What Nick Saban said on SEC Nation before Alabama-Tennessee

Alabama head coach Nick Saban joined the set of SEC Nation on Saturday morning before the Crimson Tide’s rivalry game matchup with the Tennessee Vols (2:30 p.m. CT on CBS). Below is a full transcript of everything Saban said on the pregame show on the UA campus.

Saban on what the team looks like ahead of the rivalry game…

“I think the most important thing is, in games like this, that you can channel your energy in the right direction, have the right sense of urgency, be able to maintain your intensity throughout the game and play smarter and don’t give the other team lots of opportunities, whether it’s mental errors, penalties, drive-stoppers. So this is going to be the key for us.”

Saban on how to nullify UT’s run game by putting more guys in the box, not showing it…

“I think when you’re spread out like they spread you out, it’s very hard to get run support if you play split safeties, and these guys run the ball so well this year that it makes it more difficult to do that. I do think you have to mix it up. I know you (Roman Harper) used to play a lot of buzz safety and come down in the box, so we could use you out there today.”

Saban on Alabama’s defensive front stopping the run…

“Both plays that you showed there were both zone blocking plays. In today’s game, they’ll do that some, but the biggest thing, I think, Tennessee does well is they create gap-blocking opportunities for themselves, whether they T Fold or run Counter OT, OY, whatever you want to call. And those gap plays and run fits when you’re spread out are really, really important that everybody’s in exactly in the right place, and their backs are really good. So if you squeeze it off, sometimes they bounce it out and you’re all spread out, so I think that’s the real challenge for us. But I think when you play an offense like this that’s really trying to control the tempo of the game, you’ve got to play well on offense so they don’t have the ball all the time. I think it takes a team effort to be able to be successful in a game like this.”

Saban on how to help the offensive line, Jalen Milroe vs. Tennessee’s pass rush…

“I think if we can run the ball effectively and throw more play-action passes and not always be in five- and six-man protection where we put the left tackle on an island – because if they get (James Pearce) over there on the left tackle and we don’t help the guy, it’s going to be a problem. So I think mixing it up and not always being in drop-back situations, not giving them those 3rd and Long situations where you have to be in that where they can tee off because their defense does do a really good job of mixing it up. They’ve got a good pressure package. They do a good job of running simulated pressures, so you’ve got somebody coming that’s not supposed to be coming. And they play a lot of zone with it, which confuses the quarterback sometimes. But they’re a good defensive team, so we’re going to have to execute well, and we will have to be able to protect the quarterback so he has an opportunity to operate.”

Saban on how he has brought this team along…

“I think that this team is young, whatever you want to call it, and it’s taken a different type of patience to be able to coach and develop and learn lessons and not let them get frustrated when things don’t go right. Even last week, to be able to maintain intensity in the game. Get ahead 24-6 in the game and kind of just lose focus, I mean, as a team and let the other team get back in the game. These are all lessons that this team is learning, and it’s been challenging but it’s been fun to be the teacher to try to help them grow through all that.”

Saban on continuing to teach to try to get better every week…

“That’s the objective, to try to get every guy on the team to put them in a position to be successful. When you have a young team, there’s more challenges involved in that.”

Saban on his challenge to the fan base…

“We absolutely need them. We need to make it hard for their offense in some kind of way because of the noise. Sometimes that affects the defense’s ability to communicate, but I think that not allowing them to get momentum by every opportunity we can create from the fans, from the players, from everybody in the organization will be helpful.”

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