Nick Saban Quotes

"We certainly created some adversity for ourselves to overcome out there, ... but I was really pleased with how we responded time in and time out. Nobody's ever happy with penalties. Nobody's ever happy with turnovers. But I think it's most important to establish how you respond to that stuff when it happens in the game."

"We have total faith, trust and confidence in the guy. The guy has a tremendous amount of ability. He's going to be a long snapper for a long time in this league so the question is do we want to take the time to develop that or do we want to let him go snap for somebody else?"

"I think having poise and the ability to execute is critical to play in tough situations and we have to find a psychological balance that we can do that,"

"It's the trademark of both guys in terms of their endurance and ability to get better as the game goes on. That's something we'd like to continue to utilize in the future if we can."

"We need to improve our ability to play with discipline, especially on the road, especially in the beginning of games, ... That put us behind the 8-ball."

"From an intangible standpoint, it's about things like effort, mental toughness, the ability to stay focused and execute, and be a little relentless in the way you try to go about your work, ... We're gladiators out there. We're modern-day gladiators and that mental toughness has got to permeate your team."

"If we don't have an agreement this year, obviously it's going to affect the cap in an adverse way in terms of what's available to spend on players."

"We've tried to make a plan on how we would operate if we do have an agreement, how it would that impact our ability to make improvements to the team. All we can do is manage the situation the best we can."

"That's all bull, It's an excuse, and I'm not giving the players an excuse. You either have discipline or you don't. If we're going to give them a reason to fail all the time ... It's like my kid: `You got a D on the test? I don't want to hear about it.You didn't prepare well enough. You didn't have enough discipline to do what you had to do when you had to do it the way it was supposed to get done."

"There is no doubt that quarterback is a critical position in every organization. That really has to be something that we look at to make a good assessment on how we move ahead at that position. We like all of the quarterbacks that we have here, but if we get an opportunity to improve the quality at that position, we most certainly will."

"Our doctors felt comfortable about the circumstance of his injury, where he is in his rehab and where he can be in the future. It's our goal to get him ready for this season. He's on schedule to do that."

"I've looked at all of them. Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't look at the menu, right?"

"The last couple of days I've seen it in a lot of guys' eyes to the point where you really have a lot of compassion."

"It's an expectation: What are the most important things to accomplish at this time? To find out as much as we can about what those combinations are may be more important at this time than the end result so we can build on a better end result in the long term."

"We're fortunate to be able to add someone with Mike's knowledge and experience to our staff. (With the Bills), he instilled in his players a sense of belief in his system and those leadership skills will serve him well in his new role."

"He sets a good example. He's a hard worker, a great person, a good guy. He tries to do everything that you want him to do. ... I think that his energy level and his example certainly affect other people."

"I think that's a great example -- and those players know it who were involved -- that to play a game for 60 minutes, you've got to be disciplined and you never want to have undisciplined, unprovoked penalties like that. My advice is act like you've been there."

"We have to get the kind of execution at quarterback that will give it to them."

"He is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and probably the best quarterback in the SEC. He makes good choices and decisions; they only have one turnover all year. ... He doesn't make a lot of bad plays."

"I'm not blaming it on anything because that's not my nature, ... but we certainly didn't have the energy and enthusiasm that we've played with to this point."