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DISCOVER BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: ALABAMA v NOTRE DAMEJanuary 7, 2013Eddie LacyC.J. MosleyNick SabanMIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA ALABAMA – 42 JOHN HUMENIK: We'll ask Coach and each of the two players to provide a brief thought on the game tonight. Coach Saban. COACH NICK SABAN: I would say that regardless of the result that this team achieved that they certainly exceeded every expectation that we had for them with the number of guys we graduated last year, the number of new roles, young players, injuries, the adversity that this team had to overcome. These guys really battled. And people talk about how the most difficult thing is to win your first championship. Really the most difficult is to win the next one, because there's always a feeling of entitlement, and the commitment that these guys made two days after we played LSU last year in the National Championship game to be a team, to set a goal to accomplish something of significance is really special for what they were able to accomplish. So I've never been prouder of a group of young men for what they were able to do, their legacy as a team certainly gets sort of defined by what they were able to accomplish this entire season but especially in what they were able to accomplish tonight. I thank our fans and supporters, the University community that's been very, very supportive, Dr.Witt, our chancellor, our president Mal Moore, our athletic director. All those people have been very supportive, the entire university community, and we have the greatest fans in the world that have been very supportive, and I know the players really appreciate that. EDDIE LACY: Well, I think for one of the first times this season we were able to come out and play a complete game. I mean, we had slow starts at times, but we was able to come back and put a couple drives together and score. Even though my teammates ain't here, the offense, I thank them, because without them I wouldn't be here right now. And Coach Saban, he's a great coach, and I thank him, as well. C.J. MOSLEY: It was just a complete game for offense, defense and special teams. We talked about making tackles on defense, changing the game on special teams and starting fast on offense, and that's exactly what we did, so we came out strong, then we finished our full game. Q. Coach, this is your fourth trip to the podium for a National Championship, and you seem to be really, really composed and almost dry, and you have the most serious expression on your face of any coach that I think I've ever seen win a championship. What's fun about this one? And what's different about this one from the other three? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, you know, I'm extremely pleased and happy, and I'm really happy for all the people, the players, the coaches, all the people who made the sacrifices and the hard work to accomplish this, our entire football family, the people at the institution who support our program, our fans. You know, it's not about me. It's really about seeing all those people being happy and being proud of what this team was able to accomplish. That's the thing that makes me happy, and whether I look it or not, I'm happy as hell. (Laughter.) Q. Some teams go all in, some teams build for the future. Can you just talk about the challenge of having success in the present while always kind of looking towards the future, building towards the future and staying with the process. COACH NICK SABAN: Well, I think there's no continuum of success. The process begins, but it's ongoing, and in a couple days from now, we have players that may go out for the draft. We have to help them make good decisions about what their future is. We have other players that need to develop that will have new roles on our team next year. We have to recruit character quality players to represent our program. So the process is ongoing. And if you don't pay attention to that, you're not going to stay up. We got here by five yards. Georgia was five yards away from scoring. So it's a pretty tough league that we play in, and we're going to have to continue to try to improve as a program to have an opportunity to win the SEC Championship or the National Championship ever again because of the competition in our league. Look, we're really happy, we're really pleased, we're really proud of what we have to do here. We're going to enjoy it for 24 hours or whatever. It's something that you accomplish that you're always proud of, and I'm especially proud of this team because they were able to repeat. That is hard to do. That is very, very hard to do. I mentioned that before. It takes special people who have special character and a special will because you're always fighting yourself when you try to repeat something. The first time you're all charged up, but the second time you have to challenge your will to do it. And these guys did it, and I'm extremely, extremely pleased and happy for them and proud of them. Q. Coach, one question for you and one for you and Eddie: First of all, I know you've been reluctant to use the word "dynasty", but really with what you've accomplished in three of the last four years, isn't that a fitting word now? And also, the relationship between AJ and Barrett Jones has been documented, kind of an antagonistic brother‑type relationship. Can you talk about seeing that happen tonight? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, that's just AJ. That's the kind of relationship I have with him. (Laughter.) But no, AJ is a leader, he's a competitor, he's a fiery guy. I think he has a tremendous amount of respect for the competitors who play around him. But I also think that he lets his personality come out, and I think people respect that. And I don't think he does it in a negative way, and I think there's probably nobody in the world that respects Barrett Jones and what he's accomplished any more than what AJ does. I mean, the guys that play around him have enabled him to be very successful, and I know he really appreciates that. I don't think words like "dynasty" are really words that I'm much interested in. You know, we're interested in accomplishment and consistency in performance, and we want to continue to try to do that in the future. So those are for other people to talk about. EDDIE LACY: You know, AJ is a leader, like Coach said, and you know, everything is based on timing, and every once in a while they get into it like that. They're both high energy players. I don't think there's nothing negative about it, though, just reaction. Q. Nick, can you place in perspective how good this offensive line is compared to all the offensive lines you've seen in your career? Have you ever seen a better one than this? And did you do anything different to change it up at the start of the game tonight to make you so successful? COACH NICK SABAN: First of all, I think this may be the best offensive line, and I don't like to make comparisons, that we've ever had or been associated with. We had a really good group that included Flozell Adams earlier in my career when I was at Michigan State that was a pretty good group. But this group has a lot of experience, and they play with a lot of consistency, and the power, the toughness, how physical they are I think is probably a pretty unique quality. And I know that we have some really good backs, too, because those guys‑‑ Eddie makes them miss in the line, and then gains 20 yards and they're beating their chest about how they blocked him. (Laughter). They block them good, don't get me wrong, but it's a combination I think of all 11 players that we have. The fine running backs that we have, the quarterback that we have that doesn't allow people to just load up the box because we can make big plays down the field, the receivers that we have. So this was really an outstanding offensive team. Q. Coach Saban, what would you say surprised you the most about how your team performed tonight? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, you know, Notre Dame had a really highly sort of statistical defensive team, and I thought that a real challenge for us in the game is how we would control the line of scrimmage, and I think that that's probably the thing that was the most surprising to me is how we were able to control the line of scrimmage, especially early in the game. We had a really good plan, and players did a really good job of executing it. But I didn't think that we would be able to control the line of scrimmage. I think their guys got a little tired early in the game. I think it was a little easier for us to play in these conditions with the humidity and all that because that's what we grow up with, but that's probably the thing that surprised me most in the game, because I have a tremendous amount of respect, especially for their front seven. They had a very good football team. Q. Could you just elaborate a little bit more, you said you had a plan coming in. What was the plan, and can you explain how it worked? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, you know, I think we did a really good job of executing it, but we packaged runs together, we packaged runs with passes. AJ does a really good job of getting us in the right plays. I think with the time that we had to prepare, our players had a really good understanding of Notre Dame's defense and how they played defense. They play a 3‑4 defense, which is similar to ours, so it wasn't a unique thing for our players to get accustomed to. Just did a really good job of executing, getting in the right plays, and especially blocking the edges, and the runners did a great job of running the ball. Q. Coach and C.J., talk about the plan you had and how it was executed on containing Golson, not letting him get outside the pocket tonight? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, I guess you didn't see a couple fits I threw over there when he got outside the pocket. We gave up a critical 3rd down and 18 when we rushed three guys one time, which Kirby never likes to do, and I'll take credit for that one. But he's a very athletic guy. I thought we did a pretty good job of pushing the pocket and at times we got pretty good pressure on him, and I think we sacked him once or twice but couldn't finish on him. But when we did break contain, he usually made us pay for it and they got a couple of explosive plays. I didn't think we played from a coverage standpoint in the second half probably as aggressively as we needed to when they were throwing the ball all the time, and didn't get off the field a couple times when we had the opportunities. But I think that guy is going to be one of the outstanding quarterbacks in the country in the future. He's a very good passer, much, much better than people give him credit for, accurate, strong arm, and very athletic. Q. Same question for C.J. C.J. MOSLEY: Our main goal was just to stay in our position as far as containing him. We had a quarterback that got out of the pocket a lot and hurt us a lot during the regular season, so I think our defense respected him more as a runner and as passer. So we did what we had to do to contain him, but when he got out he made some plays. But overall we did a pretty good job of containing him. Q. Eddie I believe started out his first comment was, he thought this was the first time this season that you really played a complete game. What is your view of that? And what was the key to getting that off? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, I think that the thing that we really tried to emphasize with our players was the legacy of this team would be sort of determined by how they finished, and it's something that we really emphasized for this game because Notre Dame is very good at getting off blocks, so we felt like we had to finish blocks, we had to finish plays, we had to finish runs, we had to tackle well on defense, finish well. I mean, finish was like the big deal. So playing 60 minutes in the game was also a point of emphasis for us, which it always is, and I thought our players did a good job of that. I was a little bit disappointed in the way we started the second half, you know, defensively, but I think we did play a complete game. I think that all the players did a really good job. You don't beat a good team like Notre Dame, who was the No.1 team in the country for a reason, without everybody really playing well, and I thought they were relentless in the way they competed in the game, and I was really proud of that. Q. Do you ever allow yourself to look at your career in sort of historical perspective among the history of college coaches, three at Alabama, four overall? Do you allow yourself to reflect like that? COACH NICK SABAN: Not really. I mean, I'm happy for this team. I'm happy for our fans. I think a lot of people are responsible for the things that we were able to accomplish. I've talked about it and talked about it, the university community, our president, our chancellor, our athletic director. We've got great fans, we have great players. I mean, every player that's played for Alabama for the last six years since I've been there all deserve a lot of credit for this, and a lot of those guys came to Alabama when we weren't any good. I was getting killed down here. My credibility wasn't much. So they believed in the program and believed in what we could accomplish, and because those players chose to come to Alabama, we've had a lot of success. We've had a lot of really good players that are really good people. We have a very good graduation rate, and we have guys that represent our institution, their families and themselves in a first‑class way, and I'm really proud of that. Q. You're just the third college team ever to win three National Championships in a four‑year span. Do you think someday when you retire, what have you, you'll look back and say, hey, that was pretty special what we accomplished back then? COACH NICK SABAN: Yeah, I think it's pretty special what we've accomplished, what the players accomplished, what the coaches accomplished, I think it's really special. And one of these days when I'm sitting on the side of a hill watching the stream go by, I'll probably figure it out even more. But what about next year's team? You've got to think about that, too. Q. How about going for four of five? Nobody has ever done that. COACH NICK SABAN: Well, I'm not ready to go there yet. Give me 24 hours on this one. (Laughter.) Q. Just curious, how long will you allow yourself to actually enjoy this? COACH NICK SABAN: Well, we kind of have a 24‑hour rule, but Wednesday we have to go to work, people have to make decisions about their future. We need to get our players moving in the right direction. We start school on Wednesday. It's ongoing. You know, we have a lot of people in our program who are very supportive of our players, and I want to make sure that we continue to be supportive of the players and that they do the right thing. You know, just because we won the National Championship doesn't mean you don't have to go do the right things the right way at the right time like you're always supposed to, whether it's school, being a good person, whatever it is. This does not entitle you not to do the right thing. So we're going to help them do that starting Wednesday. Q. With Barrett playing three different positions and winning three national titles, do you consider him one of the top offensive linemen in the history of college football? COACH NICK SABAN: I think he's one of the top people in college football in the history of college football, as you put it. I'm talking about you can't find a better person that has more character, that's more willing to serve other people, a better student because he's a 4.0, and has accomplished all the things that he's accomplished as a football player, winning the Outland Trophy, making All‑American, playing center, guard and tackle, every position you could play, and he's very well liked by everybody on the team. I'm not sure that I know anybody on our team that doesn't like him, so that's saying a lot. You could never say any of those things about me; I can promise you that. (Laughter.) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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