Nick Saban held a press conference after the University of Alabama opened bowl practices on Tuesday. Here’s some of what he said:

“It was really good to get the players back today and get back to practicing.

“Some congratulations are in order. We had 14 guys graduate Saturday, which was really great. We’ll have 22 guys in the bowl game who have their degrees. We have 16 other guys on the team that got recognized some kind of way for their performance this past year by making something, which was great to see our players get recognized in positive self-gratification for some of their efforts on the field.

“This is really kind of a new season for us, a new opportunity. Something the team can do and what does everybody want the legacy of this team to be. Everybody should have the right mind-set to commit to a lot of hard work and preparation and (do) what we need to do to get fundamentally back to get to where we need to be play the kind of techniques and play winning football at their position. In these kind of circumstnaces, it’s really important to eliminate clutter, distractions, to focus on what we need to do to play your best, be your best, do a good job in preparation for the game.

“What we want to try to accomplish this week is the first couple or three practices we had will be sort of like camp, fundamental type things to really
work on fundamentals and techniques, get the guys back in a little bit of shape. They worked out the week they were off last week, then they had a long weekend.

“We need to get everybody back in the kind of condition to sustain in the game. These first three days will pretty much that, then we’ll get a little more into the gameplan and preparation for the last four practices that we have before we take a little break for Christmas.”

Last week, how did Amari Cooper and the other players handle the awards?
“I’ve been really pleased with the way all of our players have handled themselves this year. We have a really good group of guys. Team chemistry has been an asset for this team. Everybody gets along well. A lot of high character guys who try to do the right things, try to do them the right way. I don’t think it was any different at all of the awards ceremonies.

“I think Amari did a fantastic job at the ESPN awards when he won the Biletnikoff and I also think he did a really good job at the Heisman in terms of how he represented himself and the program and his family. Really, really proud of him for the great season that he had, and being the kind of person that he is … To be honest with you, it was really, really refreshing at the Heisman to see all three finalists were fantastic people and represented themselves extremely well. Oregon’s quarterback was a really classy guy and Wisconsin’s running back was a really classy guy. A lot of good examples set by those guys for a lot of other people. That’s the way it should be.”

Will Muschamp said he talked to you on the phone before taking the defensive coordinator position at Auburn. Can you share some of that conversation?

“Will is my friend, so I don’t think I should tell you what my conversations are with my friends. He’s my friend. He worked for me for long time. He did a great job. So if we had a professional conversation about his future and what he’s going to do. I don’t know if that’s for everybody else to know. I really don’t. I don’t want to say it’s none of your business, but I just think it’s not for anybody to know. If you want to ask Will about what we talked about and he feels free to tell you then that’s fine, but I don’t, and if Terry asked me what you and Will talked about, I would say it’s none of her business either.”

How do you prepare for a quarterback who has played just one game?
“Well, you know, I think if the style of the quarterback is the same as the other guy it probably, like the guy who played all season was a lot like Braxton Miller. So there’s not a lot of difference. This guy is very, very capable. He’s a very good passer. Big strong, athletic guy who can do all the things the other guy could do in terms of the quarterback runs. It’s just a little different style. That’s all. We did see him play almost a game and a half. And he pretty much did what the other guy did. The one thing he did really well was pass the ball. He made some really good throws in the Wisconsin game, big plays down the field. Which the other guy did, too, so we have a tremendous amount of respect what this guy can do. We feel philosophically, they are going to run their offense. It’s just what part of it they might feature, a little different. That’s the part we are not sure about.”