Nick Saban has a response for his young receivers frustrated with a lack of playing time this season: show, don’t tell.

Following Alabama’s win over Mississippi State, freshman receiver Agiye Hall expressed his displeasure over a lack of action, tweeting “Yeah nah, calling it quits” before deleting his post. Monday, Saban was asked about his message to Hall following the incident, stating that “it is what it is” and that “it still comes down to players creating value for themselves by what they do.”

“I’ve said this before, that there’s players that have talent but they have to learn how to use it and they have to use it in an effective way in the way they practice,” Saban said. “It’s up to the player to impress the coaches that they can be trusted to go in the game and do what they’re supposed to do.

“So when players get frustrated, they sometimes don’t respond the way they should in terms of their preparation and focusing on what they need to do to become a good player because they’re so concerned about how much they’re playing.”

Hall played in four snaps on offense against Mississippi State but was not targeted during the game. The four-star freshman has appeared in four games this season, recording just one catch for 10 yards during the season opener against Miami. He did not see any action against Texas A&M two weeks ago, and played in just two snaps against Ole Miss the week before that.

Another receiver who has seen his role diminish is sophomore Javon Baker, who did not travel with the team to Starkville, Miss., this weekend. Baker has not played a snap for Alabama since its Week 4 win against Southern Miss where he recorded two receptions for 59 yards and a touchdown. The sophomore has recorded five catches for 80 yards and a touchdown this season.

When asked about Baker’s availability Monday, Saban provided a similar response to the one he made on Hall.

“It’s the same thing – if players do what they’re supposed to do, they travel, they play, they contribute to the team,” Saban said. “And that’s every player’s choice. Every player has a choice to do the things that they need to do to contribute to the team, and everybody’s gotta buy in. So players that do that travel. Players that have issues with that, they’re not really doing what they should do. I mean, that’s our job as a coach to make sure that people are doing the right things, and if they’re not doing the right things, there’s consequences for that. There’s consequences for that in life, there’s consequences for that when you’re in competitive sports.”

Following Saturday’s game, junior receiver John Metchie III provided some words of encouragement to Hall, telling the freshman “it’s a process, and you got to keep going.” Monday, starting quarterback Bryce Young delivered a similar message to his frustrated teammates.

“At Alabama, there’s a process for everyone,” Young said. “There’s a lot of people in the locker room who have gone through similar things here as far as just believing in the process, just developing, getting better and better at understanding and having to be patient at times. So really a lot of that is just talking to other guys on the team and all of us sharing our own individual experiences and us kind of being about to relate to each other. The process here is something we all have to buy into, it’s something we all live by. There’s a lot of walking testimonies you get to be surrounded by here.”