MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Countless hugs from players, his wife Kia and other Alabama staffers. Freshman wide receiver Jaylen Waddle even leaped onto his back and held on like a happy son who didn’t want his dad to leave for a work trip. The overall sentiment from the embraces? One more week.

Nick Saban, Alabama’s players, the program and the fans get offensive coordinator Mike Locksley for one more week before he assumes his position as the head coach of Maryland football.

Locksley has been at the helm of the most explosive offense in Alabama history, earning the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant.

He helped No. 1 Alabama to a 45-34 victory over No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl semifinal of the College Football Playoff. That sets up a date with No. 2 Clemson in the national championship. It’ll be the fourth consecutive year the two powerhouses have met in the Playoff, and the third time in four years that they’ve met for the national championship.

Before we get to that one, here’s Locksley recapping Alabama’s big win over Oklahoma and what it meant.

Question: What was the offensive game plan?

Mike Locksley: The three keys for us was No. 1, we had to establish a mentality of being physical. The second thing we had to do was be efficient on first and second down to control the tempo of the game to try to limit the possessions that they would have. The last one was control the control the controllables. We didn’t do a great job of that. There was one series where we had three penalties in a row, but I think ultimately what it came down to, is our offense was able to impose our will at the end of the game. We ran the football when we had to run it, and Tua (Tagovailoa) played his tail off in the second half and made some big time throws against a very opportunistic defense.

Q: Let’s start with Tua. When you’re a play caller, what’s it like when you have a guy playing that efficiently?

ML: We got a bunch of play-makers on that offense and Tua is the guy that distributes the ball. He’s been very good at just running the system and taking what the defense gives us. We all know he throws it accurately, and he made really good decisions for the most part. But the thing I’m proud of is, when we had to run the football, we ran the football.

Q: Josh Jacobs seemed to really set the tone in that area. What have you seen from him in the last couple of games?

ML: The one thing with Josh is his versatility. We call him the Swiss Army knife. You can use the guy for anything — catching the ball out of the backfield, blocking in protection, running the ball in short yardage, Wildcat quarterback. He’s a guy that has a lot of versatility, and he gives the defense a lot of different matchup issues.

Q: I saw you joking around with the players about ‘y’all have me for one more week.’ What’s it been like coaching this group this year?

ML: Going into the game, I told them that the one thing about this place is we all know that it’s a grind when you come to ‘Bama. Everything we do is very demanding, very physical, very hard. But our players learn to embrace that thing, man.

So, we asked the question before the game and said, ‘Hey, are you satisfied with where you are? Or do you want one more week of that grind?’

These guys came out, and we were able to create one more of us being a unit on the offensive side of the ball. One more week of Tuesday hard practice, Wednesday hard practice. The demanding of the execution. All the things that are tough and take a lot of effort, but we learn to embrace that thing, man.

They gave us a good four weeks of preparation for this game on the offensive side of the ball. They were able to go out and execute, but we still got some stuff to clean up.