, Miss Terry, for Thanksgiving dinner. After that, the team will enjoy another meal together on Friday to celebrate the holiday before getting back to work and preparing for the Tigers.

“We move everything up an hour tomorrow so that the players that live in a two-hour radius will be done at 4:30-ish,” Saban explained. “They got a chance to go home and have Thanksgiving with their family, take other players if they want. The coaches, including Miss Terry and I, have players who don’t have a place to go and we have ’em over to our house. I think we’ll have about 15 players to our house to join our family for Thanksgiving.

“Then we come back and we usually do one reel after practice on Thursday. We don’t do that until Friday when players come back. Then we have a Thanksgiving dinner for all the families, players and coaches alike, on Friday around noon. Then at 1 o’clock, we start the process of meetings and walkthroughs and things that we would normally have on Friday and get ready to travel and get ready to roll.”

It sounds like the Crimson Tide coaches and players have plenty to look forward to for Thanksgiving. However, the importance of the Auburn matchup still isn’t lost on them, as they need a win to keep their Playoff hopes alive heading into the SEC Championship next week.

Kickoff between Auburn and Alabama is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.