Everything Nick Saban said after Alabama's 17th preseason practice

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama held its 17th preseason practice Wednesday afternoon on the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields. Shortly after the 2-hour workout, head coach Nick Saban spoke to local reporters at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility. Below is everything he said.

“The message to the players after the scrimmage was, now’s the time to get ready for the season. Every practice is important, every game is important. You’ve got to get ready for the task at hand, develop the right habits. That leads to confidence, it leads to trust in teammates and togetherness on the team. Discipline, having the right mindset, having the right mental toughness to be able to sustain so that you can elevate your game. So instead of somebody else trying to motivate you, or something motivating you, how about you just focusing on what you need to do to get better so you can elevate your game without some external factor, whether somebody dogs you, or whatever. I think it’s important you learn from your mistakes, and that’s the best opportunity you have to learn. This group’s been pretty good about it. 

“This is always a challenging week, but the guys have done a really, really good job the last couple days. We’re working on some issues and problems that may come up with some of our opponents during the season and we’ll probably start on the first game on Friday.”

Saban on which players are getting reps at Star…

“Malachi (Moore) gets reps at Star, Jaylen (Key) gets reps at Star, Earl (Little) gets reps at Star. Those are probably the three primary guys. We’re also working Terrion Arnold to get some reps at Star. We want to have three or four guys who can play it. You don’t want to have an issue when one guy goes down and you’ve got nobody else to play that spot.”

Saban on Dallas Turner…

“Dallas has done great. He’s been a really good leader, he’s setting a good example, he’s worked very hard. He’s been very productive and I think he’s just done fantastic for us.”

Saban on running backs making one cut and getting upfield…

“I think you want people to run north and south. You want them to get their pads down. You don’t want them to dance in the hole, but I think runners who are good runners are instinctive on when they should make cuts, when they should make lateral cuts, when they just need to burst through the hole when you have an opening. I don’t know if you can overcoach that, but if you’re going to run the ball effectively, guys have to know when to get their pads down and get north and south so you can have a 4-yard play and not maybe a negative-yard play because they’re trying to make something where there’s nothing. I really think our guys, all four of them, do a really good job of that.”

Saban on the downside of QB battle ongoing this close to season…

“Yeah, but that’s kind of up to them. Like I said in here before. I told the quarterbacks, I said, ‘Quit looking around for me to make a decision about who’s gonna play. How about you playing good enough that I don’t have a choice? That’s what you can control. That’s what you can do.’ And somebody needs to do that. And it’s sort of taking shape to some degree, but somebody’s got to do it. Where you all think that, like whoever we name as a starter the first game, that’s like the end of it. That’s not the end of it. It’s just the beginning. What if a guy doesn’t play good? He’s not entitled to keep playing. And the guy that doesn’t play got every opportunity to practice and be more consistent and win the team over so that when he gets an opportunity to play, he plays really well. We have changed quarterbacks around here a few times during the season. So, I know you guys are looking for an end but it’s not even gonna be the end in the first game.” 

“You’re looking at me kind of funny. Did I not explain that very well. I know what you asked. I just don’t want to answer it. We’re gonna make the best of it for our team and our team has to be make the best of it as well. And whoever plays the position, everybody gotta play well around him and do the best job that they can to help them play well.” 

Saban on Tim Keenan…

“Tim’s done a really good job. He lost weight. He got in much better shape. He’s moving a lot better. He’s a lot quicker. He’s always had a lot of explosive power. He’s been a really pleasant surprise in this camp. A guy that’s playing like a starter actually.” 

Saban on the defense’s progress from fall camp…

“I mean, I think just about every time something bad happens, and when I say bad happens I’m talking about explosive play. It’s either about missed tackles or mental errors. And I think we’ve gotten better at eliminating some of those. But one of the things I didn’t think we did as well in the last scrimmage as the first scrimmage is tackling. That goes back to how you practice. We don’t really ever, and have never practiced where you tackle people in practice. But you have to thump. So you get in position to tackle the guy, your near leg to your shoulder, you wrap the guy up so you’re always in position to tackle. If you do that consistently, you have to tackle people you’re gonna be in the right position. That’s something that we really emphasized with our players this week to try to improve the tackling.”

On how the transfer portal affects WR development, retainment…

“I don’t know who you’re specifically talking about, but guys that get in the transfer portal, this is not for everybody, OK. So maybe people that wanna be here, wanna be good, wanna do the best they can, develop value for their future and who they are as a person, what kind of requirements we have for them to succeed academically so they can develop a career on the field and what we’re gonna try to do to develop them on the field. And I think – I’m not mentioning any names – but there’s only like one player that I was really like disappointed that the guy didn’t stay here, and I couldn’t understand why he was leaving. And all the rest of them, they would have contributed if they stayed and had the right attitude, but it’s their choice. And what we have an opportunity to do when guys leave is we have an opportunity to replace them, too.”

On what he remembers about his first day of classes at Kent State…

“Nothing. Do you know how many years ago that was? I will say this about the team: I told them last night, I said, ‘I know tomorrow is your first day of college – I’m talking about college, everybody. You’re going to college tomorrow.’ So most of the time, that really impacts the quality of practice that we have, but that wasn’t the case today. They were focused in practice and they were ready to go. Maybe it’s online classes, I don’t know (laughs). But I really don’t remember much of anything about – the biggest thing I remember about going to college was A.) the day parents dropped me off at school and I felt like I was all alone and didn’t know anybody in the world and how difficult it was to sort of develop relationships and get started and figure out how do I fit in here and what do I need to do. So I remember that, but that wasn’t the first day of class. And then I remember what happened on May 4. That’s probably the two things I remember the most.”

Saban on Kadyn Proctor…

“He’s shown me he’s big, and he’s made a lot of progress. He’s improved a lot. He’s got a lot of ability. And there’s things that he needs to continue to work on. Obviously, experience is gonna help him, and when you get experience – experience is a culmination of how do you learn from your mistakes, and that’s what experience is. And he’s been pretty good about that. I think (Tyler) Booker playing next to him at left guard has helped him a lot because it puts a veteran player next to him who gives him a little bit of security in making calls and that type of thing. So that’s been a good thing for us.”

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