Hey Coach and the Nick Saban Show: Iron Bowl Edition

The Alabama head coach joins Eli Gold and the Crimson Tide Sports Network to talk about the football program as they get set for the Iron Bowl against Auburn.

The Crimson Tide Sports Network hosts its weekly "Hey Coach Show" on Thursday nights during the fall, however due to the Thanksgiving Holiday they're doing the show on Wednesday. The program is hosted live at Baumhower's Victory Grille next to the University of Alabama campus.

This week's edition is the fifteenth  of the fall semester and Alabama football head coach Nick Saban was in attendance to talk about the Chattanooga win and preview the upcoming matchup against the Auburn Tigers.

The media guest this week is WVUA23's Sports Director and Tide100.9 FM radio host Gary Harris. 

Live updates here:

Segment 1 with Eli Gold, Gary Harris and Nick Saban. 

Gold: "So nice to see your whole family tonight coach, children, grandchildren, your wife."

Saban, "Yeah this is  a time to enjoy family, thanksgiving. everybody should have a lot of gratitude for the things that we have, the relationships and all the family that we have. Sometimes we think about the things we don't have or things we want, but this is the time to have thankfulness for the things that we have and the way God's blessed us."

Gold, "Did you drive the Ferrari?"

Saban, "Yeah, Cedric let me ride in his car today."

Gold, "Oh he owns it now?"

Saban, "Well, he drives it. He drove me over here."

Gold,"In the Ferrari?"

Saban, "Yeah, it's the Wednesday car. I didn't drive it last Wednesday because it was raining, but we drive it on Wednesdays if it's not raining."

Harris, "How do you balance your preparation with the holiday given that it's Auburn week?"

Saban, "Well, I think you can respect the time you have with us, it's important to choose, what do you choose to think about, what do you choose to pay attention to. So when you're actually in the football part of it, what's the plan? what do I have to do to execute and the plan? That's the process of what you have to do. And then what's your sense of purpose and why are we playing this game? Because you've created a great opportunity for ourselves. You want the players to focus on those things so they can stay focused on what's going to happen on the field. You've got all these things off the field whether it's Thanksgiving, whether it's family dinner, which is important stuff. And then there's all the noise on the internet, and all the scuttlebutt about whatever's happened in this game for however many years. But that doesn't really have any impact on the game, the focus on the plan, and the process and your sense of purpose and what you try to do. So it's all about what you choose to think about. Even though I'm going to enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow with our family and we'll have about 15 players over because of players that are far away the coaches have them over to their house. But that will be an enjoyable time and it's not really a time that we need to be thinking about the game. But there are a lot of times that we're going to be spending focusing on what we have to do to be ready to play. That's what we do in practice, that's what we do in meetings every day and it is a tough balance. Some people have a hard time. I think successful people and successful organizations have confidence in the process of what you have to do to be successful. I think that's why some people have long losing streaking and some people have long winning streaks and some businesses have a history of success and some of failure is having a process and having a confidence in it and staying focused on it and believe in it and trust in it and do it and that's what we've got to keep doing with our players. You don't want to get complacent you don't want to get selfish, those two things kill team chemistry more than anything. You want to try to peak at the right time and you want to be a dangerous team and you do that by practicing well and creating good habits."

PeeWee, " Happy Thanksgiving Coach, thank you for all you do."

Saban, "Thank you PeeWee, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too."

PeeWee, "How is the offensive line responding to playing better and better and are they focused?"

Saban, "I do agree that we're making  progress in the offensive line and we've played better and better as a unit and as a group. I think execution has gotten better, I think technique has gotten better the confidence they have in communication and playing together has gotten better. The whole offensive team has executed better and it starts with the offensive line but the quarterback's transformed into being a very positive player run or pass and leadership on the field, which I think has impacted everybody in a positive way as well. But I will say thins, this is a more challenging front than we've played against the last couple weeks. They've got some stout folks inside, they play a really good system on defense and they do a really, really good job executing it so this will be a real challenge for us. So it'll be interesting to see how the offensive line responds. But I do agree with you if you can control the tempo of the game on offense, especially on the road, and there's circumstances that can impact that, but I think when you can do that, I think it goes a long way in helping your team be successful."

Walker in Dallas, Tx., AL.Com BLog, "Alabama's tight ends seem to improve each week. Can you comment on how important they are to the offense?"

Saban, "I think I would agree with that statement very much in terms of, we basically have four guys that make a very significant contribution to that group, and they all have roles that they're capable of making significant impacts, but they all can do all the things they need to do at that position so they all have diversity as well. Like Amari NiBlack is a really good receiver, but he can block and we can run the ball when he's in the game. CJ's a really good blocker but he can, he's a good receiver too. Sam thing with Robbie Ouzts. This group, it's hard to run the ball if you can't have someone in what I call the C area which is the area outside the tackle who has some power and can get some movement on people. These guys have done a really good job with that all year, but they've made some explosive plays as well."

Segment 2 with Eli Gold, Gary Harris and Nick Saban

Gold and Harris begin the segment praising Jalen Milroe and his progression through the season while they wait for Saban to return to the table.

Gold, "Coach it's not just Milroe, the entire offensive line has made some big progressions as well?"

Saban, "Yeah, I think the entire group we've made progress at every position. The running backs have played well all year long, but their production has actually increased as we've improved in the offensive line. The protection's gotten better. The only sack we really had last week, we were really outnumbered, we should've thrown the ball hot, Jalen looked right at his hot and didn't turn the ball loose because he thought he could make a bigger play doing something else, and then we couldn't block them all. And so that really wasn't the line's fault it's really a schematic thing that you've just got to be able to execute, so it's a numbers game. So when you're in empty you've only got five guys to block so if they're bringing six you've got to get it out, but they're all playing blitz coverage too so you can make explosive plays sometimes. But I think everybody in the offensive team has developed trust in the system and the things that we're doing and the things to do to execute it. I think that's really helped us tremendous, the last few weeks we've been a really productive offense."

Harris, "The team that best has won the game in the Iron Bowl? Even at Jordan-Hare?"

Saban, "That's right. That's exactly how it's been. People talk about it all the time but I just, I don't see it. Because the games we haven't been successful in, we made the errors and didn't play well enough and they played really, really well. Even in the kick-six game that everybody talks about, I think we had the ball inside the 25-yard line five times and never scored a point, when we were ahead by seven points in the third and fourth quarter. Weather missed field goal, blocked field goal, penalty in the end zone after getting the ball on the seven-yard line, whatever it was. So that was ultimately what was the deciding factor in the game, but all those other things that happened before that that were missed executions, basically, and mental errors led to that circumstances having a chance to have significance. When you look at the whole game as a total and you analyze what you did, we didn't play very well. So the team that plays the best wins the game. That's what I've been trying to emphasize to our players. When you get stuff in your head, people who lose, think they're going to lose, people who win, think you're going to win. People who think weird stuff happens, weird stuff happens, and weird stuff doesn't really happen, you've got to focus on what happens on the field and if you focus and can stay focused on that. It's a tough place to play, it's a tough environment, but name a place that isn't hard to play? I mean, Tennessee's a hard place, LSU's hard to play, I mean it's hard to play at Texas A&M, it's hard to play everywhere you go. I said to the players 'can you tie your shoes in this noise?', 'well yeah, coach I could do that.' 'how come? because all you're thinking about is tying your shoes. Well just think about playing and what you've got to do on the field, not the noise and all this stuff', I mean, but when you start thinking about all that stuff and it gets in your head it leads to something real but it's not really at all that at all. It's how do you execute and play on the field, how do you adjust, how do you execute and do your job and preparation is a really big part of that. Especially against a team, like PeeWee mentioned earlier, they do a lot of crazy stuff on offense, they do a lot on offense, man they've got a lot of formations, they've got a lot of adjustments they've got unbalanced lines, a lot of quarterback runs, two quarterbacks that can run. There's a lot of challenges that go into preparing so that you can prepare in the game and you've got to be focused on that all week long."

Restaurant goer, "Coach, I admire your success in football, but as a young basketball player what kind of advice do you give me?"

Saban, "Well I think for any young athlete it's the same thing. What's your goal? What's your aspiration? What do you want to accomplish and what do you want to do? Second thing is define what it takes to do it? So what does it entail to be the kind of basketball player you want to be? Then you've got to make the decision, are you willing to do that? Are you willing to work every day and do the things you need to do and take 500 shots a day like Kobe Bryant so you can be the player you want to do and then do you have enough discipline to make yourself do it when you don't feel like it or not. How many times do you say I don't feel like studying, How many times do you say I don't feel like getting up today? You've got to choose to get up, you've got to choose to study, you've got to choose to work out, you've got to make the shots. People that can do that can reach their full potential. I think if you choose to make that kind of commitment to it you can do the same thing, but it's not going to just come to you, it's not going to come easy and you're probably going to have to overcome a lot of adversity to be able to persevere and sustain it to get where you want to go. Do you have a sense of purpose that will allow you to do that?"

Sam on AL.Com Blog, "Do you have to educate the players on the history of the Iron Bowl because many are young or from out of state?"

Saban, "I don't think you can be around here and not get it, you answered the question. So does it come more natural to a guy that grew up in Alabama and knows that everybody picks a side by the time they're three-years old, and they grow up with that passion, which I think is great, I think it's great for our state, it's great for this game, it makes it the great rivalry game that it is. I think most of the guys that we recruit understand that this is a big game, because this is a national game. Everybody recognizes the significance of the Iron Bowl wherever you go and then all you have to do is be exposed to this passion that people have on both sides and it doesn't take long to get it."

Joe on the phone,  "What are the kids favorite food that Miss Terry will serve?"

Saban, "Turkey, dressing, we usually have ham, mashed potatoes, lots of gravy, cream corn. I'm getting this rundown myself, because, but we usually have a really good Thanksgiving and we usually have a really big Thanksgiving because our family gets joined by, I think I already mentioned this, but like 15 players on the team. It's good for the players to see, for me to see them, not on the field being players or in a meeting being players and seeing them in another environment. That's why I like to have the players over, take them out on the boat, go tubing, whatever. I think it's good for them to see me and our family in a more natural setting and see that we have a dog and we're just like a lot of other people."

Gold, "It's got to be unusual to for the players to figure out how to kick back and relax with you."

Saban, "They figure it out, they're on me all the time. They were on me yesterday because its was a little bit cold, so I got on one of them because they had their tights on. So they were all betting that I had my tights on, I had to prove to them I didn't. They know how to get onto me, don't think they don't."

Segment 3 with Eli Gold, Gary Harris and Nick Saban

Harris, "How big a challenge is NIL and Transfer Portal when it comes to development?"

Saban, "Well, I think that they want to be developed. I think every player wants to be developed. I don't think players have the same patience in their developmental process than they once did. I think it was more the culture, like, back when I played freshmen weren't even eligible so it wasn't even a thought they would play. I heard Woody Hayes say one time when I was at Ohio State, 'for every sophomore we have starting we're going to lose one game' - sophomore that means they were there in their second year. The whole culture has changed. I think players are more developed and more ready than they used to be because the kinds of programs they come out of and how they develop at an early age, and people specialize earlier. Back in the day, everybody played football in football season, basketball in basketball season, baseball in baseball season, ran track in track season and they just played and competed and if they liked the sport maybe they got an opportunity and specialized in college. Now guys make that decision when they're in seventh or eighth grade and they're working out and they're trying to develop and you're getting in lots of cases a guy that's more mature and more ready to play physically than what they were in the old days. I think everybody wants to be developed, I just think we've created a system that you don't have to be patient. Not long ago, five years ago even, you had to develop in the program. So you had to work hard, you had to compete, you had to beat somebody out. That's probably a good thing to help you be successful in life. Perseverance is probably pretty high in terms of what it takes to be successful so that was a good thing in that way. Now with more freedom to be able to say well I might not play next year, so I can go over here and play next year or I can go over here and get a better deal or whatever. The emphasis isn't so much on developing at one place, but I don't need to have patience to be able to develop because I can go someplace else and play more quickly. which a lot of people and a lot of outside noise says, playing will help your development. Well in my opinion, you only create value for yourself if you play well when you play. That's what I tell players. Even freshman we're recruiting say, well I'd like to come play as a freshman. I say, well I want you to focus on developing and we'll give you every opportunity to play, but you're not really going to create any value for yourself, nor are you going to develop any confidence if you go out there and play before you're ready to play, Which means you know what to do, you know how to do it, you know why it's important to do it that way, you've got confidence in doing it so you're going to play well and you're going to create value for yourself. If you don't know those things, it can go the other way on you because you're not doing what you're supposed to do and you're not creating value for yourself. Somewhere in the middle probably is the right place to be where people have to make commitments and they have to see them through, I think that's probably a good thing to a point. But I also think that when guys are in a situation where they could play and they're not playing and they can go someplace else and play and that can be beneficial to them, I think it's a good thing that they have an opportunity to do that. So somewhere in between would probably be perfect."

Harris, "Any regulation and managing the portal as it's about to be portal season?"

Saban, "Yeah, none of that is probably a good thing. It is what it is and you have to manage it and do the best you can. I think we had 10 guys last year that didn't play in the bowl game last year, but the guys that decided to play, played pretty well. That's what you've got to stay focused on as a coach. My big thing is, every competitive venue that you could name for me has some rules and regulations that regulate competitive balance, whether you have salary cap in the NFL, whether you have rules relative if you have a losing record you get to draft faster and play an easier schedule next year. If you have a really good team you draft later and you play.a harder schedule next year. All those things are for competitive balance, that's why you have salary caps, that's why you have all these rules. Even though you have free agency and guys can leave and do all that, they have contracts. We have no contracts in college, we have no competitive balance, there is no salary cap. Whoever wants to raise the most money and pay the player the most they have the best opportunity to have the best team. You've gone through a transition of what you call development of people who are supposed to be going to college in my opinion to develop value for their future, to a culture of where can I make the most money while I'm going to college. So, everybody can have their opinion on whether that's good or bad, but my issue is some kind of way the players should benefit, but they should be able to benefit equally at whatever division one school that they go to. In other words, just because school a has a bigger collective and is willing to pay guys more money, that gives them a better opportunity than school over here that doesn't have those same resources. So you're not creating a competitive imbalance, so the haves are going to get further over here and the have nots are going to get further over here. But if you look at the NFL if you as what would be the perfect season for the NFL it would be for everybody to be 8-8 going in the last game and nobody knows who's getting in the playoffs. All 32 teams got a chance to get into the playoffs. More fans, more tv, more everything is better, everything is better if we have competitive balance. If you don't have competitive balance you don't have as many good games, you start to lose interest. People want to come and see the Tennessee game, the LSU game. People want to come and see this game this weekend when we play Auburn. That's good, that's a good thing for college football. We should have the same balance with all those teams in terms of how can you put your teams together and what restrictions and rules and guidelines do you have so that everybody's got the same thing? I'm not saying we shouldn't pay the players, I'm great with that. I like the quality of life that we've been able to create but it's got to be done with some kind of perimeter that promotes competitive balance."

Cory in Trussville, "What do you tell your players to not get out of control in a rivalry game?:

Saban, "That's one thing that we really try to teach players is that when you get emotional you make poor choices and decisions. Every oppoturtunity that we have to teach players that by their actions, we use that as learning opportunity and experience for them. You want players to have an emotional edge to be able to compete, but when you get emotional you make bad choices and decisions and you really don't have a brain. It's my opinion, that half the people that are incarcerated probably wouldn't be there if they didn't make some emotional decision. Normally they wouldn't do what they did. But they get emotional and make a bad choice and decision and then they're in trouble and they can't take it back. Same thing with a guy who gets pushed and he hits a guy back and he gets a 15-yard penalty. Well you never can get that back, but that was an emotional reaction, not something the guy would typically do. One of the things that we try to do with our players, and we have a few that violate this and it upsets me to no end is you don't talk to the other team. You don't talk to the other players in practice, you don't dog the other players in practice. That kind of creates an emotional situation between you and that player, which can lead to emotional outbreak, emotional decision, does something stupid, somebody knocks somebody down into somebody else's leg and get's a guy hurt. You want to play with emotion, but be under control in terms of your level on intensity and your ability to make good choices and decisions when you're competing. Those are some of the things that we try to do to minimize that but it still happens. The more arrogant you are, probably the more it happens. I hate to say that, I hate to say that about any player, I hate to say that about any player on our team. But the more arrogant you are, the more you think you're being disrespected when somebody says something to you and bad things happen, so."

Segment 4 with Eli Gold, Gary Harris and Nick Saban

Saban's final word comes early as he has to run for the night.

Nick Saban's Final Word Presented by Mercedes: "Yeah well I think the big thing that we're trying to do with our team and everyone's support is certainly appreciated in this, it's been great this year. Ya'll have had great patience with this team and this team's transformation has been pretty astonishing to get to this point and create this opportunity, but to pay attention to what you have to do to continue upward improvement to be a dangerous team. Your opponent doesn't really affect that. You affect it by what you do and what you control, and what you think and what I said before what do you choose to pay attention to. I think that's what our entire fanbase needs to do. I know this is a difficult place to play, but I also know when we get there on the bus and there's a bunch of fans there when we get off the bus there's a calming affect that goes with that when you're playing on the road. You know you've got some people there, you know you've got some family there, you know you've got some people that care about you and that's really important and it's going to be important for us in this game. Everybody's been fantastic all season long. We just want to keep this team developing and continuing to grow and peak at the right time. This is going to be a really challenging game for us and we're excited about having the opportunity and I'm excited about this team getting themselves to have an opportunity to do this. We're looking forward to a great game and we're looking forward to all your support and help and we're just going to go for it man, we've just got to go for it. And we've still got work to do, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there. We appreciate it. We appreciate you and we hope your family has a great holiday."

Former Alabama Guard Trevor Releford on The Joe Gaither Show