Saban loves coaching this Alabama team, despite it 'taking years off my life'

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Nick Saban said it best after Alabama’s 34-20 win over Tennessee.

“Obviously, a pretty fun second half,” Saban said.

The Crimson Tide trailed the Volunteers, 20-7, at halftime after only mustering 133 yards of offense compared to 275. But the home team outscored its cross-divisional rival 27-0 over the final 30 minutes to get back into the win column after last year’s loss on the road.

Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC) used another strong second-half showing to secure its 60th win in the Third Saturday of October. Alabama dominated the third-quarter statistics, scoring on all four of its drives (two touchdowns and two field goals) while outgaining Tennessee, 171-47. The Tide also averaged 12.2 yards per play compared to just 3.9 for the Volunteers.

All season long, Saban has praised his team’s resiliency, and that continued on Saturday.

“I love it. It’s been great,” Saban said of coaching this team. “The challenges are great. I enjoy coaching this team. That’s not to say that they’re (not) 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. 

Entering the week, Saban said he wanted to see Alabama play with an edge. While it wasn’t an ideal start on Saturday, the Crimson Tide responded to Saban’s liking after the first half.

“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,” Saban said. “And I think the momentum of the game gave them the energy they needed to play the way they’re capable of playing.”

Saban improved to 21-2 when avenging a previous loss. The only two times the Crimson Tide has fallen in back-to-back games against the same opponent are LSU (2010-11) and Ole Miss (2014-15). The win marked the Tide’s 10th consecutive home victory over the Vols as Saban improved to 18-2 for his career against Tennessee and 15-1 at Alabama.

With the Vols’ uptempo offense, Saban called for fans to create momentum in the game, and he made sure to share his praise for the soldout crowd for affecting the visitors from Knoxville.

“I know how much it means to our fans – this game, the rivalry of this game, Tennessee,” Saban said. “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.”

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