Everything Nick Saban said after Alabama's 34-20 win over Tennessee

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 11 Alabama defeated Tennessee, 34-20, Saturday. After the Crimson Tide’s rivalry game win at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Alabama head coach Nick Saban addressed reporters. Below is everything Saban said after Alabama moved to 7-1 on the year.

“Obviously, a pretty fun second half. Really proud of our players. I walked in at halftime after they scored right before the half, I said, ‘Everybody here’s got a choice to make. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do? Everybody’s got to choose what they want.’ And we went out and scored in two plays in the second half in the first drive on offense and changed the momentum of the game and played really well from that time on.

“Tennessee’s got a really good team, and I’m really proud of our players for the way they competed in the game and came back and the way they took care of business in the second half. We’ve got a bye week coming up, so we probably need to get a little rest for some of our guys. But we’ve got more business to take care of in the future. But for right now, everybody should enjoy this. It’s a great win for us. We had a great atmosphere in the stadium. Our fans were fantastic. They had a huge impact on the game in terms of the penalties at the end of the game and not allowing them to score. 

“I just can’t tell you how pleased and proud I am with everybody in the organization who puts a lot into it so that we can have games like this, have atmospheres like this and have the opportunity to compete like this for our players. Really, really proud of our team, and it was a great team win. I mean, 27-0 in the second half was pretty good offense and really good defense.”

Saban on fourth-down stop in the third quarter…

“They like to get in bunch, so we had a kind of check defense to go to get in like a Gap 8 with two double edges and force spoke secondary to try to roll if they brought the ball to the perimeter. So the guys up front just knocked them back, and that was a huge stop in the game. We had two fourth-down stops in the game that were really huge.”

Saban on why it was important to run over to the fans after the game…

“I know how much it means to our fans – this game, the rivalry of this game, Tennessee. But I also wanted to thank them because of what a great job they did, the impact that they had on the game, the atmosphere in the game. I think they kept the energy level up for our team and kept the momentum rolling in the second half for us. It was fantastic. I wish I could thank each one of them personally.” 

Saban on the second-half adjustments for the defense…

“In the beginning of the game, we were trying to play odd because we were really trying to stop the run, and they hit the big pass – we were in odd, kind of didn’t play the coverage exactly right for the first touchdown. But as the game went on, we started playing a little more even, started playing things that we’d played in the past and I think the players did a really good job. It helped us rush the passer better. So the players just did a good job of adapting. We got a better four-man rush out of it and played more of the kind of coverages that we normally play with four men rushing rather than eight drops.”

Saban on watching this team continue to fight back from adversity…

“I love it. It’s been great. The challenges are great. I enjoy coaching this team. That’s not to say that they’re taking years off of my life, but I’m OK with that. But it’s fun because they’ve got a good spirit about them. We’ve got good relationships on our team. I think the players legitimately care about each other and they respond well to their coaches. So it’s really fun to coach them. I don’t think we sometimes show the maturity from a competitive standpoint to do everything on a consistent basis, which is what we keep trying to work toward. But I’ll tell ya, eight weeks in a row and the grind that we’ve had the last 4-5 weeks with the games in our league, I think psychology, we probably have a little bit of a tired team out there at the beginning of the game, and I think the momentum of the game gave them the energy they needed to play the way they’re capable of playing.”

Saban on what a win like this shows about the team…

“It’s great the way we played in the second half. But you can make an argument that we weren’t a finished product in the first half, really on either side of the ball. But I do think that the resiliency that the players sort of show, their ability to overcome adversity, them scoring like right at the end of the half, us having an opportunity to score and turning it over and then they go down the field and they score right before the half. So it was a big swing from a momentum standpoint. So it takes a lot of resiliency, a lot of perseverance from those players to bounce back because it was a horrible way to end the first half, and they did a fantastic job and I can’t say enough about the competitive spirit that they have when they need to have it.”

Saban on the run defense against Tennessee…

“I think it was important. They still hurt us at times with the quarterback runs, quarterback draws a couple times. They had a couple perimeter plays with the quarterback. And he’s a good player. He’s a good player. He’s a big guy. He’s fast. He’s a very good athlete, and that creates another gap for you to have to play, which is one of the reasons we wanted to play odd so that we could play not only their runs but his runs better. But we didn’t feel like we were playing coverage the way we needed and getting the rush that we needed. They gained 230 yards rushing last week. I don’t know what they gained today, but I know it wasn’t that much. So it was a pretty good job.”

Saban on Trey Amos filling in for Terrion Arnold…

“Trey played well, played really well. Made some really good plays, was very aggressive in coverage, had a couple pass breakups. On the sack fumble for a touchdown, if the guy would have thrown the ball – he double-clutched it – I think Trey Amos was going to intercept him. It was right in front of me. He double-clutched it and pulled it, and that’s when Bras knocked it out of his hand. So I thought he played really, really well. Terrion has a slight concussion. He didn’t clear protocol, so the thing that you do is you don’t play the guy, and that’s for safety reasons. Hopefully, in a few days, he’ll clear.”

Saban on Jalen Milroe running more in the second half…

“I thought Jalen played really well in the game, especially in the second half. We missed a couple reads in the first half on the runs, the quarterback runs, but he did a much better job in the second half. I think you’ve got to get a feel for how the guy’s playing you. It’s a little bit like if you are playing point guard and the guy’s slumping off, you shoot a three. If he’s guarding you close, you drive around him. But when you’re reading a defensive end on some of this stuff, I think you’ve got to get a feel for it, and I think once that happened in the game, he did a really good job and he made some really key runs. The one scramble for a first down was big. But the thing we emphasized with him against these guys, because they have really good edge rushers, you’ve got to step up in the pocket. On the touchdown pass to start the second half, edge pressure, stepped up in the pocket and threw the ball. Stepped up in the pocket on a couple of those runs. And that’s something that he used to do really well, so I thought he made some really key plays today.”

Saban on the offense’s adjustments in the second half…

“I really think, offensively, the shot that we took was a planned play, the touchdown to start the second half. I don’t think we ran different plays, a lot of different plays. I think we did a much job of executing those plays. We had a couple others that if we just finish blocks, it would have been even more productive. But I thought Jase McClellan really ran hard in the game. The guy’s been beat up a little bit, but he’s one of the toughest guys on our team and certainly a great competitor the way he competed out there tonight.”

Saban on Jihaad Campbell stepping up in place of Trezmen Marshall…

“Trezmen Marshall has like bruised ribs. I always ask the player, ‘You think you can play?’ And even though he was able to practice a little bit in a black jersey, which means nobody can hit you – so he can move around decent enough, but every time he’d bump somebody, it was a problem. Hopefully in two weeks, he’ll be OK. But he’s been a really good competitor for us, and those three guys have rotated. (Deontae Lawson) has missed games, (Marshall)’s missed games. (Jihaad Campbell) takes whoever’s missing, he takes their place because (Lawson) plays both spots and he plays Mike and Money. So Trezmen usually plays Mike, and he plays Will, but he played Mike tonight and (Campbell) played Will.”

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