What Alabama Said this Week about Georgia ahead of SEC Championship

With the SEC Championship game this Saturday, we are taking a look at the highlights of what Alabama said about Georgia in the last week. This will be Saban’s eighth time coaching against the Bulldogs in his tenure at Alabama, but this is just the second time that his team is going into the game as an underdog.

On Jordan Davis:

“I mean, I think the guy is one of the most dominant players in college football. Any defensive lineman, I guess you can look at a lot of things, but the number one thing is how hard are they to block? And he’s really hard to block. He’s got great size. He’s very powerful, but he’s got really good initial quickness, short area quickness, and can push the pocket and pass rush. He’s about as good a player as I’ve seen for a long time as an inside player on any college football team.”

On if last year’s 41-24 win over the Bulldogs plays any role in their upcoming matchup:

“No. I think that’s what’s happened in the past in games really doesn’t have a lot of impact on what happens in the future. I think that you’ve got to line up and play well in this game. What happened last year doesn’t matter. What happened the year before that doesn’t matter. You’ve got to play well in this game. So that’s the challenge that we all have.”

On the way that the Crimson Tide have had success on recovering from large deficits against the Dawgs:

“I also think you’ve got to have — the players have to have the right mindset to keep playing. Play the next play, try to win the next play. Everybody do that. Keep your poise. Make the adjustments that we need to make and just keep playing the next play and don’t look at the scoreboard and look at it like I’m going to play different when I’m 14 points behind and I’m going to play different when I’m 14 points ahead. Because really you should be trying to do the best you can in every one of those scenarios. So just keep playing the next play. That’s something that we really try to get our players to sort of have the mindset to — that’s how you compete in the game. Keep focusing on what you need to do to get the result and do it one play at a time.”

On what Georgia defenders he’s worried about (other than Davis):

“I think the fact that they’ve got like nine different players that have 4 1/2 tackles for a loss. One guy has 8 1/2. They’ve got five different players that have multiple sacks. There’s nine different players that have at least two sacks. So there’s a lot of issues. They’re well coached. They’ve got a good scheme. The players do a good job of executing it. They’ve got good linebackers. They’ve got good front people. They’re aggressive in the secondary.”

On Georgia’s pass defense:

“To me they’ve got some really good rushers up front. They do a great job of pressuring the quarterback. They’ve got really good scheme in terms of how they pressure the quarterback. They mix up the coverages in the back end quite a bit.

They’ve been very effective with the way they play pass defense all year long. So it’s going to be very challenging for us. It’s not just about throwing the ball. It’s about protecting, whether it’s man to man, zone, reading it, throwing the ball to the right guys. There’s a lot of things that go with that.

When we play the best, we have some kind of balance on offense, which really wasn’t the case last night. So it’s going to be important for us to be able to create that as well.”

Also, we were lucky enough to hear from a couple of Crimson Tide players, including starting quarterback Bryce Young and sack-leader Will Anderson.

Bryce Young

On Jordan Davis:

“He’s a really, really good player. He definitely made a big impact on a lot of games, and it shows on film. He’s a really good player, and overall it’s a really, really good unit. So we understand that. We all see what’s on film. So for us it’s about having the best week of preparation possible and us understanding the challenge ahead of us. It’s on us to prepare, to push ourselves, and to work to be the best us we can be for Saturday. So we’re all excited for the challenge.”

On his relationship with JT Daniels:

“I’ve known J.T. for a while. We’ve known their family for a while. That’s someone that I’m close with and wish nothing but the best for. You know, in a week like this, especially for what the game is and for what everything means, I’m on Alabama, and he’s on Georgia. So for us it’s not a huge amount of communication going on during the week because obviously we’re both focused on our teams and we’re both focused on our individual stuff. But, yes, I definitely know J.T., but as far as the week goes, I’m just locked in on us as a unit, us as a team, and then us preparing throughout the week to go out and play on Saturday.”

Will Anderson

On having to prepare for multiple Georgia left-tackles:

“You always want to go into the game prepared, so you always want to watch both opponents. You never know who’s playing, so it’s always good to compare. So watching both of them this week will be great because you never know who’s going to play. So just the preparation going into the week, and I think a smart move would be to watch both of them.”

On Alabama coming into this game as the underdog:

“I mean, we control only what we control. We try not to worry about external factors, what other people think about us because the only thing we have to think about is what’s going on in the locker room and how we can go out there and we can dominate and be the team that’s fast and dominate. We have to be on the same page to execute the game plans that coaches give to us.

I think that’s the only thing we’re worried about in this facility, and I think that’s what we’re going to be worried about as we head into the game.”

The last time that the Bulldogs were a favorite against the Crimson Tide, they were beaten 38-10 in Athens. They currently are a 6.5-point favorite entering Saturday’s game. Kickoff between Georgia and Alabama for the SEC Championship is set for 4:00 p.m. ET on CBS.