Nick Saban CFP press conference transcript continued
Q. How much has the evolution of college football to become more offensive and the challenge of that for you and how you’ve sort of had to change some things in your program contributed to your longevity and the drive you still have to try to do this and try to win championships at this stage of your career?
NICK SABAN: Well, I don’t think there’s any question about the fact that college football has changed dramatically in the last 10, 12 years. I think the advent of the spread, RPOs, blocking downfield when passes are caught behind the line of scrimmage, all those things have dramatically changed the style of play offensively, and that affects every part of the game. You have to defend how you pick players to play certain positions because the game is so much more a perimeter game now than it used to be, and what your scheme is to defend those kinds of changes has been pretty dramatic, as well.
I think it’s a great game for fans. Obviously score a lot more points with this style of play than we used to do, we used to in the past, and I think that always makes it exciting for the fans.
Q. There were some reports that there were discussions about moving this game back a week due to issues at Ohio State. How important is it to you that this game be played Monday as scheduled and not pushed back a week?
NICK SABAN: Well, look, I think everybody respects the disruptions that we’ve had to endure throughout the season. We have total respect for the safety of players. If there were — and I think there were some issues relative to COVID, and there were discussions as to whether it was fair to continue or to move the game back and all that. I think there would have been some probably, I don’t know, difficult management issues if we would have moved the game back. Our school is starting this next week. We would have had 35,000 students coming back here. We’ve played 12 games this year, so we have a lot of guys that have ground through the season, a lot of guys that are nicked up a little bit. Another week of practice would have been much more
difficult for those guys probably. January 18th is a day people got to decide whether they’re going to go out for the draft or not. So just the whole timing of the whole thing would have been a tough management. But I would have put player safety on either team as the most important factor in this
decision.
Q. Just a bigger question about your offense. Kerry Coombs mentioned the other day that since you guys played in 2014 in that playoff game your offense has been able to evolve and change and it’s got some more wrinkles, especially with the passing game. How do you think your offense has been able to evolve and be successful over the last six years since the last
meeting?
NICK SABAN: Well, I think that our coaches, I think Sark has done a great job, and I think coordinators that we’ve had in the past have done a very good job in sort of the evolution of where we are right now. Being a defensive coach, you know the things that are very difficult to stop when you play somebody else and you research some of those things as a staff and see if there’s some way you can implement them into what you do, and I think that’s kind of what we’ve done through the years. We’ve had really good coaches on offense who could research and implement these things in a positive way. I still think our number one goal is to feature the players that we have on our team and adapt to the style that would best help them have success, and this year’s team is a little bit different than last year’s team, and I think you could look at every team and say the same. But our offense has been productive, and we hope to continue to be able to do that.
Q. Seven of the last eight games you’ve played you’ve allowed fewer than 17 points. What has been working for your defense in that stretch?
NICK SABAN: Well, I think we’re pretty young, especially in the secondary. We have four out of five new starters. We had some young guys playing up front. We have like three freshmen that play a significant role. I think early on, we made a lot of mental errors. The knowledge and experience that we had was probably not what we needed to be able to make the adaptations and
adjustments in game and also in preparation. So I think that has improved as the season has progressed, and I think with that, the confidence of the players has improved. I think the confidence that the group has in each other, the understanding of how they need to play to have a chance to be successful and how everybody has to do their job if you’re going to be successful has all
contributed to some improvement throughout the season.
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