The 85th Iron Bowl is about to kick off, but Nick Saban will not be in attendance. Alabama’s head coach tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week and has had to prepare for the game in an atypical way.
Saban discussed some of this on the Alabama “Hey Coach” radio show saying, “It was really disappointing, especially this week, with our players to have to tell them that I couldn’t be there for such a big game for so many fans, and I know all of our players.”
Saban added, “It’s a great rivalry game to be a part of, and it’s a little sad to not be able to be a part of that.”
Saban said he did everything during the week exactly the same as he does on a normal week. While he wasn’t there in-person, he did have constant practice viewing and communication. “I Zoom (teleconference) the team afterwards when we call everybody up… Nothing really changes, tomorrow morning at 7:30 in the morning we watch today’s practice. I watch it with the defense and then I watch it with the offense. It’s just business as usual.”
Saban knows that the biggest difference will not be in weekly practices or in meetings, but on game day. “The biggest difference is going be that you can’t be involved in the game. You can’t have any electronic telecommunications or anything with the sidelines or at halftime.”
The current NCAA rule is that if a coach is not physically at the game, then he is not allowed to have any communications with the team from kickoff until the final whistle. Even at halftime, the coach away from the game is not allowed to call in and talk to players or even coaches.
“To me if you’re not there, you should at least be able to communicate in some kind of way. Maybe with the press-box or at halftime with your team,” Saban opined.
This rule has been criticized heavily this season due to the pandemic, and it has left people scratching their heads as to why a sick coach is not allowed to at least talk to his assistants at halftime for adjustments and other important coaching decisions.
With Saban out, offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will take over head coaching duties in the Iron Bowl. Sarkisian has head coaching experience from his time at USC and Washington, so he will not be in uncharted waters.
“Sark has been a head coach for many years successfully…when he was the head coach, he did call the plays. So, it is nothing new for him,” Saban advised.
While it is nothing new for Sarkisian, no one quite gets on a locker room or makes adjustments like Saban. He is one of the best at changing his game plan to shut down what was working for opposing teams’ offenses in the first half. Sarkisian will have to fill those shoes and make sure the team is ready for the second half of play in a highly consequential game.
“You choose your energy.” Saban told his players. “Nobody at this time of the year really feels great. Nobody is really 100%, and nobody really feels like practicing because most guys aren’t 100%.
Being less than 100% is normal for an SEC team this late in a grueling season. However, that starts to cause players and even coaches to become less and less disciplined.
Discipline is very important to Saban and his team. He said the key to discipline this late in the year is “players understanding their ability to choose their energy and develop the right habits.”
“I think they are playing their best football of the year right now. They have really started to come together offensively, Bo Nix is a really talented and good player,” Saban said on his weekly show about Auburn. “They have started to create some balance in running and passing and making explosive plays to score a lot more points.”
Earlier in the week Saban asked the Alabama Crimson Tide fan base to keep a competitive character just like he has asked of his players. Saban emphasized, “We need your support, the players need your support in this game… certainly your spirit can help us.”
Multiple Tide stars spoke to the media earlier this week about the Iron Bowl.
Quarterback Mac Jones was the first to speak. He got a lot of questions about the Iron Bowl last year because it was his first true test as a starter. Jones started off saying, “Last year’s game was obviously a really good game. We wish it was the other way around and we would have won, but it is a learning experience.”
Jones played really well in his first ever Iron Bowl aside from two pick-sixes, but he says that solid statistics don’t define a game for Bama, “The only statistic that matters to us around here is wins and losses. You can look back at it and have a great game, but if you lose that is a bad game.”
Jones added, “You can throw for one yard or 500 yards it doesn’t matter because the goal is to score literally one point more than the other team.”
When running back Najee Harris spoke to the media this week, he noted, “I’m 1-2 (in Iron Bowls) so, you know we are all looking forward to playing in this year’s Iron Bowl and seeing how it goes.”
Hayden Crigler is a contributing college football writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him through email: [email protected] or on Twitter: @hayden_crigler.
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