University of Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t even wait to be asked a question before he started talking about facing No. 1 Mississippi State (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, CBS) during his press conference Monday.
Here’s some of what he had to say:
“Mississippi State has obviously, based on their body of work, proven they have one of the best teams overall in the country. If you look at the balance that they have on offense, they’re one of the leading offensive teams in the country. But the balance that they have, it’s almost equal in terms of rushing yards and passing yards.
“Those are the most difficult types of teams to defense. I think that it’s largely because of the quarterback. Dak Prescott is a very talented guy in a lot of ways. He’s a big, physical runner. He kind of reminds you of (Tim) Tebow in a lot of ways, but he’s also a very, very good passer. They have a big offensive line that has a lot of experience. Their skill guys, they’ve got a combination of big guys, fast guys, little guys, quick guys that all have been very productive. And they do a really good job of utilizing those players in whatever way they need to to feature what they can do best as players.
“Defensively, they’re one of the top teams in the country in terms of scoring defense. They’re very physical. They’re big up front. Create a lot of pressure. One of the best teams in terms of how they affect the quarterback, stop the run. I think this is where stats kind of get misleading. They’ve been ahead a lot of their games and the other teams have passed the ball on them a lot. That doesn’t mean that they have an issue in pass defense. It just means that they’ve really had to play against a lot of passes.
“This is a really, really well-coached, solid team that has a lot of good players. They’re a senior team. They have a lot of experience, and this is certainly going to be a challenge for us to bounce back and play our best football of the season against probably the best team we’ve played all year.”
On if fumbles are something that needs to be emphasized:
We’ve been emphasizing it all year, so I don’t know how you emphasize something that’s so important any more. So maybe we ought to de-emphasize it because we emphasized it like crazy. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe when you tell somebody something too much they start thinking it. Like if you say you’re soft. How many times do you emphasize you are soft and we want them to be tougher. You tell them they are soft before they start thinking they are soft. Does that make any sense?
(Reporter says “I am soft.”)
“We are doing the best we can in every way to try to emphasize the fundamental things we need to do so we have good ball security. But there have been (fumbles), especially at the end of games, which is critical. I think you also got to say we did a pretty good job of overcoming it in this particular game.”
On trying to stop Josh Robinson out of the backfield:
“He is physical. He is very, very physical, hard to tackle, built low to the grown, very powerful, strong, runs through a lot of tackles, breaks a lot of tackles, has good feet and quickness to make people miss. This guys has been a very good (running back) for them this entire season. He is a difficult guy to tackle. I still think you have to use leverage on him. You have to get more people to the ball so we don’t have to make single tackles on the guy. You have to do a good job of leveraging so we don’t have to make difficult tackles on the guy, which with the options in their offense with him not only running the ball, but the quarterback running the ball, it’s like the old single-wing. They have a lot of plays that are difficult keys for the defensive players, so you get the guys in the right place so they are in position to make tackles, which is important as anything.”
On home-field advantage this week:
“I think we all rather play at home, no matter who we are playing. We have a great atmosphere, probably one of the best venues in college football, and I do think crowd affects the game, noise affects the game. Maybe not as much with some of these no-huddle teams that use a lot of hand signals and are used to doing that. But I do think it does energizes your players, and gives them … When you are on the road like we were last week, where do you find your energy? You have to find it from within the whole game long. Halftime, you have to re-energize. You have to do it from within. You are not going to have a whole bunch of people there to support you. You are fighting again a lot of elements. Obviously, it’s how you play no matter where you play. It’s how we play in Bryant-Denny Stadium that will determine the outcome of this game. I think that kind of support in that kind of atmosphere is something that contributes to the energy of players and their ability to sustain in a game.”
On Prescott’s passing:
“I think he’s one of the best passing quarterbacks that we’ve played against all year. He’s probably one of the best in the country. It’s a difficult combination when you have a guy who is big, physical and has the ability to run the ball on quarterback runs, which creates another gap. It’s about responsibility. Another key, it limits what you can do defensively to try and make sure that you’re sound against him running the ball. Then he has the ability to really effectively, and efficiently, pass the football, down the field, short, and really take advantage of he vary thing that you do to try and stop him as a runner. These are the most difficult guys to try and play against when you ‘re taking about quarterbacks who have this type of ability, to be a dual-threat runner, with quarterback run plays, as well as scramble, as well has be a passer.”
On Mississippi State’s defense
“They’re very, very physical. They’re big, they’ve got two big inside linebackers, they’re very physical upfront. Very hard to block. They do a really good job with their pressure packages, how they affect the quarterback. This is probably the most physical front seven that we’ve probably played against this year in terms of size and ability to control blockers up front, you know that type of thing. We struggled a little bit to run the ball against them last year. So it’s going to be really important that we have balance in this game. We’ve got to be able to run the ball more effectively and efficiently no matter who we play so that we can create that balance, but this is a very challenging front seven this year.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
