What Nick Saban said about Texas A&M ahead of Saturday’s game
By Jake Rill
Published:
Conference play is underway in the SEC, and that will bring some challenging matchups for schools against some of their closest rivals.
Texas A&M plays its first SEC game of the season on Saturday when it travels to Alabama, the No. 1 ranked team in the country. It’ll certainly be a tough start to conference play for the Aggies.
On Monday, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban had strong praise for Texas A&M, stating that he believes the No. 22 Aggies will be the best team they’ve faced so far this season.
“We’re playing a really good team this week in Texas A&M. Jimbo’s done a really good job there,” Saban said. “They’ve got really good players at a lot of positions on both sides of the ball and special teams. Obviously that was pretty much the indication when they played Clemson, probably had, arguably, a lot of opportunities to win the game and at the end, it didn’t really work out for them. They’re fifth in the country in total offense, quarterback [Kellen Mond] is playing really, really well, one of the leaders in our conference in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in passing the ball. They’ve got great balance. …
“Their defense has really played well so far, ranked in the top 20 in most categories in the country. The punter [Braden Mann] is really, really outstanding. This is a really good team that we’re playing, the best team that we’ve played so far, and it’s really going to be important that we do a good job in preparation all week and getting ready for a big game.”
Saban also praised Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher for implementing his system and getting the program off to a strong start under his leadership.
“Jimbo obviously has done a really good job of that,” Saban said. “They’re a completely different kind of team than they’ve been in the past.”
Watch Saban’s full press conference from Monday below:
Watch Coach Saban's Monday Press Conference Live presented by @CadenceBank https://t.co/SqH8JkC1Jf
— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) September 17, 2018
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
