Nick Saban wants Alabama to maintain intensity throughout the season, preparing for LSU

Nick Saban knows that Alabama is well into the season with their matchup against LSU this week, and wants to see maintained intensity. The Crimson Tide’s coach spoke during his weekly press conference about the importance of maintaining their focus throughout the season, and how his players need to make a conscious choice to remain at the top.

Alabama debuted at No. 6 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, and have a showdown in Baton Rogue against an LSU team ranked No. 10 in the CFP.

Nick Saban calls for maintained intensity

Saban wasted no time getting into his message for the players this week after sharing a greeting as he took the podium on Wednesday.

“Well I think the thing that we’re trying to focus on is ‘how do you maintain intensity?’ Whether you maintain your intensity in practice, whether you maintain your intensity in a game… but everybody’s gonna lose their intensity every now and then. So really, when you get in situations you gotta like pound your chest or whatever you gotta do to regain momentum. Regain the mental focus you need to do to sustain, maintain intensity. Because that’s really the only way that you can sustain performance,” said Saban.

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“So even days like today — it’s a little warmer, we’ve had good practices all week — you know it’s a challenge for guys to maintain their intensity. And it’s a choice that everybody has to make. Nobody chooses to win, nobody really chooses to lose… but you do have the freedom to choose what you want to do and how you want to do it. Aight? And I think that’s the most important thing that players can do and everybody has a choice to do that in whatever they do in their life. So that’s what we’re trying to get our players to do so that we can sustain and maintain intensity throughout the season.

“Obviously, it’s a rivalry game, playing on the road. Good team. So it’s gonna be really important that we can do that.”

Despite suffering a set-back earlier this season with a tough loss on the road to Tennessee — who earned a No. 1 ranking for their efforts — Saban and the Crimson Tide appear to be in control of their own CFP destiny still. With Tennessee and No. 3 Georgia on a collision course this week with each other, Alabama’s path to the SEC Championship lies through a win this week over the Tigers.

From there, the next major hurdle is just one week away as they play Ole Miss who also boasts a 4-1 conference record. LSU took down Ole Miss last week to force a three-way tie in the SEC West, and a win by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game would likely secure them a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Saban’s continued work to keep his team focused on the little things and handling their business the right way will go a long way to making that scenario come true — and it begins with preaching maintained intensity this week.