Postgame Quotes: Alabama Head Coach/Student-Athletes (Nov.16)

Mississippi State vs. Alabama
Alabama Postgame Quotes
November 16, 2019 | Davis Wade Stadium

Head Coach Nick Saban
Opening Statement
"I was really pleased with the way our team came out and played, especially in the first half. We really wanted to sort of reestablish who we are as a team and go out there and play with great effort, toughness and discipline. We wanted to execute and do our jobs well and be relentless in the way we competed in the game. I thought we did that on both sides of the ball. Obviously, we had some poor judgments and poor decisions in terms of penalties. That created some situations that we had to overcome. In some cases we did. I was really proud of the way our guys competed in the game.

"I know everyone is most interested in Tua's [Tagovailoa] situation. We know he has a hip injury that is going to be evaluated. I do not think it is related to any other injury he has. It is kind of a freak thing that you seldom see. I don't really have anything else to say about that. We will go from there. Raekwon [Davis] has a sprained ankle. DJ Dale has a twisted knee or whatever. A couple other guys are beat up. [Henry] Ruggs [III] came out with a bruised rib. We will see where that takes us. That is about it from the injury standpoint.

"I was really pleased with how our guys prepared all week and came out and played in the game."

Q: What went into making the game time decision on Tua [Tugovailoa]?
NS: "We felt like if he could move in pre-game, which we took him out before pregame before the team ever went out and worked him out. He was good. He was at least as good as he was a week ago, in terms of his ability to move. I do not think anything he did affected his performance in this game in the first half. So, the guy played, and the guy played really well. We hated that we got injured. We hate it for him. We hate it for his family. We hate if any player on our team gets injured. So, godspeed to him and his entire family. Our thoughts and prayers are with him that this is not so serious that it has a long term effect on his future as a player. I really do not know the severity of what he has. We are going to take him to Birmingham, so CAT scans and MRIs [can be done] and find out [what the severity is]. We can second guess ourselves all we want. We told Mac [Jones] to warm up two minutes before the half. Tua wanted to play in the game. I don't really make a lot of decisions based on worrying about guys getting hurt or I would have taken Raekwon [Davis] out and Henry] Ruggs [III] out and everybody else that got hurt out. We have total confidence in Mac. I thought Mac did a good job when he went in the game."

Q: What is the value in putting Mac [Jones] in at the two-minute?
NS: "Look, the way I look at this whole thing is Tua [Tugovailoa] is our number one quarterback. If he is physically able to play, we want to play him in the game. That is what he wanted to do. That is what our team wanted to do. If I would have known if anything bad was going to happen I certainly would not have put him in that situation. We are a team. We are a team that is trying to get better in the long term and the long run to see if we can finish the season the way we want. I hated that the guy got hurt."

Q: How do you coach the players to still be aggressive but not have personal fouls?
NS: "Well, you know, it is the same old stuff. We had a couple of those today. You want guys to play with great emotion but you don't want them to be emotional and make bad decisions. We need to do a better job of that. The penalties have been a problem and it is very disappointing to me that we cannot make better decisions about when the whistle blows to stop playing. So, we will just keep working on it. Obviously, we are emphasizing it. I do not think people want to get a penalty, I just think people have to make better decisions about what do so they do not get a penalty.

Q: Why is the offense not fazed when faced with third-and-long situations?
NS: That has been something we have done a good job of all year long. We don't really want to create those situations, especially in this game because we felt like their MO is trying to give you negative plays. Then they have a pretty exotic third down package of a lot of odd different pressures. We were trying to avoid those situations today. I know we overcame some. Some of them were caused by penalties and things of that nature. We need to do a better job of keeping ourselves out of those situation."

RB Najee Harris
Q: The coaches are very impressed with the way you've been playing the last couple of weeks, how do you feel?
NH: "We'll see in film. I'm doing alright. I have a lot of stuff to work on still. I made a couple of mistakes out there."

Q: With a four-touchdown performance, do you not get to feel good about yourself?
NH: "I'm just hurt about our quarterback [Tua Tagovailoa]. I'm not in the mood to answer questions to be honest, so that is why I'm giving short answers. I'm not trying to be rude to anybody, I'm just not in the mood right now really."

Q: What does that say about what [Tua Tagovailoa]means to this team as a player?
NH: "He means a lot to the team. That's our guy. I came here the same time that he did. We've been friends ever since my freshman year and to see him go down like that really hurts."

Q: A lot of people got injured today. Was this a particularly hard-hitting game?
NH: "No, it's just the wear and tear of the season. It's about that time where people go down with injuries and stuff."

Q: Do you feel like you're seeing the hole better this year? Have you worked on your jump cut or anything? You just seem like you're performing on a really high level.
NH: "It's just more opportunities to see how fast the game is and see things. It's more comfortable."

DB Xavier McKinney

Q: How did you all push through the game?
XM: "I'm just trying to keep going no matter who goes down and no matter what happens. We're just trying to focus on that. I thought during halftime we were just trying to sharpen up what we were already doing and trying to get better with that."

Q: Coming off of last week, what was the focus this week?
XM: "Just do your job. That's kind of the focus all the time; just to do our job. I feel like a lot of the times we have got to have everybody doing their job. If everybody does that, we'll be able to execute well."

Q: What did you see on Shane [Lee]'s interception on their first play of the game?
XM: "I didn't even really see it, but I know he picked it. I saw he got tackled by the quarterback out there, and I was kind of on him for that because he should have scored. That was a big play in the game. It was early. I feel like that was good for us."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Alabama Head Coach/Student-Athletes (Nov.16)

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