WATCH: Nick Saban speaks Monday ahead of Louisiana-Monroe

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke to the media on Monday for the first time since his postgame press conference after the 20-19 road victory against Texas. This week, the Crimson Tide have a home matchup against Louisiana-Monroe.

Before looking ahead to the Warhawks, there’s still a lot of discussion surrounding that narrow win against the Longhorns. Saban was asked about addressing the 15 penalties, Alabama’s receivers being able to get open and his thoughts on Eli Ricks and Terrion Arnold.

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

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*Note: This story will be updated with a full transcript from Monday’s press conference.

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.”

On any points of emphasis after all of Alabama’s 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 (did he mean revelation???) 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.”

On Alabama’s receivers not getting open downfield in the 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.”

On if he uses the 2007 Louisiana-Monroe game as a coaching 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.”

On what he saw from the Texas secondary…

“They didn’t do, really, 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 starts 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.”

On the non-safety targeting call on Alabama Bryce Young…

“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.”

On Alabama cornerback Eli Ricks…

“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.”

On the benefit of playing a team like Texas in Week 2…

“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.”