Nick Saban Outlines the Potential Downsides to a Bye Week
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — When it comes to bye weeks in college football this is often an assumption that only good things can come a team's way. On Thursday night during his appearance on Hey Coach!, Alabama head coach Nick Saban outlined just the opposite.
The Crimson Tide is currently coming off of a bye week and is currently preparing for its road trip to face No. 10 LSU this Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La. A bye week is often viewed as nothing but positive as not only does it grant a team an extra week of preparation for an opponent, but also time for players to rest and heal before the final stretch of the season.
During the show on Thursday, a caller of the radio program asked Saban if there were any negatives to a bye week amongst the positives. Saban responded in kind.
"I think if you looked at it this way: how hard is it to maintain intensity?" Saban said. "We have to all do that in our work, you have to do it if you're in competition — you have to maintain intensity and people understand momentum. You have momentum in a game, sometimes you have momentum in your business, sometimes you're doing really, really well and things are rolling along and everything's going well.
"So the ability to maintain intensity is probably one of the most important things in a game but also in a season."
No. 6 Alabama entered its bye week with a 7-1 record. While the Crimson Tide's only loss was at then-No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers — now the top-ranked team in the initial CFP rankings — multiple injuries along with lackluster performances on both sides of the football hampered its success.
Now that the bye week is behind them, fans are hoping to see a fully-rejuvenated Alabama team with a healthy roster and a renewed sense of focus. However, Saban said that a bye week can sometimes break that momentum if built up over the first part of the season.
"If you're playing really well and your team has got momentum because you are maintaining intensity and you're playing well, sometimes a break may not be the best thing for you," Saban said. "Sometimes when you're a little bit banged up or maybe you're limping your way through the season — psychologically or physically — a bye week can be a really welcome time for you to heal."
Alabama's 52-49 loss at Tennessee was followed up by a 30-6 win over Mississippi State. Quarterback Bryce Young seemed to be back to his usual self after missing almost two whole games with a shoulder injury, while the defense battened down the hatches and had a productive day against the Bulldogs offense.
With that positive momentum heading into the bye week, Saban said that is the most dangerous aspect of the recuperation period. However, he said that it is difficult to determine how the players responded to the bye week prior to this weekend's game.
"People always assume that a bye week is a good thing, but you never know if it's a good thing or a bad thing until you kinda go through it, see what you get done, see how you improve, see how your players respond to what they need to do to be able to improve and then how do they play in that next game," Saban said. "That's what we're anxious to see this weekend."
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