Nick Saban reveals thought process before Alabama games

Even legends aren’t immune to nerves. On Monday, Alabama head coach Nick Saban revealed his thought process before taking the field on game days.

“It’s always exciting,” Saban said. “The challenge of playing a game. It’s especially sometimes challenging when you play on the road, and everybody’s against you. It’s also a great feeling when you play at home and a lot of folks are for you and enthusiasm is great.

“The players are excited about playing. It’s what you work for all week long, and I’m usually a little nervous sort of leading up to that but when we go out on the field, it kind of all goes away and you start focusing on, ‘OK, what’s next? Here’s the coin toss. We’re gonna kick off to receive.’

“Then, it’s one play at a time and all that kind of goes away. So it’s exciting. There’s no question about it and certainly the great atmosphere that we have in Bryant-Denny Stadium contributes to that excitement when you’re playing at home.”

Alabama had a lot to be excited about on Saturday. In front of over 100,000 fans, Alabama put on a show, dominating Middle Tennessee State 56-7. In the win, the Crimson Tide lit up the stat sheet, tallying 431 total yards.

Alabama’s defense was equally excellent. The Crimson Tide held Middle Tennessee State to just 211 total yards while also forcing a fumble and interception. When the dust settled and the butterflies fled Saban’s stomach, the 71-year-old head coach bragged on his team’s performance.

Nick Saban evaluates Alabama’s performance

“The players kind of delivered,” Saban said during the postgame press conference. “They had good energy and enthusiasm to start the game. I was really happy with the way that we came out and played in this game. They kind of answered the bell the way we wanted them to.

“The atmosphere was great, the fans were great and I really thought the players did a good job. We did a good job on third down. They do a lot of stuff on offense. I think the defensive players did a good job of adjusting, adapting, not giving up a lot of big plays. And offensively, we ran, had good balance and did a pretty good job of passing the ball, made some explosive plays, did a good job on third down. Pretty good. We’ve obviously got things that we need to work on, which we’ll pay attention to, but I like the attitude of the team.”

Saban will surely have more to be nervous about next game. On Saturday, Alabama will square off against No. 11 Texas at 6 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

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