Nick Saban and Alabama will face a couple of familiar players this week at Arkansas in QB KJ Jefferson, and Alabama transfer Drew Sanders.

Coming out of the Vanderbilt win, Saban said Alabama needs to show that it can build on the positive things it did last week.

Saban was asked about Sanders moving to inside linebacker and he said that was the likely plan for Sanders if he had stayed at Alabama.

“It’s good for him that he can play both positions and that he’s doing well,” Saban said.

About Jefferson, Saban said the quarterback is a “big, strong guy, hard to tackle, hard to sack, hard to get on the ground and can push the pile and run over people when he runs quarterback runs.” Saban added that Jefferson’s quarterback runs create another gap on defense.

“You can’t minimize the effectiveness of this guy as a passer,” Saban said. “He’s really, really good, he’s got a strong arm. Throws the deep ball well and they make a lot of explosive plays.”

That’s in part because the Razorbacks run the ball extremely well, Saban said, and they have great play-action passes, but Jefferson executes it well.