What Did Nick Saban Say After Alabama's 66-10 Victory Over Chattanooga?

No. 8 Alabama sent its seniors off right with a 66-10 victory over Chattanooga on Saturday. The Crimson Tide limited their penalties, put up over 500 yards of offense and was a strong 6-9 on third downs.

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban spoke to the media after the game.

Full Transcript of what Nick Saban said in the postgame press conferences.

Opening statement:

"So I'm really pleased with the way the guys came out and played today. These are the kind of games you really want to maintain your intensity. Keep trying to improve, trying to get better. I thought we had a pretty good week of practice. I thought it carried over in the game in our ability to execute and do the things we need to do. I'd say about 98% of the time we had the right intensity. There was one drive there on defense where they scored a touchdown where we made a couple mistakes and made a couple other mistakes that led to big plays on their part, but for the most part I was really pleased.

"I thought Jalen played really, really well in the game, starting out like 10-for-10 or something and he made some explosive plays, which were designed and practiced all week based on how they play and what they do. So it's always good to see when you practice something and then you go out and execute it in a game and it works out exactly how you planned and some of those things did. Players did a good job of executing. Burton had a good day today with some big plays. We got to play a lot of players, which I think is something that - a lot of these guys, man, they work hard all year long. They don't get a lot of positive self-gratification, some of them don't even get to dress for games. We dressed everybody who was healthy today, I took 134 guys and got to play a ton of guys and always happy to be able to do that. It's good for their development, it's good for their experience and obviously they can learn and grow from that as well. Just having the opportunity to play in the game in Bryant-Denny Stadium's got to be a great experience for some of these guys and we certainly appreciate the work that they do all year to help the other players get ready to play so for them to be able to play is really special to me."

On Caleb Downs moving into punt returner role...

"Yeah, we've got confidence in him. We've got confidence in IB [Isaiah Bond.] I've got confidence in Kool-Aid, but he should've returned the first one, and he fair caught it. aAnd then he shouldn't have even fielded the second one, and he fumbled it. So you know sometimes when you're in that position confidence is really, really important, and we've got to get his confidence back. Caleb's got confidence. Obviously did a great job on the middle return that we ran today, made somebody miss, hit it up the chute, guys did a good job of fitting and finishing on their blocks and all he had to beat was the punter and he did a good job of that."

On Will Reichard's career...

"Fantastic. I don't know if anyone's had a more productive career relative to what their role is, what their job is, what they're supposed to in terms of his consistency his performance and the way he's improved. His mindset, his leadership and how he affects the other specialists on this team, and how he's helped them grow and develop. Will's been a great asset to this organization for a long time and done his job about as well as anyone can expect somebody to to do it."

On the coach point on Chris Braswell's targeting call...

"Well, you know, we keep telling guys you've got to keep your eyes up, you've got to see what you hit, you never want to hit anybody with your head down. I thought his head was up, but you can't hit the quarterback in the head either. We'll just keep working on it. We had one of those last week where we hit the quarterback in the head and obviously the targeting today, so it's something we need to focus on, but I think when players see these things happen it's a good learning opportunity for everybody that plays on defense."

On how he views this team and its growth compared to his other teams...

"Well it's always the goal that your team grows and develops, and obviously I think this team started sort of not like we wanted, but I think a lot of guys have made a huge difference in the development of this team. Jalen's growth and development, confidence, ability to execute, sort of takes what the defense gives, has sort of transformed our offense into being something that's very productive. I think it's increased the confidence of every body else that plays around him. The offensive line has made significant improvement.

"Defensively, we've had some guys in and out, key guys. Deontae Lawson is kind of the leader of the front seven. Key's the safety, makes a lot of calls in the secondary. I think there's a lot of things that we can continue to grow and develop and improve on defense where we communicate better and do things better. I don't make comparisons to other teams. We've had some other teams that started out great and didn't finish strong. I think we've got a two-game season here, and we need to focus on how we finish and how we continue to improve and how we continue to have the right mindset to be able to execute, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who we're playing and where we're playing and that's what our focus is going to be on this week."

Injury updates on Kobe Prentice and Quandarrius Robinson...

"Q's fine, he just had a stinger. Kobe Prentice strained his hamstring in practice this week. He probably could have played in the game, but you always risk re-injury in those things. Hopefully in the next few days he'll get his strength back up so that's not a risk, and that's why he didn't play today?"

On Ty Simpson's long run and dropping the ball before the end zone...

"Do I have to comment on that? Every coach says cross the goal line and hand the ball to the official. So, but again that's a learning experience for everybody too. You know, Caleb Downs wasn't carrying the ball right on his touchdown. He's carrying it in one hand, swinging it around. So that's going to be a learning experience for him.

"But I thought Ty played well today and the opportunity that he's had the last two weeks to play has certainly, probably improved his confidence, and it's good that he get some experience so that if he needs to play he's going to be able to go in there and execute."

On Justice Haynes' performance...

"Justice is a really good player, probably hasn't got as many opportunities as we'd like for him to because of the depth at that position. I was very pleased with the way he played. He made an outstanding run for a touchdown at the end of the game, but 19 did a heck of a job blocking for him downfield so that he could score a touchdown. Justice has done a really good job and we have a lot of confidence in them."

On what this senior class means to the program...

"Yeah, these seniors have done a great job of representing the program, representing the university, on and off the field. Really good group of fine young men that I am very proud of the way they've developed personally, academically, the success that they've had in school and developing a career off the field and what they've contributed to the team. Some of these guys have been fantastic leaders, set a great example. The one thing that's been really, really good over the years for us and these guys did a fantastic job of that as well, is the older guys embracing the younger guys that come into the program. In some places that doesn't happen but it always happens here. It's very helpful to the development of our young players and we always have a lot of young players who contribute because our team turns over faster, guys going out for the draft and all that kinds of stuff, so these guys have done a phenomenal job of embracing the young players on our team and helping them grow and develop and done a fantastic job of representing our program."

Football Friday with the BamaCentral Staff on The Joe Gaither Show

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