What Nick Saban Said on Wednesday of USF Week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Nick Saban met with reporters on Wednesday evening ahead of the Crimson Tide's matchup against South Florida on Saturday.

Here's a full transcript of the media availability:

Opening Statement

"The focus that we have is trying to get everybody to play to their very best ability, everybody play to a standard, everybody buy into — not just talking about what standard is, but what do I actually have to do to be able to accomplish that, play that, prepare so that we can go play the games to that level and do it for 60 minutes in the game. And that’s something that we’ve been talking about all week. Players have responded pretty well to it. Preparation has gone fairly well so we just gotta keep these guys focused on what we need to do. I always say the standard comes from here — motivation comes from out there. We would like for everybody to have pride in performance so their standard is something that’s important to them and they’re willing to do the things to invest in their future that they need to do so that they can be the best players that they can be. Nobody can really have the poor-me’s about my circumstance, my situation, how I feel, we lost a game, none of that. Don’t waste a failing. Do everything you can to try to improve and get better and that will help our team get better as well."

Jalen Milroe reading blitzes?

"You know the issue in the game was — I think we only got sacked once on the blitz and the back cut the linebacker and he got up and still sacked the quarterback. The other issues [were] really basically four-man rush, three-man rush. I think that he has done OK. I think what we need to do as an offense is everybody’s gotta pay more attention to detail. We can’t give bird and rabbits so the other team knows when we’re passing so they can tee off. All these little things sort of add up to create a disadvantage for you if you don’t get them fixed. These are all things that our players need to understand and need to do so we can protect better so the quarterback has a better chance to operate."

Depth at secondary?

"Well they’ve been good this week, they’ve all been able to practice and do what they can do. Now this team is going to go fast. They’re a fastball — fastball as fast as anybody in the country goes, so probably can’t sub on third down, you’re going to have to play with probably whoever’s in the game. So we try to do that in the past against teams like this, we get caught with 12 guys on the field or we can’t get [them] off the field when they make a first down. We’ve been playing with those five guys. They’ve all not had any issues this week. Hopefully that’ll be beneficial in terms of practice reps, togetherness, communication and all that type of thing."

Playing in Tampa?

"I think anytime you play on the road and you play a quality opponent — which I think these guys have made tremendous improvement in their team in the quality of their players and all that. It's a game that’s going to be on TV. It's a good market for our fan base in central Florida. I think it’s all good. But I think it’s only good if you play good. Image is something you’ve got to work to really have in terms of what I talked about before in terms of standard, how you play and the thing you do so that pride in performance is going to be important no matter where we play."

Letting a player develop vs. making a change at a position?

"I think everything is performance-based. Like I said before, and I said this to the team – if you want security at your position, then you have to play well. That’s what gets you security at your position. If you’re not playing well, then we’re gonna evaluate can anybody else play that position more consistently, better, whatever. Because everybody’s trying, everybody’s trying to give their best. People are sometimes critical of whatever. But nobody takes a loss harder than the players. Nobody takes a loss hard than the coaches. Because it’s our blood, sweat and tears that we put into it, and we wanna do it better. And I think the players wanna do it better. But we live in a result-oriented world, and we have to live with consequences of what we do. I mean, nobody plans on having a wreck and hurting somebody, but yet, that could create consequences for your future that are unbelievable. So you don’t it on purpose, you try hard, you wanna be the best that you can be and I think that’s the attitude that everybody should keep, regardless of what your circumstances are. Because even if you have a failing, you need to go work on taking advantage of the next opportunity that you have. I don’t know I can truly answer your question as to when do you make those decisions. I think it’s truly gotta be based on someone’s performance and how it’s affecting everybody else on the team."

Lessons from past seasons?

"We went through some struggles, I forget what year, maybe 2013, 14, 15, somewhere along there, where we were struggling early in the season. We lost to Ole Miss early in the season. We were struggling on offense, couldn't find an identity, eventually found an identity and had a really good season. So you keep searching. I think you've got to have the right combination of players. You've got to get the right chemistry, and everybody's got to do a good job. I don't care what the identity is, it comes down to execution, whether it's running or passing or punting. It all comes down to your ability to execute, and we've had too many inconsistencies in execution. When you take drive-stoppers, we had six offensive penalties — those are drive-stoppers. Two of those penalties took points off the board. We got sacked five times. Sacks are drive-stoppers. Dropped balls are drive-stoppers. We only had one dropped ball. And turnovers are obviously drive-stoppers — the other team gets the ball and you don't have it. So when you add all those up, you should be at a much more efficient percentage than we were Saturday night. You can figure it out. So all those things come down to execution, and people's ability to execute to eliminate that. We'll keep working on it."

Intermediate passing game?

"When you have a pass play, it's not designed to go five yards, or 10 yards, or 20 yards down the field. You have a pattern, and most patterns attack various levels. Then you read the defense and decide, 'Where should I throw the ball?' Sometimes it's 10 yards down the field, sometimes you've got to take the checkdown and it's a five-yard play. We have made some explosive plays in our first two games. We have not been consistent in what you refer to as the intermediate passing game, and making decisions to get the ball out of our hand quickly. Run routes so we can get open, and things are pretty decisive for the quarterback. [...] Everybody needs to do a better job. Protection needs to be better, the pocket doesn't need to be collapsing on a quarterback with a four-man rush. All those things need to get better. We'll work on it."

Criticism from former players?

"I talk to players about internal standard vs. external noise. I think we didn't play great. People get upset that we get criticized — but why wouldn't we get criticized if we don't play well? People call me and say, 'Man, this guy's a jerk for saying this about you.' No, he really isn't. It's right. We didn't play good. I'm responsible for that. [...] So in the real world, when you don't perform, you don't produce — you probably get criticized, sometimes get penalized. Some people lose their job when they don't perform well. That's maybe even worse than losing a game when you can't feed your family and your children and all that, or can't make your house payment. I guess that's worse. I don't really know what the noise is. I haven't listened to one talk radio show, I haven't read one newspaper. I have been focusing 100 percent of my time on the next team that we play, the last game we played and what we need to do to fix that. And all the players would be better served — and everybody in the organization would be better served — if they all did that. Because what somebody else thinks doesn't matter. It's all about what you do and how you respond to what you need to do, so you have a chance to be successful in the future."

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