Everything Alabama's Nick Saban Had To Say Following Close Road Win At Texas

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The highly-anticipated matchup of No. 1 Alabama at Texas ultimately fell in the Tide's favor 20-19 with a Will Reichard field goal in the closing seconds of a game that saw Alabama commit more penalties in one day than any other contest during the Nick Saban Era.

ALSO READ: No. 1 Alabama Overcomes Penalties, Sloppy Play In Road Win Over Texas

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Watch Coach Saban's full press conference following the game by clicking the YouTube link at the top of the article or keep reading for the full transcript!

OPENING STATEMENT

The one good thing you have to say about our team as they showed tremendously resiliency today to do things they needed to do in the third quarter, forth quarter to come back in the game after not really playing Alabama football for the first three quarters of the game.

You've got to give Texas a lot of credit. They had a good plan. Did a good job at executing.

We made a lot of mental errors. We had way too many penalties, shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit. We didn't run the ball with any with any consistency on offense when we tried one stretch of the game where we went three-and-out five straight times I think in the second and third quarter.

We got great field position a couple of times and couldn't take advantage of it. So there is a tremendous amount of things that we can learn from as a team. What I told the team is: if you practice hard, the game is easy. If you don't push yourself in practice, then the game becomes hard.

But for resiliency, our guys know to make plays at the end of the game when we needed to make them and they made them.

You've got to say that's great from a competitive standpoint.

... But if we're going to be the kind of team that we want to believe that we're capable of being, we're going to have to play better, down in and down out. As I told the players before this game, this is like playing an SEC game on the road. This kind of atmosphere, this kind of team that we're playing.

Texas is a lot better team than people give them credit for and they're going to be in the SEC [in 2025]. And if they were in the SEC right now, they'd probably be in the top half the league.

This was a real test for us and we didn't play as well as we'd like to play from beginning to end. But in the end, when we had to make plays, players did a great job of making the plays they needed to make.

So perseverance, resiliency, ability to overcome adversity, you've got to give them an 'A' for all that. But not so good with some of the other execution that we had earlier on in the game and we've got to get fixed.

CROWD NOISE IMPACT ON PENALTIES

We have a false start on offense because of the crowd noise, but if you jump offsides on defense that doesn't have anything to do with crowd noise.

If you block a guy in the back that doesn't have anything to do with crowd noise. A lot of them are undisciplined penalties but we have to be able to play and manage crowd noise if we're going to play in this league and the SEC. Because every place [Alabama plays in the SEC} will be like this, so this is an opportunity.

WILL REICHARD HITTING GAME-WINNER

Will has been a consistent performer for us for several years now.

I mean, I've never been around a guy that had a perfect season. He actually had a perfect season as a kicker. Never missed an extra point, never missed a field goal.

He had a game winner today. I don't know if that's his first, but I had total confidence in him. That and he just did a great job on kickoffs.

I think Will Anderson got a piece of the field goal right before the half, which turned out to be huge. But Will [Reichard] has done a phenomenal job for us — One of the most consistent performers on our team.

BRYCE YOUNG RISING TO THE OCCASION

I had a lot of confidence In our offense.

We went for it and needed an inch and didn't get it, which we could have kicked a field goal there and went up by four and made them score a touchdown. But if they'd have scored a touchdown we probably would have never got the ball back.

I knew that if we could shrink the game enough that we got the ball back, that [Young] would do a good job in two-minute because he does it all the time.

So, players made plays when they had to make them. [Young] made them the drive before that and that particular drive and to get us down there when we did make it on fourth once. So three straight drives in a row, he kind of took the game over.

FIVE STRAIGHT THREE AND OUTS FOR OFFENSE

We didn't block them very well up front. Didn't protect very well, got pressure in pocket. Wasn't very effective throwing the ball, didn't get people open ... Probably need to do a better job from a planning standpoint [considering] the way they played us.

It just all comes down to executing. When you're playing games like this, you've got to focus on what's in front of you. You can't worry about all the other stuff that's going on. What people say, what they say on ESPN, what you all [in sports media] say, how much you're favored in the game.

You've got to focus on what's in front of you. If you're an offensive lineman, that's the guy you've got a block. If you're a receiver, that's a guy you've got to beat, if your're quarterback you got to take what the defense gives you. If you're a runner, you've got to press the hole and make the right cuts.

We didn't do any of that stuff the way we need to, right? So it wasn't just one thing. But you've got to be able to stay focused on that and then you can't put yourself behind the eight ball. We got hit with so many second and long and third and long that you're at a real disadvantage — to yourself.

We've got to do a better job on all those downs so we don't put ourselves in those situations.

TERRION ARNOLD AT CORNERBACK

I thought he played much better. We've got a lot of competition at corner, so I kind of go by who played the best.

We started Kyree [Jackson], he got beat a couple times. I've got confidence in all of them. But when Terrion went in a game, I thought he did a really good job, made a couple really nice plays.

WILL ANDERSON'S PERFORMANCE AT LINEBACKER

He got a couple penalties, but other than that, he played really well and he made a big play at the end of the game and he got the sack. It didn't take them out of field goal range, but it made for a much more difficult kick.

But I thought we'll played well in the game.

WHY IS BRYCE YOUNG SO GOOD?

I mean, if I could actually tell you that, I don't know if I'd be doing this and this is a pretty good job I got, but I'd I have a better one.

The guy studies. He prepares well for the game. He understands exactly what the defense is in and what they're going to do. He understands protections. He knows how to protect himself. Knows when he's got to throw the ball hot. He's athletic enough to extend plays and make plays. And he's accurate throwing the ball.

And he's very, very instinctive.

He plays quarterback like a point guard in basketball and he's just got talent.

But he doesn't just play with his talent. He's very well-prepared and knows exactly what the game plan is and what he needs to do to execute it. And players around him have got to play well, too.

Quarterback is a hard position to play when the players around you don't play well.

QUINN EWERS INJURY

I thought the quarterback that went out of the game was playing really well, made some really good throws early in the game. He's a very talented guy.

But I thought the quarterback that came in the game [Hudson Card] did a really good job, too. He scrambled and extended some plays maybe the other guy wouldn't have been able to in critical situations because he's very athletic. But our guys played better as the game went on.

We played better in a second half on defense, I thought. We pressured and affected the quarterback a little more. They do a lot of shifting in motioning and adjusting and we messed a couple of those things up early in the game. I think sometimes that messes with guys confidence and once we settled down, I thought we played a little better.

SPECIAL TEAMS

They can be extremely important. I mean you won't talk about [how] field position got flipped in the second half all because of the kicking game.

They got the ball. We stopped them. Their punter punted the ball about 60 yards. We go three-and-out. Our guy punts it 35 yards. We stopped them. They punted and it's on the 1 yard line. So, you know, people don't talk about that.

But that's how special teams affect the game and it affects field position. And every hundred yards of field position in a game means six points most of the time. So it's critical. And that's why your specialists have to execute.

Your teams have to do a great job of controlling vertical field position by the way they played. And I thought our teams did a pretty good job today. But, we've just got to be more consistent with the specialists.

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