🏈 Give me 5: On personal accountability, ex-Tide DL Darrington Sentimore, no waiver wire and more from

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Tennessee week has started at Alabama, and quarterback AJ McCarron will "try to do some things at practice today" despite a bruised knee that is still sore, coach Nick Saban said.
Saban also said he does not condone the body-slam tackle that earned backup defensive lineman LaMichael Fanning a personal foul penalty late in a 42-10 victory Saturday at Missouri.



Here are some other highlights from Saban’s Monday press conference.

• On his defense, which now leads the nation in seven key statistical categories, including scoring defense, total defense, rushing defensive and pass defense: “It’s been a hard-working group. They have a really good attitude about what they’ve wanted to try to do. I still think there are a lot of areas that we need to improve on, and we’re going to be challenged in a way that we’ve never been challenged by the quality of offensive team that we’re playing this week and their abilities in the passing game as well as the balance they have at running the ball. We’re going to need to continue to improve.”
• Regarding the fact that he took responsibility for the team losing its fire after a lightning delay in a 42-10 victory Saturday at Missouri and who holds him accountable: “Well, I tried to fire myself this week.” He said the players handled the delay well in the locker room, treating the 38-minute delay midway through the second quarter as if it was halftime. “Everybody had the right look in their eye. … But obviously we didn’t come out and play with the same kind of energy and intensity, which is probably difficult with the circumstances in the game as they were.” He said the Tide didn’t respond well to Missouri’s kickoff return for a touchdown in the opening moments after the delay. There was a combination of things. I’m responsible for it. I need to do a better job of it. If you have any ideas what I can do to myself, I’ll be glad to do it. I feel bad about it.”
• On former Alabama defensive lineman Darrington Sentimore, who transferred to Tennessee and now leads the the Vols with four tackles for a loss: “He was a good player when he was here. We’re happy that he’s doing a good job and having some success, and I hope he’s doing what he needs to do off the field and in school. His problems here were not relative to being a football player, so it had nothing to do with pass rush or sacks or any of that.”
• On the fact that former Alabama assistant coach Sal Sunseri now is Tennessee’s defensive coordinator and Tennessee assistant coach Lance Taylor is back at Alabama coaching the outside linebackers, and the dynamic that these switches bring to this game regarding a knowledge of personnel and schemes: “I don’t know that there’s an advantage or disadvantage.” Saban noted that he worked seven years with Derek Dooley, now Tennessee’s head coach. “They kind of know what we do. We can see that they do a lot of the stuff that we do, especially on defense. … The advantages are created by the players and execution. … Even if you know what they do, you don’t know when they’re going to do it.”
• On freshman Cyrus Jones replacing Christion Jones on Saturday when the sophomore slot receiver/kick returner sprained an ankle, and if Alabama would do anything different at that position to add a little depth: “Well, we only have what we have. We don’t have a waiver wire. We can’t pick up anybody. I was trying to check for it on my desk this morning, and I couldn’t find it. … We’ve lost quite a few players at that position, so it’s going to create opportunities for other players to step up and play well.”