The Alabama football team will hop on a plane Friday for a flight to Austin where it will face Texas on Saturday morning. Before that, Hey Coach and the Nick Saban radio show will offer more insight into the non-conference game that drew the most off-season attention.
Here’s what Saban said, refresh once he arrives.
— “The hay is never in the barn for me,” Saban said to kick things off after that was the implication of a Thursday night. Her ran down the walk through and film work they’ll do after arriving in Austin. The game plan will not change but the mental prep never ends, he said.
— Saban said he’d rather play all Power 5 schedules but that’s not the reality with teams needing to get bowl eligible.
— Asked about the weekend schedule after a game, Saban said Sundays include an optional stretch and stride. Some players lift Sunday instead of Monday. Players also get scientific testing, hydration testing, speed testing. First thing Monday is a team meeting. They play 16 plays for the team in the meeting room. That’s the good, bad and ugly that’s been discussed in the past.
— There’s accountability when the bad and ugly plays are shown for the full team, Saban said.
— Saban said there were elements of Alabama football in the game but some young players didn’t take advantage of the opportunity they got.
— “The last time we were 20-point favorites and went to Texas, we got our ass kicked,” Saban said referring to Texas A&M last October. Alabama was an 18-point favorite when the Aggies pulled the upset.
second segment
— Saban said they have great special teams, noting former Alabama assistant Jeff Banks is the coordinator at Texas. He said they blocked five punts last year and got one last week in the opener. Saban also said they try to train everyone to play special teams.
— Saban said most of the players at Alabama never had to play special teams in high school because they were the best players on the team but they often need to master that to make it in the NFL.
— “Julio Jones was a demon on special teams,” Saban said.
— Standby the video stream of the show went down.
third segment
— Saban said both teams have to play in the same heat so it comes down to preparation. He said players get hydration tests throughout the week. They had 12 guys in the yellow for today’s practice, meaning they weren’t hydrated.
— Saban said players would rather go to Jack’s than eat in the $16 million nutrition center. “You’d think you were putting them in jail to go in and eat the right stuff.”
— Saban said he never talked to Texas about the coaching job in 2012 and 2013 but the media played it up.
fourth segment
— Saban said he couldn’t say enough positive things about Steve Sarkisian. He said Texas is a better team than they were a year ago.
— The final word: Saban said this is going to be a challenging game but that’s why people come to Alabama. He said it won’t define the season. This was a rather tame final word after last week.