BATON ROUGE — Coming off a 34-0 win over Kentucky, Nick Saban’s Tigers take on their third top-15 opponent in four games when Mississippi State comes to Baton Rouge for a nationally-televised game on Saturday night at 8 p.m. Saban addressed the media on Monday afternoon.
“We want to definitely build on what we did last week. There are many improvements that we can make from what we did last week which we’ll certainly go to work on.”
“From an emotional standpoint, I hope that the lessons have been learned from our past experiences to how we can deal with success. I think that the disposition of the players after the game was more in tune to what you would like it to be. They were expected to do something. They went out and did it, and now let’s go on to the next thing.”
“Hopefully we can build on that, but we won’t know until we go through the practices this week and see how we are able to do that. The thing that I was most pleased with in the game was just the way that we competed in the game. I’m not sure that if you took an execution poll on how well we executed in this game relative to how we executed in the other games that you would be amazed by the difference.”
“We did some good things in the game, but I think that the most important thing was how the players competed in the game. We certainly made some plays in the game at critical times that made a big difference in the game.”
“Offensively, we made a lot of third-down situations, we did a good job, players made catches, and made the plays that we needed to keep the drives alive. We eventually ended up with the points that we needed in the game to win.”
“On defense, they moved the ball effectively at times against us, which was mostly due to their short passing game and because of our poor tackling. Our tackling on those short passes was probably the worst thing that we did in the game.”
“They had 197 yards, almost 200 yards, of yards after the catch. That was the most that we have allowed this year, but that is a credit to them and the design of their offense. In playing them, that is the one thing that you want to minimize, because they count on it a lot. When they throw it short, they know that they are going to get more out of it than what they throw it for.”
“Other than that, we competed in the game and made the plays that we needed to make. That was why we were able to minimize the number of points that they were able to score. The challenge for us now is to get the monkey off of our back relative to how we play with consistency, and this game is certainly going to be an opportunity for us to do that.”
“Josh had a good game, and I think that if he wouldn’t have had as many dropped balls, then he would have had an even better game.”
“I think that he played within himself and did an outstanding job of executing the offense. He took advantage of what was there for the most part. He did a good job of game administration and think there was a positive feeling for how he handled the team in the game. Louis had his best game of the season at center. So that was also a benefit.”
“Trev Faulk had an outstanding game on defense. He had 20-plus production points and was responsible for making a lot of checks on their formations as the middle linebacker and the quarterback of the defense. I thought he did an outstanding job in that as well.”
“On special teams, Donnie Jones did an outstanding job of punting the football not only in terms of distance, but in hang time as well. That probably made some contribution to the two errors that they made in fielding the ball. The one kick had over a five-second hang time which is pretty phenomenal. It was one that they fumbled. Both of those situations led to points for us.”
“So he did a great job along with Adrian Mayes who has been a good special teams player for us all year to help take advantage of some of those situations. He has done especially well as a gunner on the punt team. So, those are our players of the week.”
“Mississippi State presents some challenges of their own for us this week to go along with the challenges that we have for ourselves and what we want to accomplish. They have outstanding football players on both sides of the ball. This is probably the most physical team that we have had to play relative to their style of play, how their defense plays, and how their offensive line tries to dominate the line of scrimmage, and the way that they run the football on people.”
“They have good backs. The quarterback has a lot of experience and has certainly developed into a consistent performer for them in terms of how he executes their offense.”
“This is a good football team. They have a good secondary and a great corner. They put a lot of pressure on you when they’re playing defense relative to their blitz and their style of play. They have the right types of players to do it up front. They’re physical, they push the pocket, they have some good blitzers and good team speed.”
“They also play very well on special teams because of that. It’s going to be a very challenging game for us. This is an outstanding football team.”
Player Quotes10/16/00
Mississippi St. Week
Eric Edwards, TE
“I’m excited about the playing time I’m seeing now. I worked hard in the spring and two-a-days to get more time. Now I’m getting my chance. A lot of the reason I haven’t seen playing time earlier was because of my blocking. I’ve gotten a lot better in my blocking and I’m still working on my blocking. I just waited for my time and now it has come.”
“One of reasons I came here, is because I like catching passes. I really like the way coach Fisher utilizes his tight ends. He has us fit in good to his scheme.”
“Catching a touchdown pass in Tiger Stadium was great. It’s all I’ve been waiting for.”
“Mississippi State will be a very tough game. We just have to play well and not shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Rob Sale, OL
“We just have to keep doing the things we do best and keep getting better in order to run the ball. We just need to get better week-by-week.”
“We going to have to keep them off balance a little bit by mixing the run and the pass.”
“I’m glad to get my opportunity to play. I felt really good out there. I did what I could when I got out there. I was really excited to get a chance to play.”
Ryan Clark, FS
“It was really great to get a shutout, but that’s not just a reflection of the defense. A shutout takes the special teams pinning them back, and the offense moving the ball. I think overall it was really special just to get a shutout as a team effort.”
“Going into a game like Mississippi State you just have to strap it up and put your neck roll on. When you play against Kentucky they are going to try and trick you by spreading things out. Against Mississippi State they are not going to try and fool you. They have a big offensive line and some great skill position players so it will be a great challenge for us.”
“All season we have being using more in the box, we’ve disguised it well sometimes. We’ve (Clark and Lionel Thomas) been making lots of tackles all year so we will be ready to come up there and try and stop the run.”
“We’re improving on defense just by knowing where to be and when to be there. Coach Saban could have put a rock on the field and had a guy run a route. But first you have to know what that route is and make plays from there.”
“I remember last year after the game we (Fred Smoot, CB Miss. St.) met up at midfield and we talked and from I know he was a cool guy. He talks a lot of game, but so do I. One thing I can say about him is he goes out there and makes plays.”
Josh Reed, WR
“If we can make big plays on their defense they will back off on the pressure. So if we can just make a couple of plays over the top we can force them to back off.”