WATCH: Nick Saban speaks Wednesday of Tennessee week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Wednesday evening, Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke to the local media for the second time ahead of the team’s road showdown against Tennessee. Below, we’ve included everything he said during that availability, including updates on Bryce Young and Jaylen Moody.

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Opening statement…

“I think our emphasis this week has been on everybody self assessing. Coaches, myself, players. Do you think you’re really playing to the level that people respect? To the standard that we have here? That your teammates respect? The discipline, the toughness, the effort to finish, focus on the next play, accountability to do your job. Those are basic, fundamental things that are very, very important to being successful. That’s something we really emphasized. I think the players have done a pretty good job so far this week so we got a tremendous challenge against a really good team on the road. SEC game, Gameday, all the things that make great games so if you’re a great competitor you love great challenges. This is certainly going to be a great challenge for us in what we expect to be a difficult environment. Bryce (Young) continues to practice a little bit more. We’ve got him on a little bit of a pitch count just to ween him back into it and see how it goes. We expect him to do even a little more tomorrow. That’s all I really have to say about that.”

On getting used to a road atmosphere…

“I think the first time you do it it’s probably a little bit of a challenge for players that have never done it before, especially at certain positions where being able to communicate and hear, whether its snapcount, whatever. Probably inability to communicate on defense if its loud. Those things probably affect inexperienced players a little bit more than the guys that have done it before. But I think by this time, we played a couple road games, you hope that experience has enhanced the guys on the team’s expectations of what’s going to happen, how it’s going to be, what’s going to happen, how they need to play, how they need to focus in that kind of environment.” 

On stopping the run in the Cheetah package…

“We don’t really play those guys all together in run down situations. We play two of the three and obviously that’s part of it but I think until you get to third down, and every team has kind of a break point of when they’re not running the ball on third down very much. We can still stop the run with stunts but there is different kind of runs on third down too that you have to stop. We work a little each week on those guys being in the game and being able to stop the run. It’s a speciality package for passing situations so more difficult to play if there’s a threat of the run on a down and distance. We have a break point, we’ll put them in the game. We’re always prepared if we can’t substitute on third down to play with the nickel people that we have in the game. Most of the time it’s at least two of those guys.”

On how Alabama LB Jaylen Moody is progressing from his bruised kidney…

“He’s practiced all week. So he hasn’t had any complications so I think he’ll be OK.” 

On Alabama being mentally and physically fit…

“I think that’s always a challenge for each player. I think it’s a challenge for each and every one of us to make a choice. You’ve heard me talk before about you’re gonna do what you feel like doing, or are you going to choose to do the things you need to do to accomplish the goals that you have, have the success that you want to have and I think every player’s gotta make that choice. I think more mature competitors really understand how important that is to maintain the psychological disposition to do things the way you need to do them to have success. But that is a challenge. It’s a physiological challenge for every person, every player, I mean, you all. I don’t care what your job is, it’s a personal challenge to be the best version of yourself every day and not accept less than that. That’s a choice. When you say, ‘I don’t feel like going to work today,’ or ‘I don’t feel like practicing today.’ Obviously you’re not going to be playing to the level that you need to play to. We’re constantly trying to get our players to understand how do you have to edit your behavior, make the choices and decisions that are gonna help you accomplish the goals that you have? All our guys are trying to create value for the future so that also creates value for them as well.” 

On what he’s liked from Alabama’s defense on third down…

“I think we’ve done a good job of affecting a quarterback which is always beneficial on 3rd down. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of describing and mixing things in the back end, done a fairly good job of covering. It’s a combination of all 11 guys of doing what their supposed to do that I think help should be effective. Understanding the situation and playing the situation that you’re in and everybody doing what they’re supposed to do. Most of the time when we haven’t had success on third down its a mental error, a missed assignment or something like that. The offensive team we’re playing this week is much more challenging. Everybody gonna have to play as well as they’re capable of playing and do it all together as a unit for us to be successful against this group.”

On if he says anything to Will Reichard after missed kicks…

“Will’s been kicking for a long time. We got a lot of confidence in him. Nobody can make every kick but I just don’t want him to press. I don’t want him to feel like there’s any anxiety or pressure for him to do something. He obviously made the game-winning kick at Texas. He’s been a very consistent guy for us. We have a lot of confidence in him. I don’t usually full like there’s any reason to go sort of, when I talk to the guys it’s usually telling them they did a good job. If they don’t hit a good one, punt a good one, kick a good one, it’s, ‘Hey, forget about it. Focus on the next one.’ Those guys aren’t like players. They don’t play 70 plays in the game. They’re like assassins. They got one shot. They gotta make it count. That’s the mindset they have. To focus on be prepared to do it the next time is probably the most important thing.”