Nick Saban

Nick Saban
Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Alabama, a position he has held since the 2007 season. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and three other universities: Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo. His eight-year contract totaling US$32 million made him one of the highest paid football coaches, professional or collegiate, in the United States at the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth31 October 1951
CityFairmont, WV
CountryUnited States of America
Brown playing more and more and more will help us to determine how we do that, but I think to speculate on that right now would be very premature.
To be honest, I didn't even get a chance to watch the game. We came back from practice and watched film on our practice, so I didn't get to see any of the game. We respect the system that is in place and we are playing Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship game. It's a tremendous opportunity for our program and right now all we are focused on is getting our players ready to play Oklahoma.
I think he's going to need to play some. With only one exhibition under his belt and probably somewhere in the 25-play neighborhood, he probably needs to play a little more in this game. The plan in not playing him in the first game was with the idea that he would play in two games in his preparation for the season.
We talk about playing hard and competing. But you also have to play smart . . . . We did a lot of good things out there, but they were negated by our errors.
I don't think he's ready to carry it 45 times. We're going to have to keep playing him into it, but hopefully we can get him in that 12- to 15-touch mode.
It was a close call. You don't want the game to come down to that situation if you're playing like you're supposed to for the 60 minutes in the game. Secondly, we need to be (holding) the ball so it's not close.
It looked like we were playing on the beach, ... Maybe Gus didn't have a lot of opportunities to do much.
We felt like he did a good job in going in and playing significantly in the last game when Jason got hurt. There is nobody disappointed in his performance. That's where you have to be careful about stats. How many opportunities did he have that he didn't make? That would be a better assessment of what he has or hasn't done.
You put your hand in the dirt, you got a guy sitting right there, you have to block him. You don't block him, what does it make any difference whether you are playing right guard, right tackle, left guard or left tackle? You have to move the guy. I think we are overrating anything that we have done, because we are totally missing the point.
There were too many penalties in the game. We talk about playing hard and competing, but you also have to play smart. That's something we need to do a better job of. We did a lot of good things out there, but they were negated by our errors.
Jason has had a great camp and has done a great job in every regard. He's probably one of the guys who has had a lot more to learn because he's never really played that position as a professional player. He's playing a combination of two positions right now, but he's done a tremendous job of adapting and making plays.
Playing physical and having the number of guys they have that are difficult to block, these guys are as good as anyone we have played.
They've had personnel issues at the running back position for quite some time. They are getting those guys back now and I think those guys are playing better and better. I think they're as healthy as they've been all year. I think that's the key to it. They ran the ball effectively down here. Heath Evans was basically playing tailback. I don't think there is anything wrong with their running game; I just think that they haven't had all the players available in all the right spots being healthy this year that can help them develop the running game more quickly, but it's certainly developing nicely now.
I don't think he is ready to carry it 45 times, but hopefully we can get him in that 12 to 15 touch-mode. We're going to have to keep playing him into it. He's going to have to keep increasing his work load as we go.