What Saban Said Wednesday Night: ‘Nothing’

Nick Saban held his weekly Wednesday press conference and touched on a few topics related to this week's Arkansas game in Bryant-Denny Stadium. One was: nothing. Here is a look at what the 17th-year Tide coach had to say.

Opening Statement

"Ya'll ready for a lecture? We're going to talk about the importance of nothing.

"Get up every day, you're entitled to nothing. Nobody owes you ... nothing. You can have talent but if you don't have discipline and you don't execute and you don't focus, what do you get? Nothing. If you're complacent and not paying attention to detail, what does that get you? Nothing. So nothing is acceptable but your best.

"Everything is determined by what you do and you trying to be your best, so that you can build on positive performance. "That’s the only thing. There should be nothing else but that, for everybody. That’s what we have to stay focused on. It’s what we need to do. We got rained out today, so we had to go inside. We need to not accept anything but our best in terms of what we’re doing for preparation."

On if he's alerted players about Saturday's solar eclipse

"I think you have to prepare your team for every distraction. I think the best thing to do would be to text them, because they don't listen all the time. That might be a new technique that we try to get them to do what they're supposed to do on the field."

On Arkansas linebacker Hugh Thomas

"Their whole front seven is very aggressive. This guy is a real good tackler, very instinctive. He's one of the better linebackers we play against."

On Tim Keenan's progress

"One thing it's all about us to do is Jaheem [Oatis] played nose last year, and Tim's emergence as a good inside player allowed to move him.  He's smart, very dependable and you can always count on him to do his job. He gives great effort, and he's made himself a player here. He's worked his way up."

On the progess of the left tackle rotation of Proctor and Pritchett

"Both guys have shown promise when they've played and both have played well enough that there should be consideration for both playing at some position or splitting time at some position. They've both had hiccups when they've played."

The Tide and Razorbacks kick off Saturday at 11 a.m. CT and the game can be heard on Tide 100.9/WTBC 1230 along with 95.3 The Bear.