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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: ALABAMA VS OKLAHOMA

December 27, 2018

Nick Saban

Miami Gardens, Florida

NICK SABAN: This has certainly been a wonderful opportunity for our team and our players. I think the people from the Orange Bowl have done a marvelous job, and their hospitality, the city of Miami, has done an outstanding job with their hospitality. We've had a good week here, and it's a tremendous challenge to be able to play a great program like Oklahoma. Very well-coached team. They've had a tremendous amount of success, and they've got some outstanding players. If you're a great competitor, I guess you love playing in games like this, so that's a challenge for our players.

We're looking forward to it, and we're just happy to be here.

Q. You've been here to a lot of these big games, these big moments. Do they change for you, or is it same the same ol' same ol' really?
NICK SABAN: It's never the same ol' same ol'. You're always looking forward. You're trying to control what you can control. Every game, every team is a new challenge, our team and the team that you're competing against.

You know, trying to maintain focus with everybody, not get distracted by a lot of external factors and noise out there, as well as be deliberate in terms of the mental intensity and focus that you have in practice every day to prepare for the game, which is a real key to the drill. And I think when you're away from home, it's a challenge for all of us, and I've been pleased with the way our players have done that so far this week.

Q. Can you talk about just the stage that's been set of getting to the College Football Playoff and the expectation of not just getting here but winning a national title that you have and your players have?
NICK SABAN: Well, I think that all teams have goals and aspirations for what they want to try to accomplish in every season. I think we've had, over the last 10, 11 years, a lot of players in our program, coaches in our program who have established a standard of excellence that every other player that comes in the program sort of tries to emulate. We know we can't win every game, and we know we can't be perfect, but we're certainly trying to work every day to close the gap on how good can we be, and are we reaching our full potential in how we improve and work every day.

I don't like for our players to think about expectations. I don't like to think about winning championships. I really like for them to think about what do I have to do to be a champion, how do I have to sort of prepare every day, manage my time, take care of myself, be on top of what I'm doing to be the best version of myself as a person, as a student and as a football player, and I think if we get the majority of the people on our team to be dependable and responsible in that regard, we'll certainly play together as a team, have a lot of positive energy, and everybody will be trying to execute in a way that won't allow the other team -- we won't give the other team a lot. And I think that's always the goal.

Q. I know you've been in this stadium six years ago I guess it was. Beyond that, when you walk in this building, what kind of memories do you have?
NICK SABAN: Well, I have a lot of great memories. We really enjoyed being here. Wayne and Marti Huizenga were great people to be associated with, to work for. I think I told somebody just last night at dinner that I probably have never been around more gracious people in all my life in terms of what they did for this community and what they did for a lot of people and really the opportunity that they gave us and how they supported us in the opportunity.

So we have a lot of friends here. We always look forward to coming back here. We wish things would have worked out a little better for us in terms of winning a few more games, but we enjoyed the experience, and the experience helped me become a better person and a better coach.

Q. Do you look at college coaching differently after that NFL experience, and if so, how?
NICK SABAN: Well, I think coaching in the NFL was a great experience. I think when you're in the NFL, basically you have two goals: How do you make the players on your team better, and how do you bring players to your team to help your team get better.

I think in college, the scope is a little greater. You know, you're trying to -- you have people at a different sort of time in their life where you're trying to help them be more successful in life because they were involved in your program, whether it's personal development, graduating from college, developing a career off the field, trying to develop a career and doing the things that they need to do to develop a career as a football player and having an opportunity to play at the next level. So there's a lot of things that you're trying to help a guy grow and develop in, which is challenging, but also there is some positive self-gratification that goes along with that.

So I know how important winning is to our fans and all the people, but from a program standpoint, you're trying to build something that creates value for the players. We try to reinvest as much as we can in the players so they have a better chance to be successful, and that's a different kind of challenge, I think.

Q. Do you think that was a better fit for you in the end? Is that what you found?
NICK SABAN: I enjoy it. I enjoy coaching, and the NFL was a great experience for me. I learned a lot that made me better. I enjoyed the relationships that I had with the players. And I love college coaching. The spirit of the community in a university setting is something that's pretty special.

Q. (Indiscernible).
NICK SABAN: Well, I think that's a challenge. I think it's pretty natural to be in a situation like this, and I call them external factors, you know, that can sort of distract you from the focus that you need to have on the task at hand. We talk to the players a lot about that. We try to get them to be -- I call it deliberate and deep in what they're doing every day in practice. Have a purpose in what you want to try to accomplish and what you want to try to do, understand how that's going to help you play better in the game, and focus on those things. When we're not involved in football, it's okay to be involved with your family. That balance is probably good.

But everybody has got to make good choices and decisions about what they do and what they don't do, so it helps them take advantage of their gifts. We're constantly trying to get our players to understand that, that the choices and decisions that they make can be very powerful and positive, but they also can be pretty detrimental if you don't make good choices and decisions.

Q. Tua said that he was 80 to 85 percent. How do you think his progression is health-wise?
NICK SABAN: Tua has had a good week this week. He's done things in practice that make you feel as though he doesn't have lingering issues. He's been able to move around in the pocket. He's been able to throw the ball in the run. Last week when we were practicing back in Tuscaloosa, there were signs that maybe he wasn't a hundred percent, but it seems like this week he's getting closer and closer to that.

Q. What's been your defense's specialty this season?
NICK SABAN: Well, I think the defense has sort of been a little bit of a work in progress this year. We lost a bunch of guys last year. We had a lot of new faces, a lot of inexperience, guys that were in different roles than what they've been in in the past, probably didn't have quite as much depth going into the season. So we had some younger players that needed to develop.

And I think the players did a really good job of developing the confidence that they needed. I thought early in the season maybe we made a lot of mental errors. People were a little uncertain, not really secure in -- they knew what to do, but they were almost a little afraid to do it, and being aggressive and assertive in communication and playing together. That's sort of developed in a very positive way throughout the course of the year, and I think that's helped our performance quite a bit.

Q. With respect to Patrick Surtain II as a freshman, how impressed you've been with him and how he's been able to adapt to college football life.
NICK SABAN: Patrick has done a really, really good job for us this year. He's got a maturity about him that's beyond his years, and he's been a really, really consistent player. He's bright, he's smart, he's got very good football intuition. He understands what you're trying to get done and what you're trying to do and goes out there and executes it fairly well, especially for his experience and his age.

You know, we sort of brought him along in the first couple games, we just played him about half the time, and then he became a starter, and he's just done a really good job, and he's a phenomenal person. Really never been in my office since he's been there for not doing what he's supposed to do. He's really conscientious, good person, cares about other people, cares about his teammates, and is very conscientious in his work. I think all those characteristics have helped him to be able to play early on and play very effectively.

Q. Most of the time when we see you you're a very serious guy. A lot of your players say you're very funny. We don't see that side.
NICK SABAN: Look, it's my fault, whatever it is. I get that. For a long time, I thought that I was misunderstood to some degree, but I also feel like that's my fault, in terms of how you present yourself. You know, Miss Terry talks about having a blind spot, which is how you perceive yourself and how everybody else perceives you, you know, the part in the middle. And she said mine is as big as a Grand Canyon. I think that probably sums it up pretty well.

But look, I think having good relationships with the players and not being uptight around the players is probably something that helps them. They need to know that you care about them. I don't think there's any player that really cares what you know until they know that you care. I really do enjoy the relationships that I have with our players on our team. I think it's a real positive that we have so many players that when they leave Alabama, whether they go to the NFL or not, they're all anxious to come back and sort of renew the acquaintances and the relationships that they developed while they were in the program, and I think that's a real positive.

Q. Tua just told us that he expects to be 100 percent. If he's at 80 or 85, will you not start him?
NICK SABAN: Look, I'm not really a medical expert. The medical staff makes the decision about whether a guy is capable of playing and going out there and doing his job, and then I think the player has to sort of have input on that, as well. In other words, medical staff can say he's fine, but if the player doesn't think he's fine, then he's not fine. Joe Namath used to always tell the old story about when he got his first knee operation when he was playing at Alabama, Coach Bryant told him, he said, "How do you feel?" He said, "It really hurts" and Coach Bryant said, "that's all in your head," and he said, "it hurts just the same."

So if it's in your head that you can do it or can't do it, that goes a long way for me as a coach to know whether you think you can go do your job or not. Those decisions that we make between now and then, he'll have input as to whether he feels like he can go out there and do his job or not.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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