Nick Saban Work Quotations

I wish there was some big, like, deal about what happened today, ... But Ricky's been coming here. He's been going to meetings every day. He's been allowed to work out every day. He just has not practiced with the team.

I wish there was some big, like, deal about what happened today. But Ricky's been coming here. He's been going to meetings every day. He's been allowed to work out every day. He just has not practiced with the team.

Richard is an outstanding coach who has been in the NFL for 17 years. I coached with him in Houston and have always thought he was one of the best coaches I've had the chance to work with.

We need to make sure we have an adequate backup at that position. We're trying to work through that right now, either with the players we have on our team or some who are available in free agency.

If a player isn't performing relative to the so-called investment that you have in him, sometimes you have to make tough decisions. We were committed to the guy. He was committed. If anything, I feel personally responsible that we didn't make it work with the guy.

I think he got enough work in the preseason to be ready for the first game. We did the best we could under the circumstances. We'll continue to try to develop him in the beginning of the season.

It doesn't mean that just because we work somebody out that we have an issue. That is not something that anybody should assume. There are things called information gathering and we are allowed to use workouts of players who are not under contract to gather information about those players.

There are a lot of questions about the offensive line, and we're going to continue to work some different players in different spots to get the best combination of what we can do,

We're trying to get a deal that would satisfy him as well as work for us.

When you have reached the pinnacle as a player of what you have always aspired for, what's your motivation? ... Some guys just work their tail off because they want to be good. It's important to them and their pride. Those guys have a better chance to succeed than the guy who did all of that to get here, and now all of a sudden the things that got him here don't seem to be important anymore.

If you don't have an indoor facility, you've got to cut down the practice time in preparation for the game so the players can recover. Or you change the environment they do the work in, which an indoor facility allows you to do. It's really a player health and safety issue as much as anything.

Not that we're putting a timetable on doing this, but obviously, the sooner we can get done, the better. We don't control the timetable. Some of these things are time and circumstance, and you've just got to work through it.

I know he's going through due process. Ricky is as good a guy as anyone I've ever coached. I never had a problem with him. I have nothing but the highest regard for him. I hope things work out to have him on our team in the future.

It was great that Ronnie Brown got untracked a little bit. We told him we were going to work him today. As the game wore on, it looked like he got a little better. Maybe that'll be a sign for us in the future.

It's not the kind of football I like to see from our team. We'll work hard to try to get it fixed. There is no excuse for it. We dropped balls, we didn't execute, we didn't play with the kind of urgency and intensity that good teams play with. Everybody needs to decide what kind of team we're going to have.

I tried to escape yesterday before the wind started blowing so I could come here where we had a generator and watch film and work during the storm,

We gave him the work we thought he could handle. Do I think he got enough work in the preseason to be ready for the first game? I didn't make the decision to come to practice when he came to practice. We did the best we could under the circumstances.

This was probably Ricky's best overall game out there, in terms of him having some space to work in, not only as a runner, but a couple of times as a receiver as well.

There may be 25 players out there we feel are potential guys that would be first-round picks regardless of where we pick. We have to bring to some kind of organizational order to who brings the most value to us. That's something that's a work in progress.

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.

Live by the creed that a strong work ethic, playing by the rules, and doing things the right way will bring about opportunities for success and, ultimately, happiness.

I'm tired of hearing all this talk from people who don't understand the process of hard work-like little kids in the back seat asking 'Are we there yet?' Get where you're going 1 mile-marker at a time.