BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama is getting its rest this week, but Nick Saban doesn’t want his team to get too comfortable. After playing eight straight games, the Crimson Tide has an open week on the schedule before facing off against LSU on Nov. 4.

According to Saban, Alabama did a physical analysis that showed it takes on 43% of its usual workload during the open week. The team will only practice three days this week as opposed to the usual four and, of course, won’t have a game to worry about on the weekend.

Still, Saban is urging his players to stay sharp.

“I think you want to keep the right mindset during the bye week,” Saban said Monday during an appearance at the Monday Morning Quarterbacks Club in Birmingham. “Psychologically, you don’t have to focus on a particular game, but I do think you need to focus on what do we need to improve. This is not a time to get release syndrome like ‘Ok, I’m just gonna go mess around.’ I’ll try to get better at the things I need to get better at. I’ll try to improve fundamentally the best I can."

While the time off will help Alabama players recharge, Saban said the team often suffers more from the mental fatigue of the season rather than the physical demands of playing on a weekly basis.

“There’s two things to this whole thing,” Saban said. “We do an analysis on all of our players. You get psychologically tired, and now you get into your feelings about how you feel. Or are you actually physically not able to do things at the same level you were doing in the summer in fall camp, earlier in the season?”

Saban said tests have shown that Alabama only has one player who is down 2.9% from his earlier physical capability.

“Everyone else is doing it at least that level,” Saban said. “So they may think they’re tired, but it’s probably more psychological from game plans and the grind of the season than it is from anything physical.”

That works for the players, but how does Saban gauge the energy of his assistants? That question had the head coach a bit stumped Monday.

“I don’t know, is there an analytical way to show if I need a break?” Saban said with a laugh. “I mean, we’ve got all these young bucks coaching. I know they don’t make them like they used to, but you ought to be worried about me, not them.”

After a few laughs, Saban said this week isn’t as taxing for his coaches and should provide some psychological relief for them as well.

As for what Alabama will be focusing on this week, Saban said the team will spend some time working on things it will see in its final four games — LSU (Nov.4), at Kentucky (Nov. 11, Tennessee-Chatanooga (Nov. 18), at Auburn (Nov. 25) — while also working on self-assessment.

"I think it's more about correcting," Saban said. "I think it's about doing quality control on what you've done. See if there's some tendency or something that you would add or subtract that would create more balance in what you do so that you're not giving your opponent some tell on what you're doing."