Saban/Miles are all compliments; Alabama practice week reports/quotes

November 6, 1:57 PMAlabama Crimson Tide ExaminerVince Ferrara

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Alabama CB/RS Javier Arenas (28)

AP Photo - Ed Reinke

Alabama wrapped up preparations for the huge game versus LSU this Saturday in Tuscaloosa. UA Athletics Media Relations issued releases on this week’s practices with quotes from Nick Saban, Rolando McClain, Mark Ingram, Javier Arenas and Mike Johnson. It's no surprise that both head coaches have steered clear from saying anything close to negative about the other team.  Be sure to sign-up for e-mail alerts, so you never miss a post on Alabama and the SEC, by selecting subscribe on my main page.

Alabama Football Team Working Towards LSU Game
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 3 Alabama football team practiced for two hours in full pads Tuesday afternoon at the Thomas-Drew Practice Facility, as preparations continue for Saturday’s game with No. 9 LSU.

Alabama senior cornerback Javier Arenas was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award on Tuesday evening.
Arenas is one of three SEC players among the semifinalists. The finalists will be announced Nov. 23 and the winner will be named at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Dec. 10 in Orlando, Fla.

“The credit really goes to my teammates on defense as well as our coaches,” said Arenas. “Coach Saban and Coach Smart are the best defensive coaches in the country and put is in a position to be successful as a defense. I appreciate the Thorpe Award recognizing me and it’s an honor to be named along with the other great players on that list, but our main goal is to be successful as a team. If you are, all of the other stuff takes care of itself.”

Alabama sophomore running back Mark Ingram and senior offensive lineman Mike Johnson talked about the challenges the Crimson Tide’s offense faces this Saturday as it goes against a talented LSU defense.

“They are big and fast, strong and physical,” Ingram said on Tuesday. “The scheme they play, they do it really well. They are coached up really well. They all do their assignments. They all get to the ball and they make it really hard for offenses to have success. “

“They’ve got a lot of athleticism and size up front and a lot of talented players,” Johnson said. “We are definitely going to have to prepare.”

On the defensive side, Alabama junior linebacker Rolando McClain LSU’s dual threat on offense, both running and throwing the football.

“They are just like any other LSU team,” McClain said. “They are very physical up front. They like to run the ball. I think this year, more than last year, they have a dual-threat quarterback. The guy is able to run. If he’s given time in the pocket, he can make plays with his arm. We have to play sound defense against these guys. They are very good, and they are well coached.”

The Alabama-LSU game will be nationally televised by CBS Sports with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. (CST) from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson will call the action. The game can also be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, with Eli Gold, Phil Savage and Barry Krauss. The game can be heard locally on WFNN-FM (95.3) in Tuscaloosa.

Sophomore running back Mark Ingram:

On why you’re so good at protecting the ball:
“When you get in traffic you have to keep the ball high and tight and get two hands on it when you run through traffic. When you get in traffic just keep two hands on it, that’s all you can really do. You have to stay focused and be alert. If you don’t have the ball you can’t do anything else. As a runner you have to take pride in holding on to the ball.”

On what makes you effective as a runner:
“Just working hard at practice, studying films and doing the best I can everyday at practice. Every day I try to improve and get better as a player. That’s all you can do is try and make improvements everyday and never be satisfied and always try to get better.”

On which Alabama player you’d vote for in the Heisman Trophy race:
“Probably, Ro (Rolando McClain). The impact he has on our team. Not just how he plays, but from a leadership standpoint. As a player, he goes out there every day and he makes plays. He comes to play every day. He knows everything that’s going on with the defense. He knows what the d-line is doing. He knows what the corners are doing. He makes all the calls and makes sure everybody is set where they are supposed to be before the play even starts. Just the overall impact he’s had on the team for making plays and being a leader, that’s why I would vote for him.”

On how a handful of plays could make a difference in game of this magnitude:
“In a game like this, you go out on the field and whoever plays the hardest and whoever does the little things right the most consistently throughout the game, that’s who will win the game. You can’t really focus on ‘we’ve got to make this big play’ or ‘we’ve got to do this or got to do that’. We have to focus on the game plan, perfect it and execute it. Whoever does the little things right the most consistently wins the game.”

Senior left guard Mike Johnson:

On going against nose guard Terrence Cody in practice:
“Too many times. It happens every week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We do an inside-run drill and I’ve had to go against him pretty often.”

On advice to someone having to block Cody:
“It would probably be to get on him before he gets on you. Once he gets 350 pounds of momentum going, it’s pretty hard to stop the guy in his tracks. He is strong and he is agile and he is a freak for his size. Get on him before he gets on you is the best advice I can give anybody.”

On how hard it is going against the Alabama defense:
“They are a defense that is one of the best run-stopping units in the country and most of the time when we face them its run drills and stuff like that. Just talking about Terrence, he is the prototypical nose guard that can take up double teams and two-gap center and does a great job at what he does. Some of the other guys up front like Brandon Deaderick, Lorenzo Washington and Marcell Dareus and linebackers like Rolando (McClain) and Cory Reamer, those guys are great at what they do. They are not just a great defense on Saturday they are a great defense throughout the week because they work hard, part of that comes against us as an offense. We’re lucky to have a defense to go up against like that on a weekly basis. It just makes us better in the long run. They are going to continue to get better at what they do and we’re going to continue to get batter at what we do.”

On importance of being that diverse offense once again:
“It’s been a combination of things. One of the goals we had coming into the year was to have more explosive plays, especially in the passing game. That really wasn’t one of our strengths last year. I think we did a good job of starting off on that note and we’ve kind of got to get back to that. We had a lot of explosive plays and play-action down the field early in the year, and we’ve got to get back to that. On the same note, guys have done a good job. We’ve faced better defenses. There is a lot to be said about SEC defenses that can come in and stop the pass and we’ve played some good safeties and good defenses the past two weeks and they did a good job of kind of throwing some things at us. We’ve still got a pretty a good offense, when you talk about Julio (Jones) and Greg (McElroy) and Mark Ingram. Mark and Julio are both sophomores and second-year guys, and Greg’s a first-year starter and we’ve got three new offensive linemen. We’ve just got to get back to what we planned on doing from the onset of the season - try and make more explosive plays in the air and on the ground.”

Senior cornerback/kick returner Javier Arenas:

On how the play of Alabama’s front seven allows you to do more things as cornerback:
“I’d say its great communication and a lot of guys who are on the same page and things like that, as well as a lot of athletes. The front guys they make it much easier by getting pressure on the quarterback, so we won’t have to cover for six or seven seconds.”

On memories of last two Alabama-LSU games:
“It’s always a tough environment to play as far as being in the game and both teams have a chip on their shoulders going in the past games. It’s a very competitive environment and each guy wants to beat the guy across the ball, so it’s just a very competitive game.”

On what makes Rolando McClain so good:
“Rolando McClain. He is smart. He is real smart. He has all the pieces a great linebacker should possess. He is smart. He is fast. He will hit you. It’s like Coach Saban being out there on defense, just picture Coach Saban being huge and being able to play football, that’s what it’s like out there.”

Junior linebacker Rolando McClain:

On how this program is starting to build based on Coach Saban’s past recruiting efforts:
“In order to have a good team, you have to bring in good guys each year. I think that is what he has done with me and Kareem Jackson and some of those guys, and then with the big recruiting class with Julio (Jones) and Mark (Ingram). I think he has done a great job and I am sure we will continue to get good guys, but that’s not really what we’re focusing on right now. We play with the guys we have right now and try and develop some of those guys so they can be contributors also.”

On how close you and Coach Saban’s personalities are:
“We are somewhat similar. We are both perfectionists. We have a low tolerance for guys who don’t know what to do and I think that’s what makes us somewhat similar. Obviously, he’s a guy that knows what to do and being my third year, I pretty much know a lot about this defense, and we’re both good leaders. I guess that’s the comparison.”

On development of Alabama defense:
“I think our success this year comes from our guys playing with each other for three years. We have a lot of returning starters from last year, and we’re a lot more comfortable with each other, and we’re a lot more comfortable with the defense. Being comfortable allows us to play faster and that’s where our success comes from.”

On what Coach Saban instills in your defense:
“It’s just hard work. We’ve all bought into the program. Besides the hard work, it’s like we are a band of brothers out there. We don’t want to let the guy beside us down. I think that’s the important thing and that’s what he has put in us, we don’t want let the guy beside us down. We give our all on every play, so we don’t let him down. You don’t want to be that guy that messes up a play, because everybody has to be accountable for what they do on the field and accountability is what he’s taught us.”
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Crimson Tide Continues Work for LSU Game
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 3 Alabama football team practiced for two hours in full pads at the Thomas-Drew Practice Facility on Wednesday afternoon, as preparation continues for Saturday’s SEC Western Division game against No. 9 LSU.

“Practice is going well this week and the players are working hard to try and prepare,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said following Wednesday’s practice. “We want to finish the week strong. Tomorrow is a real mental preparation day for us, lots of reps and I’ve been pleased with the effort and attitude. This is a challenging team to prepare for on both sides of the ball. They have lots of good players, especially skill guys on offense, and they utilize them in a lot of different ways and that’s always challenging. Defensively they are very good up front, very good in the secondary. They’ve really got good players in the secondary and have played extremely well all year, but especially in the last two games.”

Coach Saban also discussed the injury status of senior tight end Colin Peek, junior running back Terry Grant and freshman defensive back Dre Kirkpatick.

“From an injury update standpoint, Dre practiced some today,” Saban said. “Terry Grant didn’t do much today and Colin Peek practiced a little bit yesterday and a little bit today, but those guys would still be, you know, day-to-day.”

The Alabama-LSU game will be nationally televised by CBS Sports with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. (CST) from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson will call the action. The game can also be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, with Eli Gold, Phil Savage and Barry Krauss. The game can be heard locally on WFNN-FM (95.3) in Tuscaloosa.

Coach Saban also participated in the SEC Head Coaches weekly teleconference on Wednesday and here are some of those comments:

On what has jumped out at you about LSU’s offense the last two weeks:
“I think they’ve had very good balance in their offense. They utilize a lot of their skill players. Russell Shepard has made a big contribution in the last couple of games and I think they have some very good receivers who can make plays down the field. Jordan Jefferson has played more and more consistently throughout the season for them. His pass efficiency is very good. They have the ability to run the ball and create balance, so they are just doing a little better job executing with consistency and I think scoring more points because of it.”

On the matchup between Alabama receivers and LSU secondary, particularly Julio Jones and Patrick Peterson:
“LSU’s got a really good secondary, very athletic, guys tackle well. They play physical. They all can judge the ball. They have really nice-sized good physical safeties and they play well. It’s going to be important for our guys to play well against them. They play a lot of close coverage and our guys are going to have to get away from them and give the quarterback an opportunity to throw the ball, so it’s going to be a key matchup in the game no doubt. Hopefully our guys will be ready for it and the things that we do will give them a chance to be successful.”

On the importance of open date heading into a game like LSU:
“Regardless of the next game, I really felt like our team was a little bit tired and beat up, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally going into the last game. When you play eight games in a row, and five of them are SEC games, I think that can take its toll on you a little bit. This was a good week for us to get some rest physically, have the players make some choices and decisions to help themselves to be able to come back and get focused, emotionally, physically and mentally be in a better place than they were. I think that’s happened for us and I’ve been pleased with that part of how our players have managed the bye week, in terms of the improvement that they’ve made and the rest that we’ve been able to get as well.”

On LSU’s Kelvin Sheppard:
“He’s an outstanding player. He definitely makes a lot of plays, tackles for losses. I would think from watching the tapes, he’s probably their top tackler. I think he is very athletic and runs well and he is very instinctive, but I think their defense is really playing well this year. They have a good scheme. They are well coached. The players really play well together. They’ve got a good secondary. They’ve got a good front seven. They’ve got some people who can pass rush, so the combination of the players they have are very effective.”
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Crimson Tide Wraps Up LSU Week
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama football team practiced for 90 minutes in shells inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility, its final practice before Saturday’s SEC Western Division game with LSU at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to play a very good top 10 team and our focus is to play our best football and try to get our players in the best position that we can to have success against a very good team,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said earlier this week.

“Les Miles has done a great job with the LSU program. They are probably playing their best football of the year right now. Offensively they are scoring a lot of points. They’ve got a lot of explosive players and they do a good job using the skill players that they have. Defensively, they are one of the top defensive teams in the country and because they have good team speed, they’re very good on special teams. Even though this is a challenging game, it’s a great opportunity our players have created form themselves. The game should be about the players and it should be a great football game.”

The Alabama-LSU game will be nationally televised by CBS Sports with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. (CST) from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson will call the action. The game can also be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, with Eli Gold, Phil Savage and Barry Krauss. The game can be heard locally on WFNN-FM (95.3) in Tuscaloosa.
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