What Nick Saban Said on Wednesday of Ole Miss Week

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

Austin Hannon | Sep 20, 2023

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Alabama Crimson Tide

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Nick Saban met with reporters on Wednesday evening ahead of the Crimson Tide's matchup against No. 15 Ole Miss on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Here's a full transcript of the media availability:

Opening Statement

"I think this is one of those games that you really look forward to as a competitor. It’s an opportunity to play in our stadium against a really good team. The players look forward to that. It’s great for our fans, it’s great for our players, the environment they get the opportunity to play in."

"But I think, internally, we want players to be working to get the kind of mental intensity, that you need to practice with a sense of urgency, so that you’re developing the right habits so you can do your job on a consistent basis. If you evaluate our team, to this point in the games, when we do things correctly, we’re pretty good. But when we don’t do things correctly — and it only takes on person, on offense, defense, special teams to not do their job correctly — without the focus or intensity that you need to execute, then we’re not so good. That’s the key to the drill to me."

"Can we, on a consistent basis, have the kind of focus and mental intensity — can we develop the habits that will carry over in the game to help us play with more consistency? That’s what we’re really focusing on this week and hopefully we’re making some progress."

Injury update on Jaheim Oatis and Tyler Booker?

"Tyler Booker is practicing. So is Jaheim Oatis. They haven’t had issues. That doesn’t mean they still aren’t day-to-day, in terms of coming back and getting over injuries. But they are practicing."

How has Jalen Milroe’s practice been going?

"It’s going good. His energy has been good. His attitude has been great. I think the execution on the field has been good. So it’s been good."

Wes Neighbors?

"He was on staff here and I always knew that he’d be a really good coach. He’s developed into a nice coach. Those guys play really well. His guys play really well. They play hard. You know, Pete [Golding] does a good job with the defense. They’ve got a good scheme. I think they’re playing a lot better on defense because of it. They play with a lot of inspiration and they do a good job of executing the scheme and I’m sure Wes has a lot to do with that."

Freshmen appearances?

"I think last year we had two out of three games where we had an opportunity to play a lot of players. This year we’ve only had one opportunity to do that. I do think that we have two freshmen starting. I don’t know how that compares to how many guys we had in the past. I don’t know what the significance of that is. If we don’t have to play freshmen before they’re ready to play I think that’s probably a good thing for our team. But I also like to see the growth of the young players as freshmen so that when they do get an opportunity to play they’ll be able to take advantage of it."

Jam Miller and Justice Haynes playing time?

"Well I hope so. I think Jase and Roydell have played very, very well — both guys. We also have confidence in Jam and Justice and I think both of those guys will contribute at some point in time in the season pretty significantly because they’re both really good players and I think they’re both ready to play."

Backup QB?

"Right now Ty Simpson has been getting most of the work with the twos and I thought he did a good job when he went in the game. He’s kind of earned the right to be in that position. I’m sure that he’ll continue to compete and try to get better and that’ll be good for us in the long-term and we want to develop every player that we have in that position and continue to work with all those guys so they all get reps and have a chance to improve."

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