What Nick Saban Said on Monday of Louisiana-Monroe Week

Everything the Alabama head coach had to say to recap the Texas game and look ahead to Week 3.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —Alabama escaped Texas with a 20-19 victory over the weekend and will now return to Bryant-Denny Stadium for a non-conference tuneup against Louisiana-Monroe before SEC play begins. 

Nick Saban is set to speak to the media at noon to kick off ULM week. The Warhawks, coached by former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, come from the Sun Belt, a conference that upset three FBS teams this past weekend.

Alabama dropped to No. 2 in the AP Poll after the close win over Texas. 

Follow along for live updates throughout the press conference with a full transcript and video to be posted after.

Live Updates

• The door into the media room was locked, and Saban joked with the media that we locked him out. 
• Saban says there's a lot to learn from the Texas game. It's not just about playing hard, but also playing smart. 
• "What does it mean to be favored by 21 points?... There were two teams favored by the same amount that got beat. So I guess it doesn't mean anything."
• Saban says the challenge from top to bottom in the organization is accountability. 
• "We're really proud of Will Reichard making the winning kick."
• Saban says ULM is a well coached team with Terry Bowden. He sees great improvement from last season with them.
• "I don't forget things." Saban says he hasn't forgotten when ULM beat him his first season even though none of the current players will remember that.
• Saban says the solution to the penalty problem is discipline to execute.
• The receivers didn't play fast in the first three quarters according to Saban, but he saw some growth in the fourth quarter. 
• "History doesn't seem to be on the forefront sometimes. Players relate better to things that affect them."- Saban on if he uses the 2007 ULM game as a teaching tool for his teams. He says what happened this past weekend with other Sun Belt teams getting upsets is something that his team can relate to better.
• "Bryce was not down when he threw the ball. One of their players actually touched the ball which makes it not intentional grounding... Jase McClellan was in the vicinity." Saban said it was never explained well to him, but he's just giving the facts on what happened on the play in the end zone against Texas where Bryce Young nearly got sacked. 
• Saban says there's tremendous benefit to the adversity that the team faced early in the season against Texas. He emphasizes the difficulty of playing on the road. 
• "We gave up too many explosive plays, had too many mental errors."
• "The offensive line as a whole has to play a little bit more physical." He wants to see them play more consistent and physical so that they can control the line of scrimmage better.
• "Tough times make hard people. Easy times make soft people." Saban has no problem with the mental toughness his team showed this weekend. 

Full Transcript

Opening Statement

"I think there's a lot to learn from this last game. I think No. 1, it's not just about playing hard. I think our guys played hard in the game. They persevered in the game in tough circumstances, they overcame adversity, they showed great resiliency. But it's also about playing smart, having good discipline to execute, focus on what's in front of you and do your job. Not only do your job, but do it fundamentally with the correct technique.

"Whether it's hand placement for an offensive lineman, whether it's footwork for defensive backs, whether it's running your feet on contact when you're tackling. All these things are basically fundamental things that people have to do every day in practice so that there aren't bad habits that show up in the game. And I think that's a big lesson for us to learn.

"Second thing is, is what does it mean to be favored by 21 points? Well, there were two teams that I know of _ maybe more, I don't know _ that were favored by about the same amount that actually got beat. So I guess it doesn't mean anything, and that's why we have to play the games. So it's important for players to learn that they have to focus and prepare for every team and every opponent so that they can go out there and play to the best of their ability.

"Because sometimes even when you win, you can lose. The challenge for us, from top to bottom in the organization, is to hold each other accountable, to make sure that we're putting the players in the best position to have a chance to be successful, but we're also teaching them fundamentally what they need to do to be able to have success.

"But then they have to be accountable to challenge themselves every day to be able to do it. So that's kind of some of the things that I think we can learn from a game like this.

"We're really proud of Will Reichard. Did a great job making the winning kick but also his performance all day long, whether it was kickoff, field goal, whatever, was pretty stellar. So we're glad that he's SEC player of the week.

"ULM, Terry Bowden. This is a well coached team. I think they're a lot better this year than they were a year ago. I see significant improvement on both sides of the ball. They have a good little quarterback who is athletic, can make plays, is a good passer. And they're playing good fundamental football on both sides of the ball. We certainly have respect for these guys.

"I don't forget things, so I remember when these guys beat us. I know that our players won't remember that because history sometimes is not that important. And they were probably only, what would you say, 5-6 years old when that happened. But it kind of is what it is."

Points of emphasis from penalties, and what they can replicate from the fourth quarter when there were no penalties

"Well, what did I just say? I'll repeat myself. Discipline to execute. Play smart. Make good choices and decisions. That's what we'll do to ... We have officials out there every day so we get a penalty report every day. Every player is confronted with, you made these penalties, whether it was offsides, pass interference, illegal motion on offense. Whatever the penalty is. And those things are always emphasized so it's not like this is sort of a resurrection of, 'Wow, we need to start doing something about this.' We've been doing it.

"Players need to make choices to have the discipline in the game that it doesn't do any good to try to create an advantage for yourself, because you're not above the law. So you've got to make good choices and decisions. That's the discipline that I've been talking about since I've been standing up here, is exactly what I'm talking about."

Receivers getting open downfield in first three quarters

"We didn’t play fast and do as good a job in terms of, but I do think that in the fourth quarter we sort of came of age a little bit. Played faster, made plays, spread ‘em out a little bit more. Did a little better job, you know, in giving them a chance and they took advantage of it. So, I saw some maturation in the fourth quarter with those guys playing with confidence and making plays."

Does he use the 2007 ULM game as a teaching tool?

"Well, you know, history doesn’t seem to be on the forefront sometimes. So, I do think that players relate better to things that affect them. Which, most of them, don’t remember those types of things. I think sometimes what happens currently, like what happened last week to a couple teams, you know, maybe something that they can identify with and relate to better."

What he saw from the Texas secondary

"They did exactly what we expected them to do. They played the coverages that we expected them to play. It wasn’t like we were surprised by anything. I don’t think we did a very good job of taking advantage of it. That stars with me and us as coaches as well as not executing as well as we need to and playing as fast as well as we need to and, in some cases, beating man-to-man coverage and being able to make some explosive plays, giving the quarterback a little cleaner pocket sometimes to be able to make plays down the field so all these things contribute to doing a little bit better job of being more efficient in the passing game."

The explanation he got on the non-safety targeting call

"Well first of all, the way they called the play – roughing the quarterback, with targeting. They can’t review roughing the quarterback. That’s not a reviewable. But they did. So, they not only took off the targeting, which there wasn’t any targeting. Bryce was not down when he threw the ball. One of their players actually touched the ball, so that didn’t make it intentional grounding, and we did have a player in the vicinity. Jase McClellan was in the vicinity. So, it never got explained really well, but I'm giving you the facts. So, now, maybe it just got announced wrong, you know? That it’s roughing the passer with targeting, they can review targeting but not roughing the passer. So, I don’t know what happened with that, kind of is what it is. But I'm not complaining about it, I'm not criticizing anyone, I’m just saying, you asked me what happened, how it got explained to me. That’s basically how it got explained to me."

Eli Ricks' comfort level

"Well, I think that we got a lot by how players practice and if players have a good week of practice, then I think they’re ready to play and they’ll go out there and be able to do their job. And I think the other players that they play with also gain confidence in them, knowing what they're supposed to do in terms of how focused they are and practicing in getting a game plan right and all that. We just want to continue to do a good job with him and all the other players that we have on our team to get them ready to play so that they’re confident and we’re confident that they go into the game that they’re going to create value for themselves."

Is there a benefit to facing adversity this early in the season?

"Well I think there's a tremendous benefit for our players. First of all playing on the road, in what is a typical SEC environment. Playing a team that is the caliber of most of the teams that we’ll play in the SEC, so I think there’s a huge benefit in that. And the fact that there's a lot of lessons that I’ve already talked about that we can learn from this experience in terms of staying focused on what’s in front of you when you play on the road and how difficult it is to play well on the road and being able to overcome those circumstances and still execute and play smart in a more positive way for every play in the game for 60 minutes in the game, which, we were kind of a little bit up and down and back and forth with that. Made more mental errors than what we’ll be able to get away with in the future."

Terrion Arnold in second half

You know, we have a lot of confidence in Terrion, but again, we have a lot of competition at that position and guys need to go out there each and every day and play well in practice. I get a little bit frustrated when guys don’t do things the way they need to do them in practice, they’re not creating the right habits, especially in the secondary. There is nobody behind you. If the linebacker misses the tackle, the safety makes the tackle. If the safety misses the tackle, there’s nobody there. If the corner misses the tackle, there’s nobody left. These things are critical to us having success defensively. We gave up too many explosive plays in this game. We had too many mental errors, not having anything to do with Terrion Arnold. I’m just saying, as a whole, we’ve got to get better at that part of what we do.”

New starters on left side of the line

“Two new starters on the left side of the line … Javion Cohen started last year. So look, I think the offensive line as a whole has to play a little more physical. We have to have better movement, we have to have better diversity in the running game. We have to be able to excuute more consistently, fundamental techniques. We have total confidence in the ability of every guy that plays up there. I just think that we need to get a little more consistent and a little more physical with how we play so that we control the line of scrimmage a little bit better. I don’t think we controlled the line of scrimmage as well as we needed to in this game.”

Mental toughness

“I think you get mental toughness because things are hard. You have to embrace hard. I think that’s true in your life. I think that’s true in football. I think tough times make hard people. Easy times make soft people. It’s no different in football. If it’s hard, you have to embrace hard. I have no problem with our players and how they embraced hard in this game. They showed a tremendous amount of toughness and resiliency to play through what they had to play through to win the game. We didn’t execute the way we wanted to but you can’t fault the mental toughness. It was tough circumstances. Tough crowd. Very hot. We had guys getting cramps and not able to finish the game in some cases so I don’t question the mental toughness. Now, you ask me, can you develop that? I think you develop it because people are in difficult circumstances that they learn how to overcome. I don’t think you develop it if you don’t have difficult circumstances because you have to learn how to overcome things that are hard.”

Versatility in the offense

“Well look, we have enough good players. I think good players have to make good choices and decisions about how they do their job, the discipline they play with. Everybody can’t have one my-bad. Everybody can’t have one loaf. We were running RPO and the receiver runs the route half speed. The quarterback is stuck. He didn’t know what to do. So all these things are correctable but all these things need to be fixed. We need to do these things on a more consistent basis and the players have to respect those facts in terms of respecting what it takes to win. If they’re willing to do that, we’ll get better and they’ll get better and create more value for themselves and we’ll have a better team. I do think we need to do that.”