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COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: ALABAMA VS CLEMSONJanuary 9, 2016Nick SabanPhoenix, Arizona Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I really don't know that there's anything specific that you would be able to understand without me having a grease board up here and draw stuff up, but I think that would be really kind of hard to explain. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, he's done a nice job of developing -- I guess I should repeat the question first. Most of you probably can't hear them. How has Bo Scarbrough matured throughout the season. He's done a very nice job. He had to overcome adversity after being injured in the spring where he was having a very good effective spring practice, so it's taken him a while to come back physically, but I think he's gotten more and more confident. It also affected his learning curve because of all the time that he missed. So I also think he's gained a lot of confidence in not only how to do things but what to do and why it's important to do them a certain way. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Jacob certainly has won our team over. I think that's pretty obvious by him being elected captain by his teammates, and I think he did it because of the toughness that he plays with and the great competitive spirit that he has. I think it's recognized by everybody on our team, and I think his example of how he competes probably is a thing that affects the other players on the team as much as anything, and I think it's been a real key to any success that we've had as a team. Q. Dabo has taken a lot of heat from the ACC Championship when he yelled at a player on the sideline, and he said, hey, man, it's a loud sport. NICK SABAN: Well, I think that sometimes -- I would relate this no different to anybody out there that has children. Sometimes you rub them on the neck and love them and sit them down and talk to them and try to teach them a lesson about something they did or didn't do, and other times you have to be a little more firm. I think it's whatever works in the situation, and I don't think that just because you get on somebody that that's necessarily a negative thing. I'm sure that the action is something that not only was a lesson-learning experience for that particular individual but something that could have a severe consequence for the whole team. Sometimes players need to understand the significance of that. I think if you use strong language sometimes, maybe that's not always a bad thing, just like it's not always a bad thing that your children know you're really serious about what you're trying to say and the way you say it sort of reinforces that. Q. Biggest challenge to stopping Deshaun Watson? NICK SABAN: Well, I don't know that anybody stops Deshaun Watson. I think that you're talking about a phenomenal player, a player who can beat you in a lot of different ways in terms of his passing ability, his ability to execute their offense effectively, can make plays with his legs, can make plays and extend plays in the passing game, and I think he truly, truly understands what they want him to do and really gets it done on a pretty consistent basis, which makes them have the kind of prolific offense that they have. So I think when you play against someone like this, you have poise in how you play one play at a time in the game for 60 minutes in the game, knowing that the other team is going to make some plays, but how you respond to the next play is going to be the real key, because with the pace of play and with a player like him, you know, you can't get on a roll, let them get on a roll based on how you respond defensively. Q. There was a report that Chip Kelly visited Tuscaloosa. Is that something you can confirm? NICK SABAN: Well, Chip Kelly is a good friend of myself and a lot of coaches on our staff, and he just happened to be in the area and he stopped by and visited with us for a little bit, and not really anything of significance relative to this game. Q. Who's got better dance moves, you or Dabo? NICK SABAN: Oh, I think Dabo has got me there by a long shot. I used to be able to step through it pretty good back in the day, but I'm a little older now and gotten a little more patient and reserved in my old age. I think that's reflected in how I go about my dance routines, as well. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: The question is, is it harder now to get into the profession as a head coach or an assistant than it used to be when I first started. I've always sort of felt that it's difficult to gain the kind of experience that you'd like to gain starting out as an assistant coach, and probably the best way to do that is to start out at a smaller school and sort of work your way up. I think that's always been the case. I think sometimes maybe now people are a little less willing to take that route. They would like to come to Alabama and be a graduate assistant and then get hired at Alabama. Well, that's a little tougher to do. I think the guys that are willing to go to some of the smaller schools, get recruiting experience, coaching experience, develop knowledge at whatever position that they coach, being a good teacher in how to sort of develop players, I mean, these things are not naturally something that somebody just has. I think it has to be developed to some degree. So I think the willingness to do that has got to be something that will certainly enhance people, and I think it's the same thing when it comes to being a head coach. I think now there's a greater chance for guys to get hired at whether it was Will Muschamp at Florida, Jimbo at Florida State, Kirby at Georgia. These guys got these jobs which are pretty good jobs, and they didn't really have head coaching experience. But because they were in very good programs that had success, that enhanced them to be able to get that kind of opportunity. I think there's a little bit more of that, but I also think that's probably because there's a lot more media attention now relative to the job people do, whether it's offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator or whatever. I think that sort of enhances that to some degree. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I've had some very, very talented African-American coaches that I certainly think would be very capable of being outstanding head coaches, and I think that this is an area that we've always tried to promote because I think it's very important because of the demographics of who plays our game that we have a significant amount of role models that they can look up to, and I also think that as a profession, we should try to do the best job we possibly can to develop those folks to be and get head coaching opportunities relative to how many good candidates there really are. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Not at all. I mean, I think that's -- look, any success that we've had is because of the total program that we have, all the people in the program, the coaches, the players, the way they've all worked to develop the players that we have. Recruiting is a big part of that, having good players who are committed to being the best that they can be. So to me this is not about me, it's about the whole organization and the whole team, and I think it's always been that way. Regardless of what's happened in the past, it's about what this team wants, what this team wants to accomplish, what they want to do, and that's what as a coach you want to do for this team. Q. Have you changed as a head coach since your days at Michigan State? NICK SABAN: I think probably the biggest thing is you always learn more about all aspects of what you do, whether it's offense, defense, special teams. That's the technical side of it. You're always trying to develop and adjust and be current, so to speak, in what's happening in our game, because the game changes. But I think probably bigger than that is my approach with individual players, how to try to get every individual player, find a way that you can reach that guy to help that guy have the best chance to be successful, where probably when I first started this, I probably had the same approach with everybody and thought everybody should buy into that approach, where now it's -- to me it's more the individual and what kind of makes it happen for him, because success is always tied to action, but action is always tied to your thoughts. So to get somebody's thoughts, habits and priorities where they need to be for them to try to be successful is probably the biggest thing that -- try to do it a little different, which takes a little more patience, and I certainly have a little more patience now than I had before. I mean, when I was first a coach, some of these questions that I've been asked today, I would have responded to a little different. Q. (Inaudible) says you enjoy the grind of being a head coach. NICK SABAN: I enjoy the grind? I don't necessarily look at it that way. I think I enjoy the competition. I enjoy getting the players ready for the competition, and I don't know how to do it without grinding. So it's not the grinding I like. I like all the other things. I just don't know how else to do it. Q. How would you describe your defense this year, and how have they improved throughout the season? NICK SABAN: Our defense this year has played fairly well, not all the time. Sometimes we have some lapses and give up some big plays. But for the most part, they've kept us in games. Didn't play very well in the Ole Miss game, gave up a lot of big plays, but we have good leadership. I think the defensive front has made a huge difference. I do think we played a little better in the back end, which is minimize the big plays. So I'm not satisfied with where our defense is, but they certainly make every acknowledgment that they've played pretty well this season. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I think that the balance that Clemson has on offense is really what makes them so effective because they've run the ball effectively, and it's not just the quarterback that runs it. They have a very good runner, and he has been very productive to have almost 1,500 yards this year. They also have some good receivers and good skill players who fit nicely into the roles of what they need for their players to do to have an effective offensive team. The combination of all those things with a good quarterback makes them one of the, to me, most dynamic offenses in college football. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, we have varying times to get ready for games. Normally in a regular season you don't have this long to get ready for a game, so you're playing Saturday to Saturday, and we're actually playing Thursday to Monday, which is a little longer time. But I don't think the two things have any correlation because 26 days between one, 10 or 11 between the other, but at the end of the day, you have a process of things that the players expect to get covered each day, whether it's first down, second-and-long, third-and-long, red area, goal line, short yardage, whatever it is, and I think that you figure out based on the time that you have how are we going to approach this with the players and make sure we cover all these areas. We've been able to do that with the time frame that we have available for this game. Q. (Question about Thad Turnipseed) NICK SABAN: First of all, Thad did an outstanding job for us at Alabama, at the University of Alabama, did an outstanding job for me personally being an administrator. He was a guy that implemented a lot of the things that we wanted, whether it was facilities or programs or whatever it might be. Part of that team that I talked about earlier that contributes to our success is our administration, and he was a key part of that relative to what he did for football and the fact that he was a former player. He had a lot of associations with a lot of people who had played at Alabama before we came there. So he really had a lot of value in our organization. I think that it was an opportunity for him, because he had been at Alabama almost his whole career, to sort of spread his wings a little bit and have a better chance to realize some upward mobility, which I totally understood. Thad is still a great friend of ours, and I think he's done a great job for them. But at the same time you never want to see quality people leave your organization. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: It's not accurate in my opinion at all. I'm a very happy person. I'm a very happy person. Maybe my demeanor, image created by a lot of you, doesn't necessarily reflect that. I'm a very happy person, and I'm a very serious person about trying to do the things to have a very good program that benefits the players personally, academically and athletically, helps them have more success in life for having been involved in the program. So I'm a serious person, but I'm a very happy person. And I have a lot of fun, I really do. I think I'm guarded in terms of what I do because everybody has a camera, and I think my image as a leader for our organization is very, very important, and I think it's important for everybody in our organization to try to represent it in a first-class way. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Oh, I like to play golf. We go to the lake. We go fish. I have a lot of great friends. I really enjoy the relationships probably with other people that are great friends that really have nothing to do with football as much as anything. It's not like I like to go to the karaoke machine and sing and all that, but there's a lot of things that I enjoy. Q. The last time you won a National Championship your inside linebacker was Mosley. Has Reggie Ragland (inaudible)? NICK SABAN: I think Reggie Ragland has done an outstanding job for us as a leader on our team. He's a signal caller on defense, so in a lot of ways represents what the quarterback does on offense in terms of making calls and getting people lined up and making adjustments, and I think other players depend on that. But I also think that we have more positive leadership throughout our team which has made a real impact on how this team has approached this season, overcome adversity, worked hard to improve. Now the challenge is can you sustain it. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: I think that this team, I've made mention of the fact that this team is a fun team to coach because we have a lot of players that really enjoy being around each other, really enjoy being together, really enjoy playing together, and I think that starts with respect. They respect each other, therefore they trust each other, therefore they have a good relationship in what they've spent a lot of time trying to do well, which is the football part of it. But we have a lot of guys that are pretty close off the field, as well. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: I think it's a challenge, and I think it's a twofold challenge. I think in these games that we've been in before, it's been a one-game season. Just you had time off, you played one game, that was it. I think to maintain the mental intensity from last week to this week is also a challenge, because you really have to do it two weeks in a row in very, very competitive situations against very good teams, so I think that the combination of the length of the season -- the players have to make choices about what they want rather than how they feel, which sometimes requires a little bit of strength and character and personality to be able to do that, and maturity. And that's what we've tried to get our players to do. Q. (Question on Lane Kiffin.) NICK SABAN: Lane has done a good job with us, and I think the big thing that every coach that comes into our sort of organization sort of grows and develops into is -- there's a certain way that we do things, and it really doesn't matter how you've done them before. This is how we do them. We want your input, and we want your ideas, and you can implement certain things in what you do relative to the personnel that we have, which we all make those decisions as a staff, but we also have sort of a process of how we do things, and everybody has got to buy into that. I think that him having been a head coach, that was something that he's done a really good job of over time, of sort of doing things the way we want and understanding the importance of that in this organization. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I guess I would rather talk about seeing that all happen Monday night. That's the goal. That's the focus. That's the purpose. That's what we need to do. Anything that we've really done in the past has just created an opportunity for us to play against a very good team on Monday night. To be able to build on that and continue to improve and players to sort of stay focused on what they need to do to play at a very high level against a good team is more what I'm sort of into right now. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: O.J. has done a wonderful job this season. His role has been a little different, but he's improved as a blocker. He never complains. He always buys in. He does whatever he can to help the offensive team do well. He did make some outstanding plays in the last game, and he is capable of that, and we probably need to utilize that a little bit more out of him. But he's done a wonderful job for us. This thing, expectations, I guess I'd like to spend a little time on that, because you create the expectations for someone. You create them. Not me. Then you ask me if he lived up to your expectations. He lives up to mine by what he does, how he competes and how he plays. But since you created a different expectation for him and it doesn't kind of marry up, then it's like, am I disappointed that he didn't meet up to your expectations? Not at all, because he really has done a great job in terms of our expectation for what we want him to do. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: You obviously haven't been around me much, but I don't make comparisons to -- there really is no way to compare. Every player has his own personality and his own image of how he does things. This defense is different than other good defenses that we've had, but in their own way, they've been very productive, and they're going to be challenged as much as they have been all year on Monday night. To me their legacy of how they finish is going to be an important part of that legacy. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, first of all, Bear Bryant has to be the greatest coach ever in college football, and I in no way do I what do to try to be considered anything like him, and certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for all that he accomplished, all that he did and what he established in terms of a tradition. Alabama would not be what it is -- the job I have would not be what it is if it wasn't for Bear Bryant and all that he did to make Alabama, the University of Alabama, the success that they have, the tradition, the expectations, the national image, the national pride, I mean, there's so many things that I don't even touch that his presence had tremendous significance in establishing and making a part of the aura of what the Southeast Conference and the University of Alabama and its part through history has made. I in no way -- I respect that. I relish in it that it is a part of what we do and who we are as a university and know that we would never be that without it. Q. I know you stay in the moment, but (inaudible) -- do you ever think about all that you've done? NICK SABAN: You know, I really don't. I really -- I'm so concerned about this team, these players, what they've worked to accomplish, and what you -- let me try to put it to you this way: At the banquet this year, I gave a speech about thank you, but there's a second part to thank you that no one ever thinks about, that when I was a kid I was thanking my coach or my teacher or whatever, and my dad was picking me up after practice, and he said, you thanked your coach. That was really nice. But there's an IOU that goes with every thank you, which is you owe them your best. You owe your teacher, you owe your coach the best. Well, it's just the opposite to me in terms of what I said to this team, I thanked them for all their hard work, their togetherness, their competitive spirit, all that they were able to accomplish in winning the SEC championship. This was before we had the playoff game. And I owe them. I owe them as the leader of the organization. I owe them our best as coaches and people who can support them to give them the best opportunity to be successful in the next challenge that they have. So I thanked them for their effort, but I also feel like I owe them. So I've got no time to think about that stuff. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: I think that's a question that you ask other people. I can't speak to what other people think. I know that our focus is what do we have to keep doing to transition, whatever you want to call it, in the future, to continue to sort of -- the challenge for us is to continue to have this kind of program over time, and there are a lot of challenges with that that we have to address on a year to year basis. That's kind of where our focus is, and I think that's a question to ask someone else. Q. Deshaun Watson, what are the problems he presents and what's your impression of what he brings? NICK SABAN: Well, I answered this question earlier, but I think he's probably one of the most dynamic players in college football, maybe in recent years, in terms of he's a very good passer. He's got a great understanding of their offense and does a great job of executing all aspects of the offense. He can run effectively as a quarterback. He uses all the other weapons that they have on offense to his advantage, whether it's their running back or the receivers in implementing the things that they can take advantage of with the way they play offense. So the guy is a really, really complete player who has tremendous ability, who shows a lot of leadership in how he affects his teammates and other people on his team. This is one of the truly great football players in college football, I think. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: I think it's working out great so far. I think it's helped our quality of life to some degree, and I think that's always been the goal from my standpoint. We're always supportive of trying to do more for the players. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: He's a very athletic guy. He's got great size. He's a very good receiver. It's always hard to find -- if you don't have big defensive backs, it's always hard to find big guys who are athletic enough to cover really big, good athletes, and he is an important part of their passing game and an outstanding receiver, no doubt. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I think it speaks volumes of the kind of family that they are and the kind of values that they have in terms of understanding importance of getting a college degree. All these players have a lot more days ahead of them where they're not going to play football than when they are, regardless of how good a players they might be. And I think the Ragland family certainly understood that. But I also think there's a business decision involved in all this, that just because a guy can be a second-round draft pick, if he has the potential to come back and enhance his draft status to be a first-round draft pick, which I think Reggie certainly has done that, there's a huge economic impact from that standpoint, as well. And I think it takes a lot of maturity by the family not to be influenced by other people to keep those sort of priorities in mind. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Richard Mullaney has done an outstanding job for us all year long. He's been a really consistent player. He's made a lot of clutch catches, and even plays his position extremely well without the ball, which I think is sometimes overlooked, especially at his position, because it's always about how many passes did he catch. We knew that we were going to be a little bit thin at the receiver position this year, so we were kind of looking around or keeping our ear to the ground on who might be a graduate guy that would be able to add some depth to that position, and he certainly has done that. We went into the season thinking we were light, and then we also got some guys injured, which has made it even more difficult at the position. And that's made Richard's being a part of our team even more important. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: The question is how important is it, was the first championship and everything that came after that. I think that in some ways, you break barriers a little bit in terms of self-imposed limitations that organizations might have, teams might have. So I think when you win the first championship, it becomes the standard of your organization, and I think that then it's a matter of do people buy into that standard in terms of not feeling entitled or getting complacent about past success and continuing to get people to embrace the challenges of the future, which we've had some issues with through the years with some of our teams. But I think probably more than anything, it just created a standard for us in all the people that we recruit. Q. When you do get a week off, what do you like to do on your spare time? NICK SABAN: Well, first of all, I like to spend time with my family. I like to get away. We have two places that we sort of escape to. One is in Boca Grande, which is in Florida, and one is Lake Burton, which is in the mountains on the Georgia-North Carolina border. We have a lot of good relationships, a lot of good friends. I enjoy playing golf and spending time with those people and our family. Sometimes it involves a little fishing. But just to do other things different than what you do every day. Q. Given how responsible and accountable this team has been (inaudible)? NICK SABAN: Well, I think that when people buy in and are accountable to what you're trying to help them accomplish, it does make you feel at least like -- I mean, the most difficult thing as a coach is when you feel like you're more committed and you're trying harder than some of the players are because they don't seem to buy in or think the things that you're trying to emphasize are important to being successful. I think that gets a little on the disappointing side. But I also think that when you have a team like this that has done the things like you want and done it pretty much as a total group, that is very satisfying. But at the same time you would like to see them make sure that they do it and finish it the right way. Q. Speaking of getting people to buy in, Tim Williams has had such a good year coming off the bench. How happy are you for him, that he knows his role and accepts it? NICK SABAN: Well, and I think that we have a lot of players like that on our team this year. That's what makes it a great team. People are not just about me, they're about what can I do to contribute to the success of the team, and certainly Tim has had a lot of success being sort of a third down pass rush guy for us. That's what he does extremely well, and I think the challenge for him and for us in the future is to expand that role so that he can be an every-down player, because that would benefit him and us in the future. Q. (Inaudible.) How would you describe his journey from when he got here until now? NICK SABAN: Well, I have a tremendous amount of respect for guys like Michael because they go through a lot of years where they're on the scout team and they're giving a look for the other team and get beat up and don't really get to play in the games and sometimes don't even get to dress in the games. To see the perseverance of a guy to continue to work hard and be an overachiever so that he puts himself in a position where he has a chance to play and be a contributor on the team, I think that's one of the great things about college football. I think it's a great example for a lot of young people out there that if you have perseverance and you stick with it and you keep working, you can overcome things and make a contribution, and he certainly has done that in a real first-class way for us. Q. We've had a lot of players tell us today that they have a lot of friends and family here. What does that do for your team, that your players have a lot of support? NICK SABAN: Well, I don't think that that's -- I think that that's probably the most important thing. You know, we want to have a family of people where we are, but we also try to include -- we feel like we're in partnership with every player's family to try to help them be successful because we're trying to continue to promote the principles and values that they had at home so that they've got an opportunity to do what they have to do, and now we want to try to continue to grow that so that the player has a greater chance to be more successful in life. We're in partnership with the parents to do that. So that's important, you know, to us, that it gets reinforced. Every time a player makes a mistake and he comes in my office for one of those see-the-principal kind of meetings, the first thing they say is, don't tell my parents, or don't call my mom, and I always say to them, I'm going to call your mom, because if you were my son, I'd want the coach to call me. It's not to get you in trouble. It's trying to use all the people who are supporting you to help you do the right things to be involved in helping you now. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: I don't think there's any question about it, and I think the more they support us, the better for us in terms of the things that we're trying to do. We've had tremendous support from the families and the parents in what we're trying to do. Q. The players who do have a lot of family support, do they do better? NICK SABAN: For the most part I think that's probably true. I think that all of us who have children -- I keep going back to this -- of our own, and deal with adolescents, no matter how good a job we think we're trying to do to help them, they're still adolescents, and sometimes they make choices and decisions that disappoint us, and we have to support them and help them grow and develop through that, and I think that's something that we try to do as coaches, and I know each family is trying to do that with all their children, not just the players that we have on our team. Q. How much responsibility does the coach have to motivate, and how much (inaudible)? NICK SABAN: Well, I think it's a combination of both. I think the players have to make the right choices and decisions about what they want and be focused and committed and locked into what they need to do to have success, but I also think the coaches need to reinforce that in a positive way so the players realize the importance of that. So I think it's really a combination of both of those things. Q. What kind of ball player were you in college? NICK SABAN: Well, I was sort of one of those guys that tried to be an overachiever and was a team guy and played quarterback in high school and one year in college and then got moved to DB, which is kind of what I always coached and what I grew up in professionally. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, I try to promote toughness with them. I tell them all the time, they don't make them like they used to. They just don't make them like they used to. Q. Are you sneaky athletic? NICK SABAN: Not like some of the guys that we have, I can tell you that. But I had a lot of fun playing. I loved the competition. But when I played, you played everything. When it was baseball season, you played baseball. Basketball season, you played basketball. Football season, you played football. I think there's a lot of benefit to that. I certainly enjoyed it when I was young, and I think that sometimes we encourage people to specialize too early when it's really a lot of fun just for them to play and compete. Q. Talk about your relationship with Dabo, what he means to you, just watching him grow as a coach and as a player. NICK SABAN: Well, I have a lot of respect for Dabo, and I really got to know him really well in the last few years. When we first came to Alabama and he was an assistant coach at Clemson, he was a guy that I was very interested in hiring because of his reputation as a coach, as a person, as a recruiter, and he made a good decision to stay at Clemson because he eventually became the head coach. But I also was interested in him because he was a former player at Alabama, and I always think it's good to have some of those people who connect you to different eras to be a part of your staff. But in the last few years, because we both have a place down at Boca and sometimes we have the same time off and we're able to get together family-wise and take a boat ride and talk about some of the issues and problems that we both sort of have to deal with, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I think he's done a fantastic job at Clemson in terms of how they develop players, the quality of players that they're able to recruit, and the good job that he does helping his players be successful, as well. I really have as much respect for Dabo as anybody in our profession. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Not at all. Not at all. Q. There's a perception of the seriousness of your program as opposed to kind of the lightheartedness of Clemson. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Not at all. I think it's made out that way with us. Our players have a tremendous amount of fun in our program. I think we try to teach our players what it takes to be successful, and sometimes that's not all fun and games. I think Clemson does the same thing. I just think there's a little different image out there in terms of how they do it, but I think if you asked our players, they enjoy themselves. They like what they do. They have fun. There's a high standard that I didn't necessarily establish. It's an expectation that we have at Alabama, and the responsibility that goes with that that I think requires a little bit of attention to detail sometimes. But you know, I think that -- I think it's because of me, all right, because I'm serious, that people make it out to be that way. But I'm not really that way around the players or my family or anybody else. Q. Are you tiring of that narrative, the serious Nick Saban? NICK SABAN: I've given up a long time ago on trying to emphasize certain people in certain professions about who I am, all right. So basically I am who I am, and I try to be a good person who sets a good example, not only for our players and our team but for our community. We have a Nick's Kids charity that tries to help a lot of people. So there's a lot of things that we do that people choose not to emphasize because it would not reinforce the image that you've all tried to create for who I am. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, Clemson has got a really good secondary, and they do play a lot of man-to-man coverage. They do play a lot of press coverage. They are very aggressive in the secondary. That makes them very difficult, and that's why they create a lot of negative plays, and that's why they play the kind of defense that they've played all year. They've been difficult to score on. Their front does a good job of stunting, creating negative plays, and their secondary does a really good job of covering, and it's the combination of those two things that I think makes it most effective. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: Well, we have several guys that have sort of filled that role, and I don't know that anybody could actually do that as well as Deshaun Watson does it. But Jalen did a really, really good job. He's very athletic, and I think that was a real plus for our team to have him there for a few days to be able to have that kind of quickness for us to try to react to. Q. (Inaudible.) NICK SABAN: It was certainly timely, and I don't ever recall that we've ever had that circumstance in the past. Q. (Question about Lane Kiffin.) NICK SABAN: You're asking about Lane? Yeah, Lane is a bright guy who is a very, very good coach. He's very good with the players. He's a great teacher. He's a really good play caller. He's got a very creative mind in terms of football. And I think a lot of the things that we do and the way we do it at Alabama probably is a good fit for things that he maybe can learn and build on and grow from that would help him be a head coach again. Q. How would you characterize Cyrus Jones over his career at Alabama? He sees himself kind of as an underdog sometimes? NICK SABAN: Well, Cyrus has been a really good player for us, and he has gotten better and better and better as time has gone on. In each of the years he's contributed and he's certainly had an outstanding year this year. I feel like I can't answer what motivates him, although I do think he's an intelligent guy that has a good understanding of what the expectation is for him to do, and he's done a good job of improving throughout his career and certainly had a great year for us this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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