Everything Nick Saban Said After No. 1 Alabama Defeated No. 12 Ole Miss

Nick Saban is 18-2 (.895) all-time in Southeastern Conference home openers after the Rebels took a 42-21 loss at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Nick Saban's birthday month has always been a good one for the head coach. 

Saban, who will turn 70 on the 31st, came into the Ole Miss game with just two losses, both on the road, during the month of October since he arrived at Alabama in 2007.

Overall, he improved to 50-2 (.961), including 28-0 at home and 22-2 on the road. 

His first loss came in 2010 at South Carolina with the only other loss being a 2014 setback at Ole Miss. 

For his career, Saban is 79-17 (.823) including a 3-1 mark at Toledo, a 12-8 record at Michigan State and a 12-6 stretch at LSU prior to Alabama.

Alabama is the only unbeaten FBS team in the month of October since the start of 2017 at 15-0. UA has won 26 straight October games overall. 

Here's everything he said: 

“I was really pleased with our win today. I think our players did an outstanding job, especially in the first half of dictating the tempo of the game. They played really well, had some key fourth down stops, moved the ball well on offense. We made some fourth downs, which made a big difference, but I thought we really, really played well. We knew that we were going to need to run the ball in this game, which was part of the plan. B-Rob [Brian Robinson Jr.] did an outstanding job. Bryce [Young] did a good job of getting us in the right plays. 

“If there was a negative in the game, it would be that we’ve got to learn how to finish games. We didn’t finish the game like we like, you know, not making fourth down, letting them score, mis-executes and some things throughout the game. But it’s a great win. They have a good team. They have a lot of good players and they are very-well coached. Lane does a really good job with them, and their players play hard and it was a physical game. I’m really proud of the way our guys competed in the game. 

"I hope that we can build on this, the guys can build on the things that they do well and understand on the things that they need to improve on what they did poorly, so we can continue to make progress as a team.”

On his message to defense beforehand: 

“They do a lot of really difficult things to defend with their motions and screens and bubble passes and a lot of different things that they do. And the quarterback is really good. I think we affected the quarterback in the first half with the pass rush, which was probably really important. We didn’t give up a lot of explosive plays until late in the game, we gave up a couple. So we played the whole game in the same personnel group, so we didn’t get in all the substitution stuff that was a problem for us last year. The players did a good job of executing it, and most of the pressures that we did do were push-the-pocket-in-the-middle kind of simulated-type things to play zone because a lot of the stuff that they do is tough to play man-to-man against.”

On the Ole Miss fourth-down plays:

“I think they’d gone for something like 12 or 14 fourth downs up to this points, and we really sold our players on the fact that when it’s third down-and-7, it’s really third-and-a-half and they’re gonna go for it on fourth down with any kind of field position at all. So you’ve gotta have the mindset that you’re gonna play two third downs. And we did a lot of the same things on the fourth downs that we did on third downs, and the players did a good job of executing it. It worked out well for us. Not that we didn’t do anything different. I think the whole game plan was a little bit different in terms of our approach, not to try to play as much situational football because of the way they play on third down.”

On the defense's success especially early:

“I thought they played really well, especially in the first half. I mean, they had 100 yards or something. Now, we kept the ball a lot on offense, which was part of the plan, too, and got some critical fourth-down stops. And probably in the second half, didn’t play quite as well, maybe needed to make some more adjustments or something. But we also mis-executed some things that allowed them to make plays. And you give them opportunities they’re gonna make some plays. They’ve got that kind of team, that kind of offense. But other than the way we finished the game, I thought the defense played extremely well.”

Was methodical approach on offense is the personality of this team, or just the personality of the day: 

“No, it’s not really the personality of this offense. I just think it was a combination of we wanted to keep the ball away from them, and the way their defensive structure is with a 32 defense with six defensive backs, it’s hard to throw when they’re dropping eight guys all the time. And they’ve got two pretty good rushers, so they end up getting some decent pressure with a three-man rush, even though Bryce [Young] did a good job a couple times moving in the pocket and making plays. So it was a combination of this is how they line up as well as this is the type of game that needs to be. It’s not really how we wanna play, it’s not how we’ve played all year and it’s not going to be the style that we wanna continue to play with. We have to do the things we have to do to try to win the game, and playing the way we played today on offense was the way we needed to play to win the game.”

On Drew Sanders:

“He’s really doing a good job. He continues to play the run really well. He’s a good pass rusher. The pass-drop stuff is something that we’re continuing to work on with him with, and he’s getting better and better at that. To play him and Will at outside ‘backer allows us to do a lot of different things. We’re getting a little thin at outside ‘backer, relative to injuries, so we’ll see if we can continue to do that.”

On running back Jase McClellan’s status:

“Jase has a knee injury. The initial report on it is not good, but until we do an MRI, we don’t know for sure. But I think he’s probably gonna be out for a while.”

On Brian Robinson Jr.’s performance:

“We gave him the ball 32 times because it was part of the plan. Jase got hurt or we would have played Jase more in the game. I’ve always been one of those guys when a runner is running hot, run him, and he was running hot today. So we ran him and he delivered. For the most part, he did a really, really good job. Not only the offensive line did a good job of blocking up front but he pressed it and made the right cuts and then he was difficult to tackle and got a lot of extra yards after first contact.”

On the Bryant-Denny crowd:

“I think it was a huge factor. It makes it difficult for them to communicate. They also got a couple false-start penalties that I think were contributed by the noise, which makes more positive down and distance for the defense and you can play a little bit different. So I thought it was great crowd today. They’re part of the team, and they certainly deserve credit for part of the win. They did their part, and I’m really pleased and happy about that.”