Nick Saban talks matchup with Texas on Hey Coach radio show

Nick Saban is a stickler for routines and a road trip to Texas does not alter his or the team's schedule at all.

The 16-year head coach often talks about how the player's day-to-day improvements are just as important if not more so than what they do on Saturdays. The consistent daily approach has placed the Crimson Tide at the pinnacle in the college football landscape after winning multiple national championships.

Alabama's success has left fans wondering what it's actually like to be a part of a practice week.

On Thursday, Saban lifted the proverbial curtain during his weekly Hey Coach radio show, detailing how the team gets ready for its opponents.

"We always coach the players," Saban said. "I mean, we had one real practice today, which is like playing a game; we have meetings tomorrow. We'll have a walk-through that will go through 60 plays during a 20-minute walkthrough. Formations, adjustments on defense, same thing on offense and have a substitution script. We have another one real tomorrow night, where we look at a film called the plays everybody got to make the call, what their assignments are, what the job is. The mental practice that you get between now and game time, to me, is critical to how prepared you are when you get out there and how you can anticipate what's going to happen in the game."

Each day coordinates with a different area of the game the coaching staff wants to review prior to Alabama's next opponent. Saban said Mondays are for special teams and for "corrections" on offense and defense as the staff will review mistakes they caught on film with the players, and it's where the team officially begins practicing for the next opponent.

On Tuesday, the Crimson Tide will work on its first-and-10s, second-and-long, goal line and short yardage. Wednesdays are for third downs and "red area," concluding with Thursdays that feature the two-minute drill and 2-point conversions.

It's a grind and Saban said that's the way it's supposed to be.

"I don't think people understand how hard players work through the course of the week preparing for our game," Saban said. "But the measure of a team's growth is how can you maintain the momentum from Week 1 to Week 2, in terms of doing the things that you need to do to improve.

"It's hard because you've got to stay focused on what you need to do to improve and get better. What you did last week, there's not going to help you for this week and every team we play if they beat us, that's like the resurrection game. I mean that resurrects their whole program."

Saban drew back to last season's loss to Texas A&M noting the last time Alabama went to Texas and was favored to win by more than 15 points, the team "got our asses kicked."

The Crimson Tide are favored to win by 20 points this week against the Longhorns. The sting from that loss plus the magnitude of two of college football's premier programs facing off makes the focus on the player's preparation that much more important.

Saban has some history with the Longhorns. A decade ago, there were rumors swirling that Saban wanted the head coaching position at Texas, which adamantly denied on Thursday.

"I never even talked with them and I was never interested in the (first) place," Saban said.

Now he'll make his first trip to Austin where he'll face some familiar faces in Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian along with assistant head coach and special teams coach Jeff Banks. Both coaches worked under Saban at Alabama.

When asked what it's going to be like to go against them and the Longhorns, Saban reverted to an old Bear Bryant quote: "You never know what a horse can pull until you give him a heavy load."

"I think this is gonna be a heavy load for us and it's gonna be a very challenging game for us, but I think that's why people come to Alabama," Saban said. "I think that if you want to and it's hard. If you want an easy way, you wouldn't come here because it's a lot of challenging games and most teams that we play, they're gonna give us their best shot. You have to really challenge yourself to be the best that you can be at all times and you can't take anything for granted."