University of Alabama coach Nick Saban on the No. 7 Crimson Tide’s next opponent, No. 21 Texas A&M on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ET, CBS).
“We’ve had a couple of great games with them since they’ve joined the SEC. This is one of the most prolific offensive teams in the country in terms of their scoring output, yards per game, passing. Their quarterback’s one of the national leaders in passing offense. Defensively, I think they’re very, very athletic, create a lot of negative plays. They sack the quarterback and sort of lots of negative plays created by their athleticism. They have a lot of starters back and a lot of experience. Very good, very sound team on special teams.
“This team is a real challenge. Their offense is one of the best passing offenses in the country. Certainly coached very well in the passing game. They still can run the football, but they make a lot of big plays in the passing game and we’re going to certainly have to be at our best to do a good job of trying to get them stopped.
“We’re also going to have to control the ball on offense so they don’t have it all the time. Those things are really critical in a game like this.”
On Kevin Sumlin, the trademarks of his offense and if it’s changed over the years:
“Well I think it’s changed a little bit, not systematically but relative to the players that they have, especially who plays quarterback. They’ve always been a spread out, like to be four open, four wideouts as much as they can, spread you out, make the defense declare itself, do the no-huddle thing to try to put themselves in the most advantageous play – pass, whatever, relative to the coverage. QB throws the ball to the right guy based on how the defense declares itself. Guy’s a phenomenal coach, has done a really, really good job wherever he’s been, and I think has done an outstanding job at Texas A&M since he’s been there. They’ve had a lot of success and they’re getting better and better and better as a whole team. They’ve lost two games to two really good teams that are – I don’t know, I don’t look at the rankings, but I’m assuming – both in the top five, at least, or maybe better than that.
On the matchup of Alabama’s secondary facing Texas A&M’s receivers:
“Well, you know, they have very good receivers. Obviously, this is what they do and they are very good at what they do. I’m talking about there are five guys who are very productive receivers. You know 84 (Malcome Kennedy) is probably the best receiver but they have all the other four guys who play a lot can all make plays, and have made plays, and made explosive plays.
“The big challenge for our guys, you have to have great eye control against these guys to read run-pass, that’s No. 1. They will run the ball. And they make it very, very difficult to put extra people in the box because they are going to throw it just about every time. So you have to stop the run with the people that are up there. And the rest of them have to do a great job keying the run-pass. And everybody has to have great discipline eye control and playing great coverage, whatever your responsibility is. Disguise is important. This is not a team that seems to get affected by pressure because they get the ball out so quick. You can’t really get to them. So the best way to try and get pressure is probably with the four guys you have rushing. That’s something … so it’s going to be a team defense thing. Can we affect the quarterback with the four guys rushing?”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
