Observations: Alabama looks to avoid letdown as it prepares for Tennessee
Related
Alabama’s 41-24 victory over Georgia was an emotional one — so much so that it had Nick Saban and players dancing in the locker room. However, the head coach’s patented 24-hour rule has come and gone, and he’s urging his team to shift its focus to this week’s matchup against Tennessee.
“I think it's really important this week — I talked about this after the game — that our players have humility,” Saban said. “That's what keeps you hungry in terms of what you have to do to improve and to play the next game.
“And I think everybody knows that this Tennessee game is a big rivalry game. It means a lot to a lot of people in the state of Alabama, and I'm sure that because it's a rivalry game, we're going to get the absolute best version of Tennessee's team.”
Saban recognized the accomplishment of beating a tough Georgia team over the weekend and described his players’ excitement as a sign of respect to the Bulldogs. In fact, that type of emotion is exactly what he loves to see from his players following wins.
“We’ve won games around here where we go into the locker room and everybody just kind of — this is just what everybody expects,” Saban said. “And I hate that. I hate to see that. I think everybody should enjoy every win. They’re hard to come by.”
Alabama has been burned in the past by letting big wins get to its head. In 2018, the Tide shut out LSU 29-0 on the road in a similarly emotional setting. The hangover from that win was said to have lingered on throughout the season and ultimately proved fatal in a 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game.
This year, the Tide believes it will do a better job of keeping its head and focusing on the task at hand.
“We just learned we can’t take no weeks off,” cornerback Patrick Surtain II said. ‘We’ve got to prepare every week like it’s your last week. That sort of kicked us in the foot a little bit two years ago, but we learned from our mistakes and we’re ready to start something new this year.”
Alabama (4-0) will travel to Tennessee (2-2) for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff on Saturday.
The good and bad of ’Bama’s kicking game
The kicks are finally going through the uprights. Now Alabama needs to work on booting the ball a bit better on kickoffs.
Premium subscribers continue reading here
Not yet a premium subscriber of BamaInsider.com?
