Everything Nick Saban said on Monday of LSU game week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke to reporters Monday, the first day of LSU game week. Below is everything he said to begin the ninth game week of the season.

“I know that bye weeks at this time in the season can be very beneficial, and I think in a lot of ways to our team it was very beneficial. I think we got lots of guys that were banged up a little bit some rest and limited reps so that they could heal up, and of course, we won’t know how well that happens until we see how they respond this week. And we got a lot of good repetitions on future opponents as well as LSU in the bye week, so that should enhance our preparation for this game.

“As I told the players when they left Thursday after practice, I wanted them to enjoy their time off but I also wanted them to be focused and ready to go and all in when we get back because LSU is a really, really good team. They’re probably one of the best teams in the country right now. I know they are the best team in the country on offense. We’re going to need excellent attention to detail, focus and good technical preparation in the game so that everybody plays responsibility football, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams. 

“I think this has developed into sort of a rivalry game because they’re always ranked, we’re always ranked and it’s always a big game relative to what happens in our division. So it’s an important game for both teams. I think Brian Kelly has done a phenomenal job bringing this team along, the improvement that they made, the kind of team they had a year ago as well as an even better team that they have this year in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish and what they’ve been able to do. And I think it starts with their offense. 

“They’re the No. 1 offensive team in the country, and it starts with the quarterback, Jayden Daniels. I mean, this guy is a phenomenal player. He’s a dual-threat player. He’s a great passer. He makes lots of plays with his feet. He’s fast. Not only can scramble to run but can scramble to throw. They’ve got a really good running back in Logan Diggs. They’ve got a good tight end and Mason Taylor. (Malik) Nabers and Brian Thomas are really, really good receivers, but they have also other good skill guys to go with them. Their offensive line is big and physical, and they’re able to create great balance on offense. So it’s going to be very challenging for us to be able to play the kind of disciplined football that you need to be able to play and not make mistakes, tackle well in the game and be physical and try to win on the line scrimmage which is going to be challenging. 

“Defensively, they’ve got good players, a good front seven. They’re big, they’re physical and they play well together as a team. I think that sometimes they’ve had some struggles in the secondary, some guys injured and different things like that, but they also make a lot of big plays. They can rush, they affect the quarterback and they can cover so this is going to be a challenging game for us from that standpoint, too. And these guys have a lot of good athletes and a lot of really good team speed so that makes them really good on special teams. They have good specialists. So this is a really, really good team all the way around.”

Saban on Jayden Daniels compared to last year…

“Well, he killed us last year. The guy was a really, really good player last year. He’s a really, really good player now. I think overall they execute their offense to perfection, and it starts with him because he makes the right reads relative to runs and passes and zone-option plays and pass-down plays. He’s very good at reading coverages, makes really quick decisions. All those things were evident last year, I think, by the way he played, and I think he’s probably even better now because he has even more experience and knowledge in the offense. And they’ve got really good players around him.”

Saban on the emphasis on stopping quarterback draws…

“Actually, he made a couple plays on quarterback draws, but some of them weren’t designed quarterback draws. Two of his long runs in the game in critical situations came on busts up front in terms of gap control, and he just saw it and took off running. So it looked like a quarterback draw, but I don’t really think it was a designed quarterback draw. They do have designed quarterback draws. It was a zone option play that he scored on us in overtime, a 25-yard run. Another mistake that we made in run support, didn’t adjust to the motion. So those are the kinds of things that you cannot afford to make those kinds of mistakes when you’re playing against a quarterback like this, who basically is a great passer but also has triple option type plays in their running game to get him on the perimeter and so athletic. You got to have the right guys trying to get him on the ground.”

Saban on Kendrick Law…

“K-Law is really a great competitor, really tough, physical guy. He is a little different than some of our other receivers, so he does have a role to play and does a really good job of that. He’s a great special teams player. Really good team guy, hard worker. So I think we’ll try to always have roles for him to play in the game that benefit his skillset and complement the other guys that we’ve got.”

Saban on LSU running back Logan Diggs…

“This guy is a really good back. He’s big, strong, powerful— really powerful lower body. Breaks tackles. Good one-cut runner. Makes you miss. But this guy makes a tremendous amount of yards after contact, and he is physical.”

Saban on the balance between aggressiveness vs. discipline against mobile QBs…

“I think we want our guys to play aggressive. I don’t think you want guys getting pushed by the pocket. You don’t want guys to lose contain on the guy. So there’s a fine line between that. If you get pushed from the pocket, we’re playing with 10 guys now. If you lose contain and he gets outside, you put everybody in harm’s way that’s trying to sort of plaster their coverage and stay with the guys they gotta guard. Plus, he can take off run. So I guess there’s a fine line between that. We’ve never ever told guys to rush in their pass lanes, but be cautious. Never, ever even thought of that. We’re not coaching that.”

Saban on what he wants for his birthday…

“The game’s the most important thing. That would be an outstanding birthday present if we could play well in this game. So that’s what I’m focused on and that’s what we’re really trying to do. When your birthday and holidays come up during the football season, they’re really not holidays and they’re really not birthdays. You get older, but you don’t really celebrate much.”

Saban on defending the deep ball against LSU…

“I think there’s lots of challenges. You’ve got to read run-pass and they’ve got a good play-action plan. They’ll seven-man protect and throw vertical routes. They’ve probably made more explosive plays running and passing than any team we’ve played in recent times. You’ve got to guard them. You’ve got to keep them cut off, and you’ve got to be disciplined in your eye control so that you have the best opportunity to do that. Play zone, play man, play pattern match sometimes. Try to mix it up. And that’s the key to the drill. If you let guys get behind you, you don’t get people cut off, you’re probably going to give up big plays because they’ve got a good thrower and guys that can go up and get the ball.”

Saban on Kadyn Proctor…

“Kadyn Proctor’s getting better and I think he’s gaining experience and learning. What we want him to do is not worry so much about making a mistake that he’s not playing aggressively, and that’s what we’ve been working on with him. I think he’s getting better and he’s getting more confident, I thought he played fairly well. He had a play or two that I’m sure he’d tell you and I’d tell you and his coach would tell you, that we didn’t execute exactly correctly. But those plays are getting fewer and fewer and the good plays are getting greater and greater.”

Saban on why Alabama-LSU creates such good matchups… 

“Because they have really good players. They’re very competitive. They’ve always been well-coached. This game has always had significance in the consequence of your season. So the first thing you’ve got to do is win your division. And that’s what we’re really trying to focus on. And you’ve got to get yourself ready to take care of business against really, really good players to be able to do that. I think both of these teams have been ranked since 2007 or something, in the Top 20. I don’t know how many of the games we’ve played with them in the last 15 years or whatever that don’t have some consequence to what kind of season you have.”

Saban on the marker of a productive bye week…

“I think that you want your players – as I alluded to before – to enjoy their time off. But you also want them to be focused and ready to go when they come back. There’s a balance in all that. You can’t dissipate and go not eat right and (not) do the right things while you’re off. You can still enjoy yourself but you also can stay focused on what you need to do when you come back. I think that’s a combination and balance in all that. Balance in life is important in about everything that you do. So that kind of balance can create very positive results for you when you come back and you’re ready to go. If you didn’t think about your job, what your responsibility is, one minute for three days, you’re probably not going to benefit very much from the time you had off.”

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