Nick Saban
Nick Saban
Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Alabama, a position he has held since the 2007 season. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and three other universities: Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo. His eight-year contract totaling US$32 million made him one of the highest paid football coaches, professional or collegiate, in the United States at the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth31 October 1951
CityFairmont, WV
CountryUnited States of America
We have a goal for how many explosive plays that we want to make. We don't want to make those explosive plays at the expense of making poor decisions that are going to turn into turnovers and interceptions. Taking care of the ball and managing the game are more important than that.
I think he's going to need to play some. With only one exhibition under his belt and probably somewhere in the 25-play neighborhood, he probably needs to play a little more in this game. The plan in not playing him in the first game was with the idea that he would play in two games in his preparation for the season.
Managing the game is the most important thing. Gus has done a pretty good job of that. Turnovers are not killing us. We won the turnover battle in the games that we won and we didn't in the one that we lost.
Sure, I think that would put two good players together. We thought a lot about how we would implement that on offense and the fact that one of those players won't be here for some of the games in the beginning of the season would make it a little harder to develop at this point.
We had a chance to stop them at the end of the game and they bang us with a big play right off the bat, ... Those things are disappointing. I was very proud, though, of the way our players fought back in the game.
We are going to try to get him to be able to come back in the best possible condition and the best game readiness he can be in.
We felt like he did a good job in going in and playing significantly in the last game when Jason got hurt. There is nobody disappointed in his performance. That's where you have to be careful about stats. How many opportunities did he have that he didn't make? That would be a better assessment of what he has or hasn't done.
We want to see guys compete so we can know whether they need to be here, we want them to be here and if they are the kind of people we want. The record doesn't really matter, the result doesn't matter and the score in the game doesn't really matter.
I don't think anybody goes out there not knowing what to do, ... I don't think anybody doesn't know they didn't do it right after it happens. I just think that you are talking about a lot of different multiples and adjustments that have to occur. They happen quickly in the game and I think the more repetition you get on things like that, the more confidence the players gain in their ability to adjust.
He's done a good job. He has minimized his mental mistakes. He's become a starter and he has played fast in the games and made some plays. We (will) keep working with him in hopes that he'll be able to execute on a consistent basis and continue to eliminate those mental errors that can get him in trouble.
We looked at him last year, quite a bit. Kelly's a smart, experienced quarterback. He's very capable of managing a game and doing what they need him to do to have success and it will be up to us to execute what we have to, to try to stop it.
I don't know that tradition has ever won or lost a game. As far as I can tell, the field they have up there is 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep. They'll play 11. We'll play 11. The game will be decided on who does the best job of blocking and tackling and dominating the guys they play against.
Gus has a good understanding of the offense, he's very knowledgeable. And I think (he) can manage the game the best with a pretty young offensive team right now. . . . We weren't displeased with the job any of the quarterbacks did, but we felt that Gus would give us the best opportunity to be successful.
Gus did well, but he looked more comfortable and confident with the offense because he's played in the system before. I think we were a little tentative early in the game and I think the longer we played, the better we played.