It’s time again for the Hey Coach Show with Nick Saban as the Alabama football coach spends his weekly hour on the radio.
We’ll have the updates from his comments so refresh the page for the latest.
Segment 1
— “Bryce has been about to practice some this week … but he still has some soreness and we’ll have to make a pregame decision,” Saban said of Bryce Young. “This really and truly will be a pregame decision,” Saban added.
— Overuse can cause a setback in the healing process, Saban added.
RELATED: The latest on Bryce Young’s status
— Saban said the Arkansas game is a metaphor and lesson for life. The Tide “totally lost mental intensity” after taking a 28-0 lead isn’t what they’d like.
— Peewee from Grand Bay wants to know how the players have done blocking out the “rat poison” this week. Saban explained Texas A&M is in the same place it was last year with a 3-2 record. Last year the team listened to the “rat poison” and didn’t play well in a 41-38 loss. Saban said they started out the week well in practice. More on the connections between last year’s game and this Saturday’s rematch.
— Andrew in Tokyo calls in. Saban wants to know what time it is (9:14 am Friday). He’s active military and Saban thanked him for his service.
Segment 2
— Caller from Texas is named Paul Bryant has a story about giving Terry Saban a high five after a win. He wants to know when she’ll be on the radio show. “I’ll see if she wants to come up here one day,” he said with a grin.
— Another guy named Jim Kelly called wanting to know about players being able to use their phones. He said they’re not and if they’re caught with them, there are repercussions.
— On Alabama’s brand, Saban said he always admired Alabama when he was at LSU so it’s an honor to represent it now.
Segment 3
— Saban said he’s constantly reminding players everything they do has to create value. When players get in fights, he asks players why they’d put their hands at risk when it can limit their ability to create value. “It’s you versus you,” Saban said.
— The 2012 Alabama national championship team will be honored before the game Saturday. Saban called that a special team and special championship. He noted that was this era’s only back-to-back national championship.
— Saban said he thought they had a better team the next year in 2013 but they didn’t have the same mindset.
— The Barrett Jones on AJ McCarron shove at the end of that 2012 national title game was an example of playing 60 minutes and having that mindset.
— “We have to play damn good,” Saban said to a kid at his radio show who wanted to know how Alabama can beat Texas A&M.
Segment 4
— On transfers, Saban said they lost a lot of depth to the transfer portal from last year’s team but didn’t lose any of its top players. He said they are selective when they look at the portal based on the positions of need.
— Final word: Saban says “the media” is asking him questions about how the game was supposed to be a big game and now it isn’t. (None of those questions would have been from local reporters, for what it’s worth) He said this still is a tremendously big game and they can’t afford to overlook it.
