Nick Saban expresses displeasure with Alabama’s preparation for Texas after ‘great’ practice
By Sydney Hunte
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Nick Saban has made several mentions of his desire for his Alabama teams to block out the media attention and simply focus on playing the game. His approach has largely worked, as evidenced by the run of success the Crimson Tide have had during his decorated tenure.
But that doesn’t mean there’s been periods of slippage, as was the case in Alabama’s last game against Texas. Not only did the Tide get whistled for their most penalties in the Saban era, but they needed a last-minute drive to eventually make a game-winning field goal and escape Austin with a 20-19 win.
“We had a great Monday practice for Texas, one of the best we’ve ever had. Then we get to be 20-point favorites and everybody picks up the paper and it’s just like we show up and win and things just kind of go downhill for the rest of the week,” Saban said on Thursday during his weekly radio show, according to 247 Sports’ Charlie Potter.
It’s those “rat poison” moments Saban is looking to avoid, especially as a Louisiana-Monroe team looking to be the latest Sun Belt team to spring an upset on an SEC opponent (a la Appalachian State over Texas A&M) enters Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.
“I do think we have a good bunch of guys on our team this year. We don’t have a lot of guys that don’t wanna do it right. They really work hard,” he added. “I just think the focus is what’s the challenge that I talk about all the time.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
