Saban Evaluates Rees’ Performance; Updates Injuries

As usual on Wednesdays, Nick Saban spoke twice to the media, once on the SEC Teleconference and once at his evening press briefing. Here are some of the more interesting things the Tide coach had to allow.

On Deontae Lawson, Jaylen Key, Jermaine Burton

“Jermaine Burton is fine. He’s practiced. Jaylen and Deontae are both moving around, running, rehabbing, getting close to being ready to practice and play. But I’d say it’s still pretty questionable as to whether they can make it for the game. If they can’t practice tomorrow, then most of the time, we don’t – if guys can’t practice on Thursday, we don’t think they’re healthy enough to play in the game, but we’ll see what comes of that tomorrow.”

On seeing the coaching comings and goings in his 17 years at Bama

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“Well, I get to meet a lot of coaches. When we go to SEC Media Days and we go to SEC meetings, there’s a lot of new guys in the room, and I enjoy developing relationships with all of them. But I hate to see anybody – I said this earlier in the week – I know how hard guys work to try to develop and build a program and how difficult it can be sometimes to try to get everybody on board to try to do the things you need to do to do that. And you need the support of a lot of people to be able to do it, and obviously, it’s too bad when those things don’t work out and people can’t stay together to try to build something positive.”

On the relationship between Tommy Rees and his players

“I think the chemistry between Tommy and the players has always been good. I think that we’ve gradually improved in terms of how we technically execute things, which is the key to the drill. I think we’ve also figured out how to use the personnel that we have a little bit better. And I think that’s contributed to us making more positive plays. And I think in turn, the confidence grows, and that’s been a good thing.”

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