Nick Saban shares Alabama's readiness for Sugar Bowl

Alabama is in rare position sitting on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide made the title game back to back years, winning in 2021, but missed out this time around. Instead, they’re in the Sugar Bowl, matched up against Kansas State. Some folks worry that the Tide may not be their sharpest in a postseason game that means very little compared to the past few years. The focus might not be there with such lower stakes.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban said he thinks he’ll have a good feeling about where his team is mentally by the end of the week. According to him, coaches can tell how locked in their players are for a game by their effort and intensity in the lead-up practices. But even if the team practices well, games are full of surprises, especially bowl games. Alabama needs to be focused on not only the game plan, but on every single snap, because there’s no telling when one play will go haywire and everybody needs to act on their toes.

At his press conference this week, Saban explained that whole process, starting with his ability to tell how players are feeling about a game, to needing to be prepared for anything to happen come game time.

Nick Saban on Sugar Bowl preparation

“Well, I think that sometimes you have a feeling by how the players prepare, what their focus is in meetings, how in tune they are to sort of having the mental intensity and energy in practice, and how they prepare for the game. Because if they’re doing things the right way, that sort of shows you that they have the right mindset. So usually you have a pretty good feeling going into the game that you’re going to play well.

“But games are funny. You know, all sports and all games have huge swings in momentum. I watched a couple NFL games the last couple days and I saw huge swings in momentum, where one team would be dominating and then something happens. Like the Dolphins game yesterday was a great example. You know, they could have gone up three scores, they fumble and turn it over right before the half. They were never the same team after that.

“So sometimes you’re ready to play a game and you go out and execute very well. But you got to be able to recapture the momentum in the game when things don’t go well. You got to be able to overcome adversity. So even though you may practice and prepare and start out really well, you’ve got to be able to maintain that intensity and that momentum for 60 minutes in the game, regardless of what happens in the game. Whether things go well or something bad happens, you got to be able to overcome it.

“But I think that’s one of the great things about athletics. I think that’s one of the great things about football, is learning how to overcome adversity. It’s probably one of the great lessons in life that will help you be more successful in life. Because things don’t always go exactly like we plan them to. And I think that’s one thing that you can learn from being involved in a team sport.”