WATCH: Nick Saban speaks after Iron Bowl victory over Auburn

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama (10-2, 6-2 SEC) secured its tenth victory of the 2022 season on Saturday after beating the Auburn Tigers 49-27 in the annual Iron Bowl. While there was over 300 yards allowed on defense, it was arguably the team’s best performance of the season.

Soon after the game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban addressed the media to talk about his team’s performance. Below, we’ve included everything the seven-time national championship-winning coach said during that availability.

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Opening statement…

“Before you ask, you oughta see the other guy. I took one of the hardest hits of the entire game, and unlike some of our players who had to go to the medical tent – like I always say, they don’t make them like they used to.

“But I was really proud of our team, this whole season actually. To win 10 games, to go through a rough patch when Bryce was hurt. Now he’s healthy again, which makes us a different kind of team, I think. It’s great to win in the Iron Bowl for our players. It’s great that they won 10 games. But I think one of the things that I’m most proud of is the fact that when everybody thought they were out of it – and there were a lot of naysayers out there – this team didn’t give up on themselves. They didn’t give up on each other. They kept fighting and won some tough games to finish the season. So I’m really proud of the fact that everybody hung in there, stayed together and continued to try to get better. We’ve had a lot of injuries, had a lot of guys miss some time, so that gave other people opportunities. But I’m really proud of the way that we finished. 

“I know I got asked about the playoffs out there, but unbeknownst to me, I didn’t know who won, who lost or anything else. It’s a great opportunity for our team to be considered. I think we lost two games on the road against two top-10 teams by four points. So we are a good football team, and hopefully, people will recognize that.”

On if he plans to campaign for Alabama to make the College Football Playoff…

“Look, if I think it’ll help our team, I’ll certainly do that. I haven’t really thought about it to this point. My whole focus was win this game. That’s the best opportunity we had for anything good to happen for us. To win the Iron Bowl is a significant accomplishment for our team and for our fans, which we certainly appreciate. And for this team to win 10 games. So I haven’t really thought about any of those things beyond that. I’m really proud of our players because I don’t think they were thinking about anything except that, as well.”

On Alabama being able to create explosive plays on offense…

“We did a lot of quality control before this game to break every tendency that we had. We did some different formations, different presentations that we did, different play-action passes, and it paid off for us. I think being able to run the ball a little bit effectively early kind of set up some of those things from a play-action standpoint. Bryce played really well. And I thought the receivers played well. A couple balls we maybe could have caught, and it was a tough interception down there at the end of the game – we could have iced the game right then. But all in all, I thought the offense did a really, really good job.”

On the legacies of Alabama stars Bryce Young, Will Anderson…

“I think those two guys not only been have been great players for the University of Alabama, they’ve been great leaders for our team, they’ve been great ambassadors for this university in the way they’ve represented themselves and they’ve set a marvelous example for any upcoming young person who plays sports to emulate them in terms of how they go about what they do, the class and character that they have. I couldn’t be prouder of two guys in terms of what they’ve contributed but also how they’ve represented our program and the university.”

On Young being able to overcome the shoulder injury this season…

“I’ll tell you what, it was really an example of his grit, his determination, his character and his commitment to the team because he wanted to play for the team, even those weeks that he couldn’t really throw much in practice. It might have hurt our development a little bit for the rest of our players on our team, but he still went out and played really, really well, prepared well. I’m sure he played with a little pain at times, which shows the kind of mental toughness that he has. But the guy’s a great competitor. He has great grit. And I can’t say enough about what he’s done for our team this year.”

On what went into keeping this Alabama team focused…

“To be honest with you, I think that a lot of the naysayers, a lot of the people that were very negative about this team, a lot of the things that were written and said about this team really united the players. They would say things like, ‘This is all we have, but it’s all we need, is the people in this room.’ And we have some great fans. We had great fans and a great stadium and a great atmosphere tonight, and we appreciate it. I appreciate that and I know our players do, as well. 

“But people who are negative and naysayers, if they support the University of Alabama, you are hurting the university, you’re hurting the program because it’s a reflection on our culture and how positive we are. And this program was built on positive. It was built on 95,000 people coming to the spring game when we came here, the first spring we were here and everybody wanted to be a part of that. It wasn’t built on naysayers, it wasn’t built on negative, it wasn’t built on expectations on if we don’t succeed at a certain level that there’s gonna be a lot of criticism. And I think that actually brought this team together more than anything else, and they wanted to persevere and prove what they could do.”

On Alabama’s run defense versus Auburn’s run game…

“I’ll tell you what, Auburn did a great job with the run game. They created some edges. Some of the plays they ran – when I was 10 years old, we ran the single-wing. You guys don’t even know what the single-wing is. But that was my first football (offense). I was the quarterback in the single-wing. But the quarterback doesn’t do anything in the single-wing except block. Some of the plays that they were running with the quarterback, I hadn’t seen them since Pop Warner (laughs). And they’re good plays, and they’re hard to defend. Their quarterback played an outstanding game from a run standpoint, and they executed.

“It’s like playing against Wildcat when the running back’s in the backfield and somebody’s gotta go cover the quarterback, except he’s a good enough quarterback to run. And then they created some Wildcat situations, as well. So they really attacked us on the edges and did a good job of cracking and blocking us on the edges. We practiced against some of that stuff. We didn’t execute it as well as we’d like at times, but they also created some advantages for themselves.”

On the recent momentum built by Alabama’s offense and how it translates moving forward…

“I think that what we did on offense tonight was really, really good. We always wanna improve, we always wanna do better and I think we wanna continue to feature the players that we have in a very positive way and try to get as many players involved as possible. But we’ve had really good production the last two games, and hopefully, we can continue to build on that.”

On Alabama being able to generate turnovers for the second straight game…

“I think that’s what sort of gave us a lead is the two turnovers. We capitalized on those two things, and the good field position on the onside kick really was three kind of opportunities were created with good field position. We were able to capitalize on those, and I think that was the difference in the game. When we got ahead a little bit, they kept running it and we didn’t tackle very well, which is another issue. On that last run, we must have had five guys miss a tackle, so that’s something that we’re gonna have to do a better job of, as well. But I thought the turnovers were huge. Turnovers are always big, and they were certainly big tonight, especially early in the game for us to get a lead.”

On how he feels about how the players, fans responded on Saturday…

“It’s great. That’s what you need to have a program. That’s what you need for people to see the culture and the support and the passion that people have to want to have a successful program. I think it’s huge. I think when people are negative and critical, it makes people have questions about the culture of the program. And the culture of the program here is just as good as it’s always been, and the players compete just as well as they always have. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the culture here. We lost two games by four points. Nobody feels worse about that than me and the players, who made a tremendous commitment to win those games in tough places on the road. Nothing else I can say about it.”