Everything Nick Saban said about Tennessee ahead of the Third Saturday in October
By Keith Farner
Published:
Nick Saban covered a lot of ground about Tennessee ahead of Saturday’s matchup in Tuscaloosa, the Third Saturday in October.
Here’s a rundown of his comments from the regular Monday press conference:
Opening statement: This game we’re playing against Tennessee means a lot to a lot of people in the state Alabama, and I’m sure there too. It’s one of the best rivalries in college football. They have a really good team, they’re ranked 15th or whatever. So they have a really, really good team. Very explosive, you know, Josh Heupel has done an outstanding job there. They play with great tempo on offense, which is challenging for the defense, but their ability to run the ball and create balance has been pretty phenomenal this year. They run it for like 230, pass it for like 210 whatever. That kind of balance is something that always is difficult. Their defense is playing really, really good. They’re in the top 3 or 4 in the SEC, ranked nationally in negative plays, sacks, tackles for loss and those types of things. I think Joe Milton’s a really good quarterback. They’ve got 3 really good runners who have all been very productive. They’ve got good skill guys outside. So this is all around a really, really good team. So it’s important for us to have a great week of preparation and be able to maintain focus in practice, in meetings and be able to carry it forward in a game and sustain it in a game for 60 minutes, which is what it’s going to take in a game like this.
On Tennessee’s wide split on offense: They certainly make you defend 53 yards wide, and there’s 2 challenges. It affects run support in the box because the guys that are covering the receivers are so far away from the box, and also they run a lot of vertical routes from out there. So the people that are covering them get pretty isolated because they’re far away from whether it’s split safety or middle of the field safety. It is very challenging and the thing that I think that is going to be really important is not to give up big, explosive plays, which was a real issue for us a year ago.
On preparing for negative plays from the Tennessee defense: It’s very important, it’s been important all year. We have to do a really good job planning wise and we have to fundamentally play better. It’s a combination of both. Both those things are coaching and teaching things that we need to do better. Guys need to set better, hand placement’s gotta be better, footwork’s gotta be better. We’ve got to make sure whatever scheme it is we’re trying to use, that players are capable of doing it. Without putting themselves in bad position.
On Joe Milton: I don’t see Joe a whole lot different than what we played against in the past when (Hendon) Hooker was there. Guy can throw the ball, he’s accurate, he’s got a strong arm. Can make plays down the field, which they take a lot of vertical shots. He certainly has the capability of making those plays. But he’s also athletic enough to extend plays in the pocket, and run if necessary. So don’t tell them anything different than when you’re playing any other quarterback, you can’t get pushed by any other quarterback. Gotta keep the guy in front of you, gotta have disciplined pass rush lanes. Gotta try to make the guy throw the ball on time and hopefully we can cover them well enough to make it work on the back end.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
