Everything Nick Saban Said After the 55-0 Victory Over Utah State

The Crimson Tide opened the season with a shutout for the first time in 34 years while limiting the Aggies to 136 yards of total offense.

Christopher Walsh | Sep 4, 2022

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Alabama Crimson Tide

Junior quarterback Bryce Young had 295 yards of total offense and six touchdowns to lead the top-ranked University of Alabama football team past Utah State, 55-0, Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Young finished the night with a team-leading and career-high 100 yards rushing (five rushes) while throwing for an additional 195 yards on 18-of-28 passes with five touchdowns.

Running back Jahmyr Gibbs had 93 yards on nine carries in his Crimson Tide debut.

Juniors Traeshon Holden (five catches, 90 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Jermaine Burton (5 catches, 35 yards, 2 TDs) combined for 10 receptions, 125 yards and four touchdowns to lead the aerial attack.

Redshirt senior Jaylen Moody paced all Tide defenders with five tackles, including one for loss and one quarterback hurry.

In all, Alabama’s defense accounted for five tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries and a forced fumble on the way to the team’s first shutout in a season opener in 34 years.

Here's everything Nick Saban had to say afterward:

“So I was really pleased with the way the players approached this game. I thought we had good energy, I thought we had good intensity. We had good preparation throughout this week. They're sort of challenging with some of the things they do. I thought the first group did a really good job and we had a lot of intensity. And we’ve missed some things which we need to clean up, but for the most part I thought the first group did a really, really good job in this game. It was a good team win. I thought the offense played well, defense played well and, except for at the end when we got the punt block, the special teams were solid.

"But there are things that we need to improve on and get better at and players need to understand the importance of sustaining the kind of intensity they have, whether it's in preparation or practice, so that we can build and improve as a team. No disrespect to Utah State, they played hard they have a good team, but we’re going to play teams that are much more physical and aggressive and talented than what they are. So, we're going to have to do things correctly and it's going to be important the guys get to understand that.

"I told all the young players on the team that if they are going to get an opportunity to play, are you going to be able to take advantage of that? Are you prepared to go out there and take advantage of doing your job? Knowing what to do and go out there and get five or six penalties, wrong formations, holding calls. Defensively we made a lot of errors. They made some errors, too. It's good experience for them, but I think the biggest thing is the lesson that they learned in terms of how you have to prepare for a game so you can take advantage of an opportunity when it comes to you. But anyway, we played a lot of players. I wish we could have even played more but we're trying to get guys experience to make our team better. And that was the number one goal when we started subbing guys in later on in the game.”

On the running game and Bryce Young being the leading rusher:

“I look at how we ran the ball more as, OK, we had an explosive run, Jahmyr Gibbs. Bryce had an explosive run on a scramble, aight. But what was the down in and down out consistency in terms of how we were successful at gaining three, four, five yards a crack. That wasn’t what it needed to be. So that’s something that we need to improve on.”

On the cornerbacks rotation:

“What would lead you that I ever said anything that I wouldn’t do it? What leads you to believe that? I told you we had competition at corner. So what did I ever say to lead you to believe that they all wouldn’t play in the game?

"I’m curious, too, why you would think that you were surprised that they would all played in the game because I never said that they wouldn’t all play in the game. I said there’s a lot of competition at corner. I don’t know who our best corners are, so we played them all in the game to see who played the best. So I’m just curious to know why you would be surprised by that. I’m curious. You’re curious. I’m curious. We’re all curious.”

On Emil Ekiyor and offensive linemen rotating:

“Look, guys. You guys need to get off the depth chart a little bit, aight, and forget about who started and who didn’t. Emil missed five days of practice leading up to the game, and he only practiced two days. So we wanted to play him in the game, but he hadn’t practiced a lot, so we didn't want to play him too much, and it’s only fair to the other guy who started for the five days that he was out. Emil’s still the starting right guard. Now, if Emil didn’t miss five days of practice, I’m not sure it would have started a left guard because there’s competition at every position, which is a good thing.

“My biggest issue, and this may be the last time you ever get one, my biggest issue on our whole team was the day the depth chart came out. So you may have seen the last one, y’all may have seen the last one ... because that’s all you worry about. We have competition on our team. We have good players. I have, in my mind, seven or eight guys that can play winning football on the offensive line. I’m gonna play them all.

"I know y’all think I’m crazy, and that doesn’t bother me at all. It doesn’t bother me at all. It doesn't bother me one bit.”

On freshman wide receiver Kobe Prentice:

“Kobe’s done a really good job. He did a great job in the game. He’s practiced really well. He’s got an opportunity because JoJo (Earle) got hurt a couple, three weeks ago, and he took advantage of it. He’s a bright guy. He’s got really good speed. He’s got really good hands. He’s exactly what we look for to play in the slot, and he’s done a really, really good job.

"The freshman receivers got to play. Seventeen (Isaiah Bond), 19 (Kendrick Law), Kobe Prentice, those three guys. Twenty-four (Emmanuel Henderson) is playing receiver. All those guys, I think, can develop into being guys that can help us this year. Kobe’s the guy who got that opportunity because somebody got hurt, and he’s certainly taking advantage of it and played very well.”

On the distribution to different receivers and spreading the ball around:

“You don’t really plan to throw the ball to a certain guy. The quarterback reads the defense, and then he’s gonna throw one side or the other based on what the other team's doing. So you have no way to determine how many guys – it’s kind of like basketball, can you determine how who’s going to have the hot hand and who’s gonna score the most points? Different guys sometimes based on the way the other team plays. Well, the same thing happens at receiver, and I’m happy that everybody got opportunities. So from that standpoint, I’m very pleased and happy.

“But it’s not like Bryce says, ‘OK, I’m gonna throw the ball No. 11 this time. I’m gonna throw it to No. 3 the next time. I’m gonna throw it to No. 7 the next time. I’m gonna throw it to No. 80 the next time.’ He reads the defense and then he throws it to the guy based on what the defense does. So that’s how the ball gets distributed. And we like for everybody to have production. I think that’s a good thing, and it’s good for their growth and development and confidence.”

On quarterback Bryce Young's performance:

“Bryce did a really good job in the game. I think if you asked Bryce, he would tell you that he missed a couple things in terms of reading guys, where he might have his read. But I thought he played really, really well. He managed the game really, really well. I should have helped him out and called a timeout down there in the red zone because they were giving a lot of blitz pressures and we were trying to maybe change the protection or something to make sure we could pick up the blitz and the shot clock got down there. He didn’t wanna have a bad play. We got a timeout called one time and the next time, we didn’t. But anyway, I thought he played really, really well. He’s prepared well. His leadership has been phenomenal in terms of how he’s helped other players around him grow and develop. I can’t be more pleased with his performance.”

On running back Jase McClellan coming off a knee injury:

“I usually save my comments for the players until we watch the film, and we like to reinforce positive performance. I thought Jace did some really good things in the game. But we also make corrections when guys don’t do things exactly the right way. And to be honest with you, with all that’s going out there, I see guys make good plays, I see him make big plays, but sometimes I don’t see who’s making the errors, whether we’re blocking the wrong guys or playing wrong gaps on defense or whatever, which you see that very clearly in the film. So Jace played really well for us last year, and he’s certainly come back from his injury and done really, really well, and it’s good to see him get out there and be able to play again.”

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