What Nick Saban Said on Wednesday of Arkansas Week

A full transcript of everything Saban said to the media on Wednesday evening.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Nick Saban met with reporters on Wednesday evening ahead of the Crimson Tide's matchup against Arkansas on Saturday afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Here's a full transcript of the media availability:

Opening Statement

"OK, y’all ready for a lecture? Let’s talk about the importance of nothing. You get up every day, you’re entitled to … nothing. Nobody owes you … nothing. You could have talent, but if you don’t have discipline, if you don’t execute, you don’t focus, you get … nothing. If you’re complacent, and not paying attention to detail, what does that get you? Nothing. Nothing is acceptable but your best. We need to be — everything is determined by what you do and you trying to be your best, so that you can build on positive performance. That’s the only thing. There should be nothing else but that, for everybody. That’s what we have to stay focused on. It’s what we need to do. We got rained out today, so we had to go inside. We need to not accept anything but our best in terms of what we’re doing for preparation."

Eclipse during the game, do you prepare the team for that distraction?

"I think you have to prepare your team for every distraction. I actually think we should — the best way to do that would be to text it to them, so they can read it on their phones. Sometimes they don’t listen, but if you text it to them, they’ll read it. That might be a new technique that we try. We’ll text them what they’re supposed to do on the field, they’ll probably get it then."

Arkansas linebacker Jaheim Thomas?

"Look, their whole front seven is very aggressive, very physical. They play well together. They execute their scheme really well. We’ll have to do a great job up front. That’s going to be the challenge. This guy is a really good tackler, very productive, very instinctive, good athlete, physical, tough guy. He’s one of the better linebackers we play against."

Tim Keenan III?

"The one thing it’s allowed us to do all year is Jaheim played nose last year, aight, so his emergence as a good inside player, a good nose lets us play Jaheim at five-technique, and then the two of them play inside when we go to four down guys. So it’s given us a lot of diversity in how we can use other players. But he’s played really, really well, been very productive. Smart, very dependable. You can always count on him to do his job. He works hard. He gives great effort. He’s kind of made himself a player here. He’s worked his way up so that he’s a very, very productive player. He could have done what saw the guys do and say, ‘Well, I’m not going to play that much, so I’m not going to work that hard.’ But this guy worked hard for every minute since he’s been here to get where he's at, and it’s paying off for him."

How the left tackle rotation has benefitted Kadyn Proctor, Elijah Pritchett?

"I can’t answer that, to be honest with you. And I’m not trying to be facetious or anything. I think both guys have shown promise when they’ve played, and both guys have sort of had a few hiccups when they’ve played. But I think both guys have played well enough that there should be some consideration for them both playing at some position or splitting time at one position, however you want to look at it. But they’re both young players, so their adaptability to multiple things is probably something that will be a little bit of a work in progress."

Feelings on the "Tush Push?"

"We've tried to make a lot of rules in the last few years that are intended to enhance player safety. And I don't think that's necessarily a play when people are running into the pile and aggressively pushing the pile forward, that is enhancing player safety. From a competitive standpoint, everybody can do it, so it really doesn't matter. It's not a competitive advantage or disadvantage one way or the other. But I do think there may be a conversation about how it can impact player safety in terms of doing that kind of aggressive pushing [of] the pile."

Malachi Moore's injury effect?

"We've got to put guys in a position to try and train them and get them reps. But what is really beneficial to players is when they can play a position and they have cumulative reps. Not just reps for that particular game, because a lot of things that happen have some carryover, like the games before, [or] fall camp, spring practice, so you have this baseline of knowledge that's very helpful to you making good choices and decisions, and anticipating adjustments and how to lineup up, and what to do, and responsibility and confidence and all those things. That's hard to build in a week, but we want to try to get guys the most reps possible so we can enhance their development the best we can in the short period we have. But I think in the secondary especially, there are usually only a few guys who can play multiple positions that have a big-picture understanding. Most of the time, guys will play better in the secondary when they feel comfortable and confident playing one position, and they get the cumulative effect of a lot of repetition."

See Also:

Nick Saban Evaluates the Battle at Left Tackle Between Kadyn Proctor and Elijah Pritchett