Practice Report: Alabama Continues Preparations For Tennessee
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama continued preparations for its annual rivalry contest with Tennessee this weekend, with its second full-padded practice of the week on Wednesday at Thomas-Drew Practice Fields.
The weather was sunny with a high of 85 degrees.
"I think this week every player, every team, always has to make a decision on how they want to handle success," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said during his press conference. "Some teams handle success well. Some teams can only respond when something bad happens, which is a little more like human nature. And hopefully we're trying to get our players to build on the momentum that we created in what we did last week and continue to work hard so that we can continue to play well in the future.
"But to do that, you've got to be able to handle success. You can't be casual about your approach. You've got to prepare. You've got to work hard. You've got to go out and earn it. You've got to play every play, and you've got to do a little extra sometimes to make that happen, in terms of your preparation.
"I think it's especially important to have this kind of focus in rivalry games because I don't think records really mean that much. I think how players perform, how they prepare, will affect how they perform, and that's really important. And a lot of folks, this game means a lot to. It means a lot to me. And I want our players to be ready to go and ready to play well.
"Right mentality is really, really important, especially this time of year. Everybody gets a little banged up, beat up. Makes it a little more difficult to sustain, but we have to have the right mind-set to be able to do that."
Saban also revealed that defensive end LaBryan Ray (elbow sprain) and tight Carl Tucker (hamstring), who both missed the Georgia game last weekend, are both still questionable for the matchup against the Volunteers.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m (CT) and will be broadcasted on CBS.
