Football Continues Home Stand with Southern Miss on Saturday
9/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nick Saban Opening Statement
"I guess I will say we did a real workman-like job in the last game. I was pleased by the way we competed in the game and gave good effort and played with toughness. We executed better in the game on both sides of the ball. We did make improvement from the first game to the second game. Obviously, there is other things we can improve on, finishing drives on offense and tackling better on defense and creating turnovers on defense. Being more efficient and effective on special teams, making special teams a little more of a weapon for us.
"At this point it's about do you have focus stamina to get better one thing at a time, one day at a time, one play at a time. If each individual improves, then we have a chance to improve collectively as a team. Not that am I not happy about the progress from week one to week two, but we have a lot more to prove and I think a lot of people have a lot more to prove because we haven't really played a lot of games yet.
"We have a lot of really good competition to play coming up in our league as well as this game this weekend against Southern Miss. The quarterback situation is no different than it was before. I know you all (the media) would love to create a quarterback controversy. But the one thing I noticed that I wish you noticed, when Jake Coker threw the touchdown pass who was the first guy to go and jump up and give him a congratulations and a hug was Blake Sims. Both guys are working to improve. We need them both to work to improve. Both players did good things and both players did things they can improve on. I think at this point our focus needs to be on trying to help both of those guys to play better.
"I think you got the players of the week but Amari Cooper, Christion Jones, Jalston Fowler on offense and Jonathan Allen, Eddie Jackson on defense and Kenyan Drake, Adam Griffith and Cyrus Jones on special teams.
"We have no new injuries. Christion Jones may be a little limited today, but we expect him to be okay by tomorrow. Let's continue to progress from there."
