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Thumps Hilltoppers 41-7 These are the post game comments and interviews with Coach Nick Saban following the Western Kentucky game … Coach Nick Saban … Well, we really did play kind of like we wanted to play last week. We started off the game with a three-and-out defensively. It was a real positive in setting the tone for the game. Then we had an 11-12 play drive for a touchdown. So we started the game out well, but more importantly we finished. We came out the second half and had a long drive but had to settle for a field goal. But that’s what we wanted to accomplish … to come out and re-establish the tempo in the second half. But the goal in this game was to go prove you could play to your capacity, that you could play your best football because of the competitive character you had. And you could do it in executing and be responsible and accountable to do your job on every play in the game and bring it on every play in the game with the kind of toughness you need to dominate competitively. And I think our team did that. We were pleased with it. We got to play a lot of players, which was a real positive for us. We can make some evaluations and know what we need to relative to our depth with some of the young players that got to play tonight. So it was good both ways. You know, I wish we hadn’t kept the ball so long because there were some defensive players we wanted to see play a little more but it didn’t work out that way. Press Pool … Coach, can you talk about the balance you had in your offense and how encouraging that is. Coach Saban … That’s what we always strive for is to be able to run the football and control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. I thought our defensive guys did a great job up front. We played with 5 guys in the box a lot. We played with 6 defensive backs a lot. These guys (Western Kentucky) run the ball pretty effectively with their offense and I thought we did a pretty good job. We did a really good job controlling the line of scrimmage and running the ball effectively and made some explosive plays in the passing game. That’s something we need to continue to do. We still had a few plays that were miscues in the passing game that we need to clean up and not have those negative plays occur. But all in all, I was really pleased with the balance we had on especially on offense in terms of “run” - “pass”. Press Pool ... Coach, John Michael Boswell was an early sub tonight on the offensive line. Can you comment on his role tonight and what role he might continue to play? Well, the whole point was we had a plan that we were going to play him in this game no matter what. No matter what the score was, we were going to put him in the game and play him at Right Tackle because he’s made nice progress and done a good job, but had never had the opportunity to play in a game. We wanted to play him last week, but didn’t get the chance to. Thought about putting him in the Clemson game … didn’t work out. The defense was out there and we never got the ball back. So we were going to play him in the game tonight regardless and evaluate how he did. We’d like to get someplace where we don’t have to play Mike Johnson as a 3rd tackle. We also played Drew (Davis) at Left Tackle when we took Smitty (Andre Smith) out. We’d rather have three tackles, three guards and a center so then you don’t have to realign the entire front when you lose a guy. John Michael has made the most progress of any of the young players. What kind of things overall … talking about the offensive line … were you most pleased with the consistency out of them? Well, we got them blocked. We didn’t get them blocked last week and didn’t execute very well. I think there was a different style of defense we played against tonight., They didn’t move around a lot. They didn’t stunt as much. They didn’t run the backers through, which is what gave us problems in the Tulane game even though we practiced it, we just didn’t execute it very well. We just did a better job of executing and were more physical. Coach, this multiple back system seems to be working pretty well … almost 300 yards rushing tonight … (281 yds / 49 rushes) … What are your thoughts on that? I thought Glenn (Coffee) and Mark (Ingram) both did a pretty good job. We wanted to give Terry Grant a chance. He got a couple of carries in the first half. We would have played him a lot more but he dinged his shoulder a little bit. I don’t think it’s serious. I think it’s a rotator cuff strain. At least that’s the early prognosis. Hopefully, we’ll get him back quickly because he is a guy that can make plays for us. Roy (Upchurch) has consistently done a good job for us. We played him at some fullback tonight as well. He’s done a good job all the way through. You mentioned some of the big strikes on offense and getting a lot of the receivers involved … what was working better in the passing game and how do you think John Parker Wilson did? John Parker has done a really good job for us all year. He threw an interception tonight when he should have thrown the ball to the check-down. We hit one time for a big play with four streaks. They really dropped deep on it the next time and he should have thrown the ball to the check down. The guy jumps up and makes an interception, which changes the field position. We had stopped them on defense, but they get the ball back in good field position and eventually we gave up a big play on defense and they scored. But John Parker did a really good job in the game. I thought he was accurate throwing the ball. I thought we had some drops. I thought we had some miscues in the passing game that we need to continue to clean up. That’s the part of our game we need to continue to improve. We have to get the receivers playing with more consistency and get every thing in … you know … better sync with the quarterback and receivers. The protection was better. We picked up blitzes better. I think we missed on a hot (blitz) on a 3rd down, which led to us not converting. But we’re getting better and making progress. Coach, Julio Jones basically doubled his statistics tonight. Was it kind of a game plan to get him more involved? No, we try to get him involved all the time. We try to get everyone involved. But everyone’s got to get open too. They’ve got to play fast and do what they’ve got to do to do their part. They played off-coverage tonight, which gave some gifts over there in terms of what we could do with him. We got him the ball and he did some nice things with it in the game. I hope that helps his confidence and helps him understand that when he does things correctly and plays fast, he’s going to have a better opportunity to be successful, which is what we’re trying to preach to all these guys. The young guys especially. We’re not disappointed at all in the way he’s played. He’s really been a pleasant surprise to show the maturity he’s played with the entire season. But the production is not what we’d like it to be, and I’m sure it’s not what he would like it to be. It’s good to see he had some production tonight and we’ll see if we can build on that in the future. After three games, are there any players you can identify who have played with the most consistency so far this season? Mike Johnson has played really well. Smitty, even though he missed a game last week, has played really well for us on the offensive line. I think Antoine (Caldwell) has played really well. I think the backs played pretty consistently and I think John Parker has played well. He had some struggles last week, but I don’t think the people around him played that well. Defensively I think we’ve played pretty well up front. Rolando (McClain) has played extremely well. I think Dont’a (Hightower) has played pretty well as a freshman. We haven’t had the opportunity to play a whole lot of “regular”. Corey Reamer was the star of the game last week and he played two plays tonight because we were in nickel and dime the whole night. We had some other players we wanted to play but couldn’t because if they don’t play nickel positions we can’t get them in the game. I think we’ve played a little better in the secondary and haven’t given up as many big plays, even though it was a mental error in the secondary that gave them the 4th down conversion for a touchdown in this game. But I’ve been pleased. (Terrence) Cody has played well up front and been dominant. Brandon Deaderick has played well. Lorenzo Washington for the most part has played well. I’m not disappointed in the way we’ve played. It’s the consistency that we need to continue to elevate. Everything we’ve done to this point is to get ready to play in the SEC. So if we don’t learn our lessons and improve each game then it will show up when we face the kind of competition that we’re going to face in the future. In these first three games, is there anything you’ve learned about this team that maybe you didn’t know, especially with all the young players? I think this team made a lot of changes in the off season. I think the commitment, the work ethic, the overall character of how we go about what we do, all that improved. I was very disappointed at the lack of competitive maturity from game one to game two. But I was also very pleased that we learned from that and played better in the game tonight. I think we made some changes, but the one thing we have to learn to do better is not get satisfied when something good happens. Put it aside and move on and go to the next thing and play to our capacity. We saw a video last night and Michael Jordan got asked “What’s the biggest challenge in your career?” And he said, “Playing against myself.” Because when you reach a certain standard, you have to keep finding ways to play to your capacity. We haven’t reached the standard we want to reach by any stretch of the imagination. But every time we have success … remembering what got us there … we kind of let down a little bit and don’t continue to do what we need to do. That is not the culture that we want. We want to be relentless, competitive and to dominate the competition every chance we get whether we win the game or not. We haven’t done that on a consistent basis because of how we played last week, in my opinion. Coach, kind of building on that … you’ve got your first true road game coming up. Can you assess where you’re at going into a kind of different situation? Well, we had a road game in Atlanta and part of the reason we wanted to play it was that we didn’t play here. So that’s playing on the road. Hopefully, playing in that environment and in that situation will prepare our team more for going on the road this time. I know that Arkansas is a difficult place to play. We always played in Little Rock, so I’ve never really played in Fayetteville before. But we’ve got to show some competitive character in dealing with adversity on the road and stay focused and not get distracted by external things. This is going to be an opportunity for our team to show that kind of maturity. Coach, Greg McElroy got in tonight … and I know that was a priority for you. Just assess his play … he was 4 of 6, had pretty good stats. Right, and I think he did a good job when he was in there. I think he does a great job of managing the game. He threw the ball effectively. We were pleased with him. We were disappointed going into the game that we hadn’t gotten an opportunity to play him sooner than this. We wanted to play him in the Clemson game, but never got them off the field. After that 12 play drive (against Clemson) that iced the game. Then last week, we were never really that far ahead. But we have a lot of confidence in him. We’re trying to get everybody else in sync. But he plays with a lot of poise and confidence. We played Thomas Darrah tonight. That doesn’t mean he’s ahead of Star Jackson. It just means we can’t redshirt him and we can’t redshirt the other guy (Jackson). I don’t know if we’re going to do that right now. We’re still working both those guys as the third quarterback. But we don’t have the opportunity to play the one guy while we figure that one out. Any news about Prince Hall? Prince got dinged a little big … mostly had the wind knocked
out of him but he’s fine. I don’t think anyone else was
seriously injured. Marlon (Davis) probably could have played in the
game, but he didn’t play. David Ross actually did a good job in
the Tulane game, which was very encouraging and I think he did a pretty
good job tonight. So that’s good he’s had the opportunity
to play. It’s not good that Marlon’s not healthy enough
to play, but I think Marlon will probably be back next week as well.
Click for post game interview transcripts from Western Kentucky ... click here for other Homes Games 2008 interviews Javier Arenas (#28 KR/DB Jr. 2L 5'-9" 198 lbs. Robinson High, Tampa FL) Andre "Smitty" Smith #71-OL Jr. 2L 6'-4" 330 lbs. Sulligent High, Sulligent AL)
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