What Alabama Coach Nick Saban Said after the Tennessee Game

The Crimson Tide and Volunteers met for the 104th time in the Third Saturday in October rivalry, which always ends with one side lighting victory cigars.

Alabama and Tennessee will met for the 104th time on Saturday evening. 

Coming in, the Crimson Tide led the all-time series, 58-37-8 (57-38-7 NCAA), including a 10-4 (9-4 NCAA) mark at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was 16-1 for his career against UT, including a perfect 14-0 mark with the Crimson Tide. 

Alabama's winning streak includes the 35-13 victory the last time the two teams squared off in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 19, 2019. 

Here's what he had to say during the postgame press conference: 

Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban

Opening statement:

“Well, it’s a great victory for our team. It’s always great. It’s a great rivalry to me, to us, to a lot of people in the state of Alabama. I think our crowd was fantastic out there; they had an impact on the game, especially the student section.

“We did some things that we need to get fixed obviously. Lost a couple coverages on defense, fumbled the ball at the nine-yard line, got a punt blocked, roughed the punter on 4th and 30. Just some things that we shot ourselves in the foot with. I think those things really need to get corrected, or they’re going to cost us at some point.

“I told the players they have a bye week coming up. We have a real team we have to play in two weeks. We need to get some rest. We need to recover, but we also need to focus on what we need to do to finish the season and get some of these things corrected.

“Obviously, we want to focus, but I’m not going to be negative about the game, I’m not going to be negative about the team. [I’m] really positive about the way they went out there and kept competing in the game even though it wasn’t perfect. We made the plays we needed to make to win the game. I’m excited. I’m happy. I’m pleased. There are just some things we need to do better. I still think we shouldn’t need to be humiliated to go out there and play the way we’re capable of. We should be a team that works to beat wants to beat other teams because of who we are, what our DNA is, what our disposition is, what we want our identity to be, and we have to keep working on that.

“It was a great win for Alabama. It was a great win for the state, the people in the state, and all of our fans and supporters, and our players.”