Nick Saban Breaks Down Team Growth, Importance of Power 5 Regular-Season Games
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The importance of this weekend's game against Texas has not been lost on Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
Speaking on his weekly radio show Hey Coach! on Thursday evening, Saban spoke on how the improvements that a team makes from week to week is a sign of growth and maturity among its players.
After discussing the process of what his players do on Sundays during the '24-hour rule' like undergoing optional workouts, Saban then discussed how what his team accomplishes from Week 1 to Week 2 will be a telltale sign of its growth.
Saban then began to compare that growth to this weekend's game at Texas.
"The measure of a team's growth is how can you maintain the momentum from Week 1 to Week 2 in terms of doing the things that you need to do to improve," Saban said. "It's most difficult here because everybody has heard that we're 20-point favorites in this game and the last time we were 20-point favorites and went to Texas we got our ass kicked. It's hard because you gotta stay focused on what you need to do to improve and get better, and what you did last week is not going to help what you did this week.
"And every team we play, if they beat us? That's like their resurrection game. I mean, that resurrects their whole program, and players have to understand that and they have to understand the mental energy and intensity and ability to stay focused whether it's in practice and preparation in getting ready for a game so that you can go play the best. That's what creates value for you and that's what you should really be focused on."
This year's game at Texas marks the first time that the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide have faced each other in the regular season since Oct. 28, 1922 — a game that saw Texas prevail 19-10 in Austin. All-time, the Longhorns boast a 7-1-1 record against Alabama, with the Crimson Tide's only win being the two team's most recent matchup: a 37-21 win in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.
Alabama under Saban has traditionally scheduled a big game against a Power 5 opponent to open the season, with the vast majority of the games taking place in Week 1 at neutral sites. While last weekend's season opener against Utah State in Bryant-Denny Stadium shifted the Crimson Tide's season opener from its usual pomp and hype, the game at Texas has the same feel and anticipation despite each team having a win under its belt.
Next season, the Longhorns will travel to play the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa for the first time since the two teams' first meeting on Nov. 18, 1902 — a 10-0 win in favor of Texas.
For Saban, scheduling big regular-season games against Power 5 opponents — particularly early in the season — not only help teams' playoff chances but also elevate the game as a whole.
"I think playing in our league, there's a lot of great, traditional rivalries in our league," Saban said. "But I also think playing national games gives you national exposure as a program and as a team and I've oftentimes said that I think we should play all Power 5 schools, which would enhance that whole situation. But scheduling is affected by people having opportunities to get bowl-eligible, so you only have a small group of people who are willing to play a more difficult schedule because they want to win six games so they can be bowl-eligible. I think we should do it like basketball where you get a rating on who you beat and the kind of teams that you play and a tough schedule and all that — however they do that. So you might go 5-7 and still be able to go to a bowl game over a team that went 7-5 if you had more quality wins.
"That's not gonna happen anytime soon, but I do think I agree with you that traditional games like this — and I think that the playoffs have added some of that — some of these games that you play in the beginning of the season that we played for many, many years have added to that. And I think it's important on a national basis to play these kind of games from a program standpoint and from an exposure standpoint."
Alabama and Texas are slated for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff on Saturday (FOX).
