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
I'm getting too old to run (or) jog. We have fun. It's probably good for the staff that we get together and do something like that.
He put half of our defensive team in the training room for a week every time we played him. The thing that separates (Brown) from the other running backs available in this draft was his versatility and the number of things that he could do as a football player. I'm surprised that other people ... have not made a more significant emphasis about the versatility this guy has.
Philosophically, they want to establish the run, ... The most important aspect in the game was we stopped the run early.
He did a fantastic job, especially at the end of the game. That's the toughest it ever gets. They're trying to take the air out of him. They're putting them all out there to stop you. He broke two runs that were as big as any in the game.
The offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage much better in this game. When you run the ball for five yards per carry, that's a good job. And we had pretty decent protection for the quarterbacks.
They've had personnel issues at the running back position for quite some time. They are getting those guys back now and I think those guys are playing better and better. I think they're as healthy as they've been all year. I think that's the key to it. They ran the ball effectively down here. Heath Evans was basically playing tailback. I don't think there is anything wrong with their running game; I just think that they haven't had all the players available in all the right spots being healthy this year that can help them develop the running game more quickly, but it's certainly developing nicely now.
Even though our offensive line did a really good job this year, it is an area of our team that we may be able to add something to that might enhance it even more, especially with the kind of running backs that we have. I don't think we have an older guy on our team who is not capable of continuing to play. I think the issue becomes, can they do it and sustain it for the season? Those are the tough decisions that we have to make, but we are going to have to do that with defensive players because we need to get younger.
I think that he needs to play some, I really do. With only one exhibition game under his belt, he probably needs to play a little bit more in this game.
There's an old saying, ... If a rattlesnake bites itself, it still dies.
He had a lot of tough yards out there.
I've looked at all of them. Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't look at the menu, right?
The analogy that I like to use is it doesn't do a lot of good to buy a condo on the beach that the mortgage is so high on it you can't put any furniture in it. You have no couch or TV. And a part of this process is to be able to inspect that condo and make sure that it's worth what you think it might be worth.
That is the challenge for me, to keep answering them the same way.
I really tried to make this about our team, coming back here to play, I really do feel this was coming home to play a game and it was exciting for me. It was exciting to be back in Tiger Stadium.