Nick Saban: The first two practices have been good for us. Energy level has been good.
Saban: When you practice hard it makes the game easier.
Saban: We're playing against a really, really good Clemson team. Deshaun Watson is maybe the best player in college football.
Saban: They have really good balance on offense.
Saban on Jonathan Allen: He uses his hands as anyone in the country to disengage and timing it correctly.
Saban on players responding to Sark: Very well. Practices have been upbeat. The energy level has been really good.
Saban: We had 25 negative plays on offense on the tape, so what do you think I saw?
Saban on O.J. Howard: He's played extremely well for us this year. I know people only look at catches, but that's not how we eval our TEs.
Saban: I'd like to see OJ Howard have more production.
Saban on Sarkisian: He's been with us all year. Knows the system inside and out. I have to make decisions to give our players chance to win.
Saban: Tony Brown did a good job in the last game. For the most part he did a good job matching the patterns and covering well.
Saban: Alex Leatherwood practiced for the first time today.
Saban: The NCAA Clearinghouse just opened again yesterday so we're waiting on some guys to get here.
Saban on if he'll help game planning/play calling: We have a good offensive staff. I have a lot of confidence in what we're going to do.
Saban: I philosophically don't want to change what we're doing but I want to feature some guys some more.
Saban: We've cut contact back. We're practicing a little less for this game than we did a year ago.
Saban: We missed quite a few tackles in the (Peach Bowl) game. You watch bowl games and it's the worst tackling you've seen in your life.
Saban on being at Alabama 10 years: I'm not really thinking about that right now.
Saban: You can't sit around falling in love with what you've done in the past.
1 Aaron Suttles,
SUTTLES: Jan. 4 Nick Saban Press Conference highlights | TideSports.com