'I'm really proud of this bunch of guys': Nick Saban remains optimistic about Alabama's 2023 season

Alabama head coach Nick Saban kicked off South Florida game week by saying he would be shocked if his Crimson Tide players didn’t respond well after Saturday’s loss to Texas.

He reiterated that point Thursday night during his weekly radio show at Baumhower’s Victory Grille while providing an update on how the week of practice has gone for the players.

“We’ve all had to suffer through a lot of criticism and things that we didn’t do well,” Saban said. “And I will say one thing for our players – it means more to them to win or lose a game than to anybody else. And I think sometimes people lose sight of that.

“And we don’t want to waste the failure that we had in terms of the adversity that we have an opportunity to bounce back from. And I think sometimes adversity breaks it and sometimes it can make you great, and hopefully, our players are going to respond the right way.

“They have all week. I know they have a lot of pride in what they do. They have a lot of pride in their performance and they want to do things in a way that everybody can be proud of, and we certainly want to do it that way, too. They’ve worked hard this week, and I think we’ll respond the right way. And it’ll be interesting to see how our players respond.”

Alabama should get back in the win column Saturday when it travels to Tampa to take on South Florida in a game where it is favored by 30-plus points. But regardless of the opponent, the Tide typically bounces back after a loss. Since 2008, Alabama has suffered 22 losses, including 15 in the regular season, and after the last 14 losses, the Tide has a 13-1 record.

In matchups after a regular-season loss, Alabama has outscored the opposition 460-160 for an average of 32.9-11.4 points per game. The Crimson Tide has also registered a pair of shutouts in bounce-back games and has held the opposition to 10 points or less 10 times.

Alabama (1-1) has things to clean up after its first regular-season loss to a non-conference team since 2007, and Saban touched on several areas of emphasis for UA this week in practice.

“Everybody wants to beat us. You have to respect that,” Saban said. “And you have to be really well prepared for that every time you play and then pay specific attention to detail and do the little things right. That’s where we suffered and you get exposed when you’re not taking care of those kind of fundamental things. So we need to get better execution at some critical positions because they will distribute the ball and take advantage of some of the other players that we have to create more balance on offense. We need to do that.

“And we can’t give up explosive plays on defense. We can’t lose the turnover battle. They got two turnovers. We didn’t get any. So there’s a lot of things. We weren’t the most physical team. We didn’t win the fourth quarter. I mean, there’s a lot of things that come out of that game that are great lessons for us that if you’re going to be a dominant team and a dominant program, that can’t happen. You got to be the more physical team you got to win in the fourth quarter.”

Saban still believes the Crimson Tide can turn things around and have a successful year.

“I’m really proud of this bunch of guys,” Saban said. “I’m disappointed in the game just like everybody else is disappointed in the game, but these guys have worked hard. There’s a good chemistry on this team. I think we just got to get the right players in the right spots to do the right things to complement each other and we can have a really good season.

“All the goals that we have are still in front of us, so if we learn from our failings, we’re gonna have a chance to, I think, develop into a really good team. But our consistency and performance has got to be the thing that we develop and improve on week in and week out.”

Alabama will take on USF on Saturday, Sept. 16. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

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