Amidst the dog days of fall camp, Alabama finds itself in a sort of football purgatory this week. The Crimson Tide still has two more practices scheduled before heading into game-week preparations for its season-opener against Miami on Sept. 4. In the meantime, the past week has served as an evaluation period for Nick Saban as he studies his players’ effort and resiliency.
“Fall camp, practice at this time of year without playing a game every week is very challenging,” Saban said during his post-practice Zoom call Wednesday. “And when you talk about that stuff all the time it just creates an epidemic of the ‘Poor Mes’. The season is going to create tremendous challenges, challenges in every game. We’ve got lots of losable games that we play, lots of challenges out there whether we’re playing home or on the road and you’ve got to have resiliency to be able to overcome difficult circumstances.
“That’s one of the things that fall camp is designed to do for players. The mental toughness, the self-discipline that you need to be able to make good choices and decisions about what you do and what you don’t do and a sense of purpose — driven quality — something that’s really, really important to me."
Mental toughness figures to be a key theme for an Alabama team overwhelmingly selected No. 1 by both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll. Earlier this week, Alabama led the nation with five players selected to the Associated Press Preseason All-American first and second teams. The Tide also saw a conference-best 15 of its players included in the Preseason Coaches All-SEC team.
While you won’t catch any opposing coaches feeling sorry for Saban this offseason, the high praise and attention serve as a distraction to his players nonetheless.
“First of all, they read what you guys write,” Saban said following Alabama’s scrimmage over the weekend. “They read that they’re supposed to be in the playoffs. They read that they’re No. 1. They read all these things that I’ve referred to this as ‘rat poison’ before. Alright, so that creates a lot of anxiety, and everybody thinks they have to elevate their game.”
According to Saban, the distractions reach everyone on his roster. The head coach explained that he’s trying to get his older players to “play our game” instead of getting caught up in expectations. The hype can also be a deterrent for younger players who are looking to find the field as soon as possible.
“So, you got kind of all these variables sort of circling around on your team, and we really got to get everybody in the right mindset,” Saban said. “Just to buy into doing the things that they need to do to play well, play their game.”
As Alabama looks to replicate last season’s success, the team’s buy-in factor has been at the forefront of Saban’s concerns. This offseason, the head coach has already challenged two of his rising stars in safety Jordan Battle and tight end Jahleel Billingsley.
The responses have been mixed.
In the spring, Saban noted that he wanted to see more leadership from Battle, stating “it's kind of up to him as to how he wants to accept the role of leadership, how assertive he wants to be.”
This fall, the junior appears to have taken those remarks to heart while stepping in nicely to his veteran role in the defense. Following last weekend’s scrimmage, Saban acknowledged that progression, praising Battle while stating that the safety is making all the calls in the secondary.
“Jordan Battle has been a real leader in the back end,” Saban said. “So he’s done everything that we’ve asked and he does it in the way that we like for him to do it. I’m very pleased with the progress that he’s made.”
Saban has had less success getting through to Billingsley after questioning the junior’s commitment level earlier in camp. Billingsley missed the Tide’s first few fall practices due to “COVID protocols” and has since been seen at the back end of Alabama’s tight end unit during drills. Following last weekend’s scrimmage, he still doesn’t seem to be on the same page as his head coach.
“He knows what he’s supposed to do in practice,” Saban said following Saturday’s scrimmage. “He’s known what he’s supposed to do. This is not a democracy. Everybody doesn’t get to do what they want to do. Everybody doesn’t get to do what they feel like doing. You got to buy in and do what you’re supposed to do to be a part of the team and do the things you need to do in practice every day. Sense of urgency, play fast, execute, do your job.”
While it’s a bit concerning for Alabama to have one of its potential star players on rocky terms with its head coach, the alarm bells aren’t necessarily ringing just yet inside the Mal Moore Athletic Facility. Wednesday, Saban noted that while some players are showing more maturity than others this fall, “everybody is making progress.”
Alabama will hope to continue that momentum as it closes out the week with practices on Friday and Saturday before taking the day off Sunday heading into game-week preparations against Miami.
“We all want to accomplish the same thing, so just got to reiterate to the younger guys, to the older guys to stay on the younger guys,” Battle said Thursday. “Lead everybody in the same way because we all want to get to the same goal, the end goal — the championship.”
