Everything Nick Sheridan Said About Moving on From Tennessee Loss

A full video and transcript of Alabama offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan's Monday press conference.

Alabama Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan Reflects on Tennessee Loss / Alabama Football Press Conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama football offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan spoke to the media Monday afternoon about how the now-No. 15-ranked Crimson Tide is moving on from Saturday's 24-17 road loss to now-No. 7-ranked Tennessee.

Here's everything Sheridan had to say:

Full Transcript

Jalen Milroe’s play vs. Tennessee and what do you do for his confidence:

“None of us coached or played well enough and that starts with me. Our ability to execute consistently and take advantage of the opportunities we were presented, we obviously fell short in those spots. We’ve all involved in that. Jalen is an extremely confident player. I have no concerns about that at all. His preparation creates that confidence. He’ll get back to work this week, just like all of our players.”

Jalen Milroe walked up to both tackles to communicate checks. Was that expected, or were there communication issues?

“In that environment you don’t really have a choice on how you have to communicate relative to the proximity to the line. You have to make that call. I would say we had some communication problems, particularly early in the game. As the game went on our guys settled down and adjusted to the crowd, but that’s something moving forward we’ll have to be cleaner and better when we get back in those environments.”

Running game’s struggles Saturday?

“I want to give credit to our opponents, some of the things they did, but I thought there some execution issues by all parties whether it was decision-making, clean plays; whether it was simple fundamentals or technique. I thought there were some effective runs in the game, our guys did a nice job, we were hatted up correctly and the runners did a nice job of running hard and tough, but it wasn’t consistent enough, and that starts with me in our ability to put them in the best position to be successful and do things they can do well. There are lots of those things and we have to make sure we tighten those up and do better because this is a group that can run the ball effectively. We’ve got to make sure we improve in that area and give them a shot to show what they are capable of. We’ve looking at that first as a staff and then certainly identifying the things we need to improve on because I think that’s an area when we can do a lot better than what we’ve done and I know we have the players to do it, I know we have the scheme to do it, I know we have the staff to do it, so that certainly will be a point of emphasis for us this week.”

Defense got three turnovers and didn’t take advantage.

“Just that. Just to take advantage of those opportunities. Credit our defense for doing that. Disappointing. In the games when we’ve played the best collectively as a team we’ve done that, when the defense has created turnovers we’ve been able to score off those. Unfortunately for us this past week we didn’t do that. It was disappointing because I certainly felt there were opportunities to capitalize off those and we didn’t do it. It goes back to execution, the call you make, and what you could have done different. Certainly that was factor in the game and it was disappointing we couldn’t capitalize.”

On RB inconsistency affecting red zone, short field playcalling

“You’re always trying to make decisions that will help your team win and that’s a moving target as the game is progressing. I think some of the things that occurred in the game on Saturday, particularly early in the game as we were getting behind the chains in second-and-long situations or third-and-long, you know, we were in a lot of those in the game. That makes it harder to be committed to running the ball when you’re in second-and-long situations.

So you’re just always trying to identify what’s going on in the game? How are our players seeing it? What is the opponent trying to do and how can we best attack them based on what situation occurs? But certainly controlling the line of scrimmage and running the football, particularly when you’re on the road is important, and like I said, we have the players to do it. We have the staff to do it. We have the scheme to do it. And so that’ll certainly be an emphasis moving forward.”

On Sheridan’s message to Jalen Milroe and the weight of being a leader

“I think Jalen’s made some incredible plays for us this year. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it and certainly some of the success we’ve had offensively he’s been at the forefront of it. So he knows that and certainly when you come up short there’s always plays that you would like back. There’s always moments — coaches and players. And that’s not just the quarterback, that’s everybody and so that’s part of competition. We know we can play better. We have to play better. We have to coach better and so I think everybody that competes at a high level understands what that looks like and how to respond and how to get up off the mat and get back to work and get prepared and ready to go play in the next game. And that’s no different for coaches, players, everybody. When you fall short, you don’t do as well as you like and as what you expect to and what the standard is you gotta get up off the ground and keep swinging, keep working and have confidence in what you’ve done.

That’s the biggest message to the guys is we have seen it. It’s not like this is something that you’re chasing that you haven’t done or shown. And so that’s the message not just to Jalen but to the rest of the group is to get back to playing the type of football we know we’re capable of playing and that’s our task this week.”

On Kane Wommack’s familiarity with Corey Batoon

“Certainly any type of crossover experiences or relationships that you have amongst staff you always have questions. I would say what great coaches and Coach Batoon is the same is you try to adjust what you do based on the personnel that you have. And so there’s always core fundamentals and principles that both Kane and Coach Batoon share but each group is a little bit different, each year is a little bit different, and I think the way that they play, I think the effort, the toughness, the physicality, the disruption of the football, I think those are the things that you see aside from maybe some similarities schematically because I think great coaches like the ones we’re going against this week, they just adjust to who they have and what their players do best. And so year to year that may look different. But I think the style of play and how they play, those are things that show up with Coach Wommack and Coach Batoon.”

On using older receivers like Kobe Prentice and Kendrick Law vs. older secondaries:

"We’re always looking at utilizing all of the personnel that we have and how we can best put our players in a position to be successful. That’s for every position. Who can give us the best chance of winning, practices the best. I think both those guys are really talented players. I know they’re gonna have big moments for us here down the stretch. I think, not just those two in particular, but all the guys, we need everybody to continue to progress, continue to learn, continue to grow so that we can utilize them all here down the stretch."

On the weird basketball thing:

"Yeah, you’re talking about the quarterback sneak? Yeah, there’s nothing on the field that we’re not coaching, so that’s sort of how I’d answer that."

On what opposing defenses have done to limit Jalen Milroe as a runner:

"I think there were some effective runs. There’s obviously some read elements of some of those runs where we want to make sure we’re making the right reads all the time. I think the negative-yardage plays and going backwards, that’s really what’s hurt us as far as the production standpoint. And some of that has been in the pass game, so just eliminating those, I think, will help us.

Obviously just stay ahead of the change, get more at-bats, as far as just opportunities for that. You’re trying to find new ways and creative ways for all your players. Obviously you get this far in the season, there’s certain things that you have tendencies on, certain schemes or sets that you’ve run plays at before, and you’re trying to counter that with other types of schemes. Yeah, I think we gotta eliminate the negative plays. That would be the biggest thing that I would say, is we have negative-yardage plays, it’s hard for anybody to overcome that. That certainly skews some of the stats that way. That's what we'll be focusing on."