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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: FLORIDA VS ALABAMA

December 2, 2016

Nick Saban

Atlanta, Georgia

THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue with Coach Saban. We'll ask Coach for his general thoughts on his team entering the game, and then we'll take some questions.

COACH SABAN: It's certainly a wonderful opportunity for our players to be able to compete in the 25th Annual SEC Championship Game. I'm very proud of what our team was able to accomplish throughout the course of the season to be able to have an opportunity to play against a very, very good Florida team, who has actually shown tremendous resiliency this year to overcome a lot of adversity and to win games they had to win to be able to get here.

We certainly have a lot of respect for our opponent, and we certainly know it's going to be a hard fought game, and our players are going to have to be at their very best to be able to have a chance to be successful in this particular game. We certainly tried to prepare them for that, and hopefully, we'll be ready for the challenge.

My experience in this game has been this is one of the best competitive venues that players have an opportunity to participate in, and this is something that we're very excited to be a part of.

Q. Nick, you've had multiple assistants go on to be head coaches. You've undoubtedly seen their growth and development to the point they were ready to be a head coach. Is Lane Kiffin ready to be a head coach again?
COACH SABAN: Absolutely. I think he's proven, when he was a head coach, he had a reasonably good amount of success, much more than I think he gets credit for, and he's done a phenomenal job in the three years that he's been with us relative to taking the players that we had and actually molding a system, especially for the quarterback to be successful in, and I think those are signs of tremendous maturity as a coach who is not just committed to a system, but is committed to doing the things that he has to do to help players be successful.

Q. Coach, could you expand on that a little bit about the way he's coached three different starting quarterbacks the past three years and that you're in a position to three-peat in the SEC. How challenging is that for a coordinator to pull that off?
COACH SABAN: Well, I think that, first of all, you have to have a lot of knowledge and experience, and to go from sort of a pro style running, play action pass sort of type system that we always were at Alabama to doing something that Blake Sims with his skill set could do three years ago. That's when we started to go no huddle. Lane wasn't really a no huddle guy, but we all organized a way that we could do that effectively and efficiently, and Blake Sims had a very successful career and, I think, set quite a few all time records at Alabama during that season.

Jake Coker a year ago, completely different type of guy, completely different type of offense. Featured Derrick Henry as a runner and play action passes, making explosive plays with the quarterback.

And then this year having a true freshman that we have done basically what he can do best, and he has developed so he can do more and more, and hopefully he'll continue to develop.

But I think these are all signs of -- you know, a lot of guys are committed to a system, and then they need to have the players that can fit into that system to make that system work. But I think it's a true sign of a really good coach who can take the players that he has and adapt the system to make it work for them.

Q. Coach, you've talked a lot about what this game means to you, what the competition in the conference is. What do you say to people who say Alabama hasn't played anyone this year because the SEC is maybe down?
COACH SABAN: I don't say anything to them because I haven't heard anybody say that. I thought the last time I looked, at least when we were going through the season, we played six or seven teams that were in the top 20 when we played them.

I think that sometimes, because teams beat each other in our league, that sort of affects how they get ranked and how they get rated. I've been pleased with the way our team has played against the competition that they've played against, and I've been in this league for a long time, and I didn't think we had easier games than we've ever had in the past.

I don't know who the expert is. I'm sure it's somebody in your area out there that is expert to make this sort of analogy or make this sort of assumption, but it probably is just an assumption.

Q. Congratulations, Coach, on winning the SEC West. What do you do to challenge your players so they don't get complacent with so many wins?
COACH SABAN: I think we always try to look forward, and players need to know they're only as good as their last play. Every player is getting evaluated on what he does next. We try to get our players be where their feet are. Do what you can affect today, whether it's a practice in preparation or it is actually a day that we're playing a game.

I think we challenge our players to be all that they can be, as people, as students, and as football players. Complacency is a blatant disregard for doing things correctly, and that's something that we try not to allow to happen because I don't think that helps people be successful.

Regardless of the success we've had this season, the legacy for this team lies in what they do ahead, in this next game and any opportunity they get to play beyond that. That's how this team will get remembered. If Florida wins a Championship, then that's what they'll get remembered for, and our players will have to next year, two years from now, five years from now when they tell their kids, we went undefeated, but we lost the SEC Championship Game.

So if you can't look forward to that challenge -- this team hasn't won a Championship, so they haven't accomplished what other teams have. So there's a lot of challenges left for this team.

Q. Nick, when you watch Florida's defense, specifically their front seven and guys like Caleb Brantley, what do you see and how disruptive can they be up the middle?
COACH SABAN: They're very disruptive, very athletic. Tremendous initial quickness up front. Very athletic group. Brantley is probably as good a player as any in college football in his position, in terms of how difficult he is to block, and I think that's what makes great defensive players.

I think they're very athletic. I think they run extremely well, and I think, as much as I say about their front seven, the back end is probably as good as any we've played, especially when it comes to playing man-to-man in close coverage and making it difficult. You've got to make tight throws because of the kind of coverage they play.

Q. Coach Nussmeier has been getting a lot of criticism in Florida because of Florida's offensive numbers. What sort of offensive coordinator was he for you, and what were your thoughts when he left to go to Michigan?
COACH SABAN: He did a great job for us. I mean, we had success with him as our coordinator. He's a hard worker. He's very bright. He's a good play caller. And I think that he did outstanding. I didn't want him to leave when he left, and we were disappointed, but it was a great opportunity for him. He's, I think, doing a good job with the players that he has right now.

When you have a lot of injuries and you don't have any consistency in the people that are playing, it makes it more difficult to be able to play with consistency.

Q. Coach, a couple of things. One, if you -- you won't necessarily tell us. Have you given any thought at all to how long you want to coach? And another question as well, you talk about keeping players -- I assume keeping them focused on what's ahead is the biggest challenge as a coach. How do you do that in yourself when you've had so much success to keep striving for more?
COACH SABAN: The best way I can describe it is I hate to lose more than I like winning. So this next game is the game we can lose. I'm not love in what we did last week or the week before that or the whole season. The challenge is the next game because that's the game we can lose, and I hate losing more than I like winning.

My motive as a coach is to help put our players in the best possible position to help them be successful in the game. That comes from our preparation, our teaching, our coaching, whether it's physically, psychologically, emotionally, however you want to couch it. That's how I see my job.

I want to win for the players. I want the players to play their best. I want them to feel good and have the self-respect after the game that I played my best game. Whether we win or we lose, I did everything that I could do to make it happen. That's kind of what my goal has always been as a coach is how can I help our players be the best that they can be as players?

Now, to address the other part of it, I love coaching. I love it. I've done it for a long time. I never wanted to be a coach to start with. Don James talked me into being a graduate assistant when I was coming out of college. I didn't want to do it. My wife had another year of school was the only reason I did it, and I've been doing it ever since, and I love it.

But I think we all have fears sometimes. You have to face your fears. When you start getting up there, you say, I wonder how long I'm going to be able to do this. I'm going to do it as long as I feel like I can do a good job of it, and I'm healthy enough to do it. That's always been what I've wanted to do, and as long as I can keep doing it, I'll be happy doing it.

Q. This year the Florida defense has had a habit of making life pretty miserable for a freshman or a quarterback who's starting for the first time. When you made the decision to go with Jalen, what separated him or made him different from just another freshman quarterback?
COACH SABAN: Well, we've never had another freshman quarterback, so I can't really compare him to anybody else, but I can only talk to you about him. We felt like he gave us the best opportunity to be successful because of his skill set and what he could do as a player.

And there's two things that you really can't coach. You can't coach experience, and you can't coach maturity, but this guy has maturity beyond his years. Maybe it's because his dad was a coach or his coach or whatever, and the thing that I think has helped him persevere through the season and continue to improve through the season is he doesn't get down when things don't go well. The very first play that he played against Southern Cal, he fumbled the ball, and he came back and played fairly well. I would say most freshmen playing against Southern Cal, first time you've ever been in a college game, if that happened the first play, it would have some impact and effect on the next play and the next play and the next play, and it didn't. I think that's what's helped him.

And hopefully, our players around him are going to have to play really well tomorrow. They're going to have to play really well against a good defense because quarterback is a hard position to play if the people around you don't play well. If the left tackle can't block the defensive end, it's hard to play quarterback. If we can't run the ball effectively, it's hard to play quarterback when you're behind on down and distance all the time.

So our whole team is going to have to play well to help our quarterback have a chance to be successful in this game.

Q. What do you think the biggest difference between the Florida offense you played last year in this game is and this one is?
COACH SABAN: Well, I think this Florida offense is much more capable in making explosive plays. I think they have two receivers that are phenomenal athletes that have great speed, that have made explosive plays throughout the season. I think their ability to run the football is very, very good, and their quarterbacks have managed their offense really, really well.

Last year the quarterback was very athletic. So you always worried about him running and beating you with his feet. But this year, I think, as a total team, they're much more capable with more weapons and quarterbacks who can take advantage of those weapons.

Q. Talk about what McElwain brought to this program when he was there. How did you identify him, though, across the country? He hadn't been around for too long.
COACH SABAN: Pat Hill and I coached together at the Cleveland Browns, and Pat Hill was the head coach at Fresno State. I always sort of out there with my ear to the ground about who the best guys are at every position, coordinators, whatever they coach, so that when you have a situation in the future, you can have a list of people that you might be interested in.

Pat had talked very highly about Jim. So when the time came and we needed a coordinator, Jim was one of the guys highest on my list. When I interviewed him, I was very impressed with him as a person as well as a football coach. What I said at the luncheon, which was very true, I had a hard time talking him into coming to Alabama. If you were the offensive coordinator at Fresno State and you could be the offensive coordinator at Alabama, I would have thought that was pretty good, but I had to talk him into doing it. That's how loyal he was and how humble he was, but he did a fabulous job for us.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH SABAN: About three days, which you don't know anything about me, but my patience, three days is a long time for me.

Q. Coach, you mentioned you hated losing. Losing this game in '08, how did that feel '09 and then what was to come? Talk about that part of it.
COACH SABAN: Well, I don't -- all I know is we're on the other end of that. And I haven't thought much about '08 and '09, based on where we are right now, which I think is in '16, and we're trying to look forward, not look back. But I think that players are always more interested in changing, doing the things that they need to do to be successful when things don't go well. It's part of human nature.

I said it earlier. Complacency creates a blatant disregard for doing what's right, and when you don't do things the right way, it affects the process of what you have to do to be successful. It affects the discipline that you need to be able to stay on task to do the things that are going to help you be successful. That's something that we have to make sure that we aren't. When we lose a game, everybody wants to do what they can to fix it, and we haven't done that.

So we have to rely on guys' competitive character, their pride and performance, what they want to accomplish, what they want to do in terms of their legacy as a team. And as I said before, that all gets defined by how we finish. You know, finishing everything is really, really important.

I had an interesting scenario this week that you talk about traditions, you know, Alabama has great football traditions, but then you have Coach Bear Bryant who wears houndstooth, and houndstooth is still a big part of Alabama tradition. Nobody really -- does anybody know what capstone means? Capstone really is the last stone. It means you finished. You built your Temple. You finished. That's what it means. That's what capstone means. That's a part of our tradition at Alabama. We call it the capstone. It's about finishing.

So what is this about? For our team, it's about finishing. So to do everything we can to make our guys understand what it takes to finish against a very, very good team. And it's a challenge because they are a good team.

Q. Coach, I know, again, you don't like looking necessarily at legacy stuff, but this could be, if you guys win two, three more games here, could win your sixth National Title as a coach. Bear Bryant is the only one to do that. What would that mean to you if you thought at all about that?
COACH SABAN: I haven't thought about it. I'm not thinking about it. I'm focusing on what can I do for our players so we have a chance to win the SEC Championship tomorrow, and that's really all I'm focusing on.

I'm really -- regardless of what happens beyond that, it's going to be about the players on this team. They've worked hard. They've done a lot. The coaches and players on this team have worked hard and contributed and deserve all the credit for all the success that this team has created for itself. Hopefully, we can just do enough to help them finish so that they can do something of significance that will define their legacy as a team. We're focused on that one day at a time.

I talked about be where your feet are. I'm right here right now. This is what's important, and this is what we have to focus on.

I do want to thank everybody here. I don't get an opportunity to do this that often. I know a lot of people think that I'm not a fan of the media, and that's not necessarily true. I certainly appreciate what you do to do your job well and how you cover our team and how you create a lot of positive self-gratification for a lot of our players by the things that you write about them and the recognition that they get. So thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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