Everything Nick Saban Said Following Alabama's Win over Texas A&M

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Following Alabama football's 24-20 win over Texas A&M on Saturday night, head coach Nick Saban met with reporters to discuss his team's victory.

Here's everything Saban said following the Crimson Tide's win over the Aggies inside Bryant-Denny Stadium:

Nick Saban Transcript Post-Texas A&M - October 8, 2022

Opening Statement

"Look, it's always great to win when you win games in the SEC. I think the fans were great. I think the fans probably had as much to do with us winning the game as anything. I think the atmosphere they created certainly kept the energy level up with our players, but we did a lot of things that were not winning football. Penalties, four turnovers, didn't take advantage of opportunities in the red zone — came up empty-handed a couple of times whether we missed a field goal, didn't score a touchdown, whatever it might be.

"So we've got a lot of things that we can work on, we've got a lot of things that we need to improve on. I think everybody's gotta make a choice and decision that they're going to do the things they need to do to play the best that they can play and be the best player that they can be.

"That was not our best football out there tonight. When you don't have your quarterback playing and the second-team guy's gotta play, everybody's gotta play better. Everybody on offense has to play better, everybody on defense has to play better and Jalen [Milroe] did some good things but obviously a couple of turnovers but, you know, he's going to live and learn and we're gonna live and learn with him and we'll just see what kind of progress Bryce [Young] makes for the next week.

"But we're gonna play a really good team next week on the road and certainly have to play a lot better to have any chance of being successful."

How do you measure Will Anderson's impact on the game tonight?

"Well I don't think there's any question about it. I think the pass rush was really good tonight. I think we had a lot of pressure. We had a few sacks. But I think the pressure on the quarterback was the big thing.

"Will [Anderson] did a really, really good job. We had a little deal where we tried to put two guys together so they couldn’t chip him, and they really had a tough time single blocking him. He’s a good player. He’s a great leader, plays hard out there, great competitor, and he certainly had a huge impact on the game tonight."

How would you assess the receiver play tonight?

"Well, we didn't shake man-to-man very well but I don't think they had a whole lot of opportunities, either. I don't think there's anybody on the team that doesn't have something that they could improve on, and that's what we have to do as coaches is try to get them to do the things they need to do to improve.

"So they didn't have a lot of opportunities. We tried to throw the ball early in the game and turned it over three times in the first half and decided that we were going to go to the bag a little bit and try to run the ball — which we ran effectively and had some good drives and came up empty-handed twice down in the red zone. [We] take a sack when we got the ball on the 20-yard line. It's hot. They're in blitz-zero coverage. You can't block 'em all. The quarterback's gotta get rid of the ball, not take off running with it and take a 15-yard loss and then we miss the field goal.

"So there's a lot of things that we can learn from but I don't think the receivers had a lot of opportunities. And that's not all their fault, but I think everyone on the team could play better."

What was the call on defense for the final play of the game?

"Well, when they scored a touchdown earlier we were playing them inside-out, trapping the flat thinking that they would run some kind of pick, so as soon as they put four wideouts in the game, we thought they would be similar so we changed the leverage on the guys and it worked for us.

"Terrion [Arnold] made a good play and we had the guys covered on the other side pretty well, too. I didn't get much of a view on the pass interference, but I guess it was a good call. I wouldn't say anything other than that."

What has Brian Branch meant to the secondary?

"He plays Star and he plays Money when we put six guys in and he's a playmaker. He's a very active guy. I thought he played really well tonight and he keeps continually improving, which is going to be really important for us and we need to get other guys in the secondary — I think both safeties played really well. Kool-Aid [McKinstry]'s played really well. You know, Terrion had a couple of opportunities that he didn't cash in on — could've intercepted a ball that they end up catching, it's a big play in the game. Got a penalty late in the game.

"But everybody can play better. Everybody needs to play better. We need to play better as a team and that's my responsibility and our responsibility as coaches to try to do a better job with the players we have."

Status update of Jaylen Moody/thoughts on Deontae Lawson?

"Moody had a bruised kidney, so until he clears — which he's gradually doing that — we thought it would happen more quickly than it did, but it hasn't. So hopefully he'll be back.

"But I thought Deontae did a pretty good job out there, actually. And he's a good player and we have a lot of confidence in him."

How would you evaluate Jalen Milroe as a passer tonight?

"I wouldn't evaluate Jalen as a passer. It's relative to how did we protect him, how did we run the routes, how did we get open? And without watching the film I can't tell you if he made the right reads and had opportunities to make throws that he didn't make or not or if we just didn't have anybody open. I think he did a good job making some plays scrambling with his feet, but we had 111 yards passing and that's certainly not our goal so something in the passing game needs to get better.

"And I'm not putting it all on him. I'm just saying we need to do a better job in protection, we need to do a better job route-running and we need to do a better job of being able to make good decisions in the pocket so we don't have negative plays."

How valuable is your defense making stops with its back against the wall moving forward?

"Well I think two big stops in the game. The fourth-down stop before that was huge. If we'd have played and done things the right way, they wouldn't have been in that situation. And when you get in that situation, you gotta embrace adversity sometimes and step up and make plays and they did that. And I think that's really, really important that they have the competitive maturity to be able to do that."

Thoughts on Jahmyr Gibbs' performance tonight?

"He's ok, you know, and he went back in the game. The guy's a really good runner, he does a great job of stretching plays on the perimeter and sticking his foot in the ground and making cuts and setting up blocks for the offensive line. I thought there was a couple of times that they did a good job on defense overloading some things and taking some things away, but I know he had a ton of yards. We ran the ball statistically fairly well in the game, which is what we had to do to win the game. And he certainly was the leader of the pack.

"And he's also a very talented receiver. They called timeout when we were on empty and he was uncovered and we thought we probably would have made a big play, but we just hope that he can continue to improve and we can continue to improve as an offense and get more guys like him to make plays on offense."

What does it mean to you as a coach to see the postgame moment between Young and Milroe?

"Well, I think it's important to have that kind of chemistry on your team. I think that everybody's gotta make a choice and decision if they're going to put the team first and you can't have self-indulgent behavior and have a good team. So guys can't put what they feel like doing ahead of anything else. And there's no question that Bryce is a great competitor, he wants what's best for the team, he was very supportive — he's been very supportive all week of helping Jalen every way that he can — but he also wants to play. And he actually wanted to play at the end of the game

"But I think it's really, really good that you have players that support each other. Bryce is a good leader. That's what good leaders do: they set a good example — which Bryce does — but they also support their teammates and serve other people for their benefit and I think that sort of reaction to Jalen when he probably wishes that there was a couple of things that happened in the game that didn't happen for him, it's probably really good for Jalen's growth and development."

Check out more game coverage from BamaCentral:

Alabama's Pressure Paid Off Against Texas A&M

Turnovers Prove Consequential in Alabama's Narrow Victory

Jahmyr Gibbs Runs Wild Again When Alabama Offense Needed Him