Alabama Football: Coach Saban On The SEC Coaches Teleconference Call

On Wednesday, the Southeastern Conference held their weekly teleconference call with the SEC Coaches. Here are the highlights from Coach Saban’s time on that call.

In his short opening statement, Saban says the team is excited to get things going this weekend in conference play with the Florida Gators. He gives credit to the Florida Gators for being vastly improved from last season until now. He also added that they are showing great balance on offense and defense. From the few player interviews this week, the team sounds ready to face a run heavy offense and to get a break from facing the uptempo offenses of college football.

On a question about his mentors, Coach Saban listed Don James, Bill Belechick and George Perless as his. He said he learned his coaching philosophy from Don James and also credits assistants who have worked under him as people he has learned a lot from as well.

Coach Saban said his responsibility is to Alabama football when asked a question about affecting Coach Will Muschamp’s job security. He believes that Muschamp is doing a great job at Florida and was dealt a tough hand, especially with all of the injuries Florida had to deal with last season.

On the pluses of “icing the kicker”: Saban says he sometimes does it but sometimes he doesn’t. “Why not do it? Why not affect his rhythm?”, he addded.

According to Saban, the offensive line is still a work in progress. If you remember from prior practice reports, there has been a lot of shifting at right guard with Leon Brown and Alphonse Taylor each getting snaps with the ones from week to week. Saban says the defensive line is a young group but believes they have the right combination in place there. Someone asked a question specifically about the job freshman left tackle Cameron Robinson has done thus far. Saban said that he is happy with his progress and that he has improved in each game he has played in this season.

As we all know, Saban said that there was a communication issue on the defensive side of the ball during the West Virginia game. Getting Trey DePriest back was huge for the defense. Saban said DePriest offers stability on the defense and that he makes calls for the front while Landon Collins makes them for the back.

With all of the recent events in the NFL with domestic violence and child abuse, Saban says they use all of those as an example to teach players from Alabama.

On officials missing calls: Saban says that the team can only control what they can control. The coaching staff teaches the players to execute better so maybe they won’t be in position to have those things affect them on the field.

On Alabama’s running backs: Saban says they all know that they won’t wear them out so that their shelf life may be extended and can have a chance to shine in the NFL. He said that they have different things built in to the offense so that they all get touches, as long as they are doing the right things (fumbling, turnovers. etc). He added they must check their egos at the door.