BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Nick Saban met with the media for the first of his weekly press luncheon on the fifth floor of the LSU Athletic Administration Building on Monday afternoon.
The Tigers are set to continue preparation for the season opening match-up with Tulane with a 3 p.m. practice.
QUOTES FROM NICK SABAN’S WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
(Monday, August 27)
“I’d like to welcome all of you here for another football season. I think that the amount of coverage that we get from the various media outlets is great. I think that everyone here does a fantastic job of reinforcing our players for the things that they do well. Hopefully, not the things that they don’t, but those things too.”
“You (media members) are the players’ link to the world out there and I certainly appreciate the time and the effort that you give up to give them the kind of exposure that they deserve for representing LSU as football players. I think that it makes it special for them and I’m happy to have you here today.”
“We’re certainly looking forward to the season and it’s great to be in the midst of a game week. I think that the players are a little bit tired of practicing against one another, hitting one another and competing against each another. Getting started in the season will be something that they are really looking forward to.”
“Game week obviously offers a little bit of a different challenge. We’re going over game plans and doing little different type things to get into a routine that I think has to be something that the players deal with on a week-to-week basis to maintain their excellence and how they can physically perform.”
“We’re ready to get in this week and we’ve had a really good series of two-a-day practices and it has been relatively injury free. Lionel Turner is probably the only person who is listed as questionable for this game. I think it is maybe even doubtful if he can make it back for this game. It’s a one-week to two-week injury and this game would be about a week and a half for him.”
“Tulane is a very dangerous team. I was very impressed with the way they competed in the game, especially early on. Their offense was relatively unstoppable the first two or three times that they had the ball. The fact that they accumulated over 500 yards of offense against a very good team in BYU, who is a top-25 caliber team, makes them a very difficult opponent. They only turned the ball over once in the game and only had five penalties as a team.”
“I think that those are all things that probably point to the fact that they are indeed a very dangerous team. I also think that the altitude that they played in on Saturday had something to do with the outcome of the game, because as the game wore on there was a relative difference in how they played in the beginning as opposed to the way they finished.”
“In the second half of the game, they got tired physically and I don’t think that it was due to bad conditioning. I think it was an altitude thing. I remember back in 1985 or so, when the Miami Hurricanes won the national championship after losing their first game to BYU in a very similar type of situation.”
“We certainly look at this team as a team that is very capable. They scored 35 points in the game and had over 500 yards of offense. Their quarterback is a phenomenal player. He’s probably the best that we have faced since I’ve been here, as far as his ability to run their offense, his accuracy and his ability to make good passing assessments. They have very good skill players, who all had good games on Saturday. Terrell Harris had nine catches in the game, Mewelde Moore had over 200 yards in all purpose yards and 176 yards rushing.”
“They can really run the football, which gives them balance in their offensive game. Defensively, I don’t think that they tackled well, and that is always a defensive coach’s nightmare early in the season. It’s hard to get the team ready to tackle well when it is the first game of the season. I think they got tired late in the game, but their kicking game looked good and they are going to be a very dangerous opponent for us.”
“It’s going to be a little like a Rocky versus Apollo Creed type deal. Our players need to respect them, we need to prepare well and we need to focus well on what we need to do to win this ball game. Anybody who thinks that this is not going to be a game, and thinks that Tulane should not be respected, didn’t talk to me about it, because that is not how I feel about it and I don’t care what happened in the past years. None of that matters, but it does matter how we get ready for this team, because we do respect the offensive production of this team and the things that they can do with the ball.”
SABAN ON THE DEFENSIVE SECONDARY
“We’re going to play our nickel and dime packages in certain situations throughout the game, and in some cases I feel that there is real close competition for the starting positions. We’re going to start the players which have shown the most consistency throughout the spring and in two-a-days. If they struggle in the game, then we’ll give someone else an opportunity.”
SABAN ON TULANE’S OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN
“We haven’t played a team yet that went no-huddle, which for the defensive players is going to take considerable preparation. A team that goes no-huddle takes a player out of his normal routine.”
“I’m sure that everyone here has a routine that they go through every day. I can tell you what I do. I get up. I always get up before Terry (his wife), so the coffee is never made and there is always one glass in the pot left over from the day before that I put in the microwave and punch 1-1-1. I put in on, walk out to the road and get the paper, come back, beep-beep-beep, coffee’s done. I grab two Little Debbie’s cookies and read the paper. That’s a routine, and that’s how I always start the day.”
“Everybody here has one of those routines and so does every defensive player. You go to the huddle, he gets the call, he looks at the offense coming out to its formation, he has time to line up and think about what his alignment is and what his key is. A defensive player goes through that process every day of his life and now all of a sudden he can’t do that because the other team doesn’t huddle.”
BANK ONE REVEALS LSU COMMEMORATIVE BOBBLEHEAD DOLLS
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| From left to right: Skip Bertman, Nick Saban, “Pistol” Pete Maravich, Mike the Tiger. |
Shortly after coach Saban’s press luncheon, Bank One presented LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman with a four-piece set of LSU Commemorative Bobblehead Dolls with the following release:
BATON ROUGE — To a wide receiver, a punt returner or an infielder, “bobble” means trouble. But to new Bank One customers in Baton Rouge, “bobble” is a home run.
That’s because customers opening new Value One checking or Basic Business Checking accounts through Sept. 30 will receive a limited-edition set of four LSU “bobbleheads.” They are in the likeness of:
- LSU athletic director Skip Bertman
- Football coach Nick Saban
Basketball great Pete Maravich and School mascot Mike the Tiger.
“The ‘bobblehead’ collectible sets are a great way to extend our partnership as the official bank of the LSU Tigers,” said Emmett Vollenweider, manager of retail banking for Bank One’s central and north Louisiana market. “With the anticipation surrounding new athletic director Skip Bertman and a high national pre-season ranking for the Tiger football team, we think it’s an excellent way to focus attention on the benefits of banking with Bank One.”
Each “bobblehead” weighs one pound, three ounces and is made of synthetic ceramic.
The “bobblehead” giveaway is part of Bank One’s “Better Than Free” campaign designed to highlight the advantages Bank One checking account customers can enjoy, compared to competitors’ “free” checking accounts, Vollenweider said.
To get a set of LSU “bobbleheads,” consumers must open a new Value One, Interest One or Premier One checking account with a minimum $300 deposit.
Benefits of the account include:
- free THE ONE Card debit card
- free online banking
- unlimited teller transactions
- no annual fee overdraft protection
- no annual fee Bank One credit card and
- free access to Bank One ATMs nationwide.
Business Banking customers also can qualify for the “bobblehead” collectibles by opening any Business Banking checking account. Everyday features of Business Banking checking accounts include free online banking, free 24-hour Bank One Business Solutions telephone banking and free access to Bank One ATMs nationwide.
“Customers can receive those account benefits every day,” Vollenweider said. “But during the ‘Better Than Free’ campaign, we’ve added several other enhancements, such as a 90-day service fee waiver, a free first order of checks with direct deposit into the account and a 1/4% bonus on a new CD.”
In addition to the 90-day service fee waiver, Business Checking customers can enjoy additional benefits during the campaign. They include a Bank One Business Line of Credit with an introductory rate of prime less 1% for six months, a 1/2% discount on the line of credit interest rate after six months and a 1/4% bonus on a new CD.
Vollenweider said the company commissioned a limited number of “bobblehead” sets for the “Better Than Free” campaign.
“The focus of this offer is building more long-term relationships with consumers and businesses in the Baton Rouge area,” he said. “We designed our ‘bobblehead’ giveaway as a fun way to kick off another exciting year of Tiger athletics at LSU.”
Bank One Corporation (NYSE: ONE) operates nearly 200 banking centers and more than 500 ATMs in Louisiana. Based in Chicago, it is the nation’s fifth-largest bank holding company, with assets of more than $270 billion.
Bank One offers a full range of financial services to large corporate and middle market commercial customers and retail consumers. Bank One can be found on the Internet at www.bankone.com.