Nick Saban speaks following Alabama's fifth spring practice

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama football team just wrapped up its fifth practice of the spring on Thursday afternoon. Soon after the practice came to an end, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban spoke to the media for the first time since last Monday, which was following the team’s first practice.

Below, you can check out everything Saban said during his availability.

Opening statement…

“We’ve had five practices now. We are making progress. This has been a great opportunity for a lot of young players. I think everybody knows we had 26 midyear guys, plus we have a significant number of guys that aren’t participating in the spring due to injury, which creates even more opportunity for those guys. We continue to try to coach everybody on the team – ones and threes, twos and fours on another field – so that everybody’s getting coached, everybody’s getting an opportunity.

“We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got a lot of guys that don’t have a lot of confidence in what to do, don’t have a lot of confidence in how to do it and don’t have a lot of understanding in why it’s important to do it that way. But that’s why we need to practice, and hopefully, we can focus on what we need to do to develop and improve and not be so concerned about the outcome that we have. I’m not pleased with where we are. I’m not disappointed in where we are. I think it’s just a work in progress that we’ve gotta keep grinding through each and every day. 

“I wanted to mention something that probably doesn’t mean a lot to people but it means a lot to me that Mal Moore was really close, a good friend, a great supporter. Really loved the University of Alabama, was here for a long, long time as a coach, as an administrator, athletic director. he was probably the biggest reason that we came here because of the relationship he developed with Miss Terry and us. I think it’s been 10 years since he’s been gone and we certainly miss him. Can’t tell you how many things that are great sort of lessons and how much gratitude we have for the lessons that I learned from him and the things he did to support to help the program and help us get it turned around. Just a thought that everybody might say a prayer for Mal. 

“There’s things that happen in the world that you know are very tragic. Obviously, the shooting in Nashville is a very tragic situation. Horrifying that those types of things happen. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families that lost loved ones and a lot of gratitude out for the police and the public servants who tried to control the situation and put themselves in harm’s way to make sure that not more people got hurt.” 

On Alabama WR Jermaine Burton…

“I think what Jermaine needs to do is, he’s got a lot of talent, a lot of ability. I’d say consistency in performance which would come from trust and the belief in doing the little things right. Whether it’s getting the right depth on a route, seeing the coverage as it is. Holding himself a little bit more accountable to paying attention to detail and doing the little things right. When he does that, he’s an outstanding player. He’s got great ability and hopefully if we can get him to do that he’ll be able to play with a little more consistency.”

On Alabama’s offensive balance last season compared to this year under Tommy Rees…

“I think what we did last year is what we needed to do to try to win, so I’m not being critical of what we did last year. We didn’t run the ball well enough last year, but we featured the players that we had. Bryce was an outstanding player, and we wanted to have him do what he could do. But I think if we have better balance, I think it’ll take a little pressure off the quarterback. I think the offensive line has done a good job so far. I like where we’re heading and what we’re doing. I think the scheme that we have to run the ball is well tied together. Hopefully, between that and play-action passes, we can make a few more explosive plays and not just rely on dropping back all the time. I think that would be very helpful.”

On getting Alabama centers Seth McLaughlin, Darrian Dalcourt on the field together…

“Yeah, Darrian’s playing center, playing guard. We move guys around all the time. We want to help them develop diversity to create value for themselves, but it also gives us flexibility in terms of getting the best players on the field when the fall comes.”

On how he manages recruiting evaluations with Alabama’s practice schedule…

“It’s just time management. We probably have half a dozen guys or more at every practice and try to spend the mornings on football and I’ll start at, like, 1:00 in the afternoon and meet with recruits until the 2:00 meeting, and then I’m focused in again on football. And on the days we don’t have practice, I make calls from 1:00 to 3:00 to recruits and if some visit, I visit with them during that time. And the coaches have those blocks of time when I’m recruiting, they’re working on recruiting, whether it’s player evaluations or not.

“Now me personally, I usually take my little laptop home and evaluate probably four or five players every night. It doesn’t take that long. If I don’t have time to do any during the day I just take the laptop home and do it at home. But we’ve already watched a lot of players but we continue to watch as we get new information on guys when they go to combines and things like that. So the evaluation process is very important because we want to get as much information as we can on guys so if they come here it’s a good fit for them and it’s a good fit for us.” 

On if he’s got any good stories involving for Alabama AD Mal Moore…

“Yeah, I do. Mal used to always come in on Sunday when I’d be in the back room by myself watching film. And I usually go through the previous game with the coaches — which I’d watch it early in the morning, I go to church and then come in and watch it with the coaches then start on the other team. And at like every Sunday about 3:00 in the afternoon he’d come in and just sit down and I was complaining to him about – when Mark Ingram was here his sophomore year, he’d carry the ball in the wrong arm a lot. Well, he was having a really, really good year and we were having a good year and I said something to Mal. I said, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to get this guy to carry the ball in the right hand.’

“And he said, ‘You know, when I was coaching the quarterbacks here’ – and I forget the quarterback’s name – he said, ‘I told Coach Bryant’ – and it was the starting quarterback and he was a good player – ‘that if he did something different with his throwing motion that it would really make him a better passer.’ And Coach Bryant looked at him and said, ‘Don’t mess with the guy.’ So what Coach Moore was telling me is, ‘Don’t mess with Mark Ingram.’ But he used to tell me stories like that about players all the time, you know, from the past. I enjoyed it so much. I probably didn’t tell the story very well but it was a lesson learned because sometimes really good players, they might not do thing exactly like you want them to but if they’re productive, it’s not worth changing.” 

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