Nick Saban Players Quotations

We are pleased with the team chemistry we have right now, and we are pleased with what the players are doing. My comment is going to be about that. It is not on any speculation about what is going to happen in the future.

We're fortunate to be able to add someone with Mike's knowledge and experience to our staff. (With the Bills), he instilled in his players a sense of belief in his system and those leadership skills will serve him well in his new role.

We thought we could bat a lot of balls on him, and have some players who are athletes, ... When you're pressuring, getting as close to the quarterback as you are, that's got to be an advantage for you. You can't just cover on the back end.

We need to make sure we have an adequate backup at that position. We're trying to work through that right now, either with the players we have on our team or some who are available in free agency.

There are lots of players who have had this injury. There are lots of players who come back and play from this injury, and they actually come back to full mobility and full speed.

My focus is on trying to get our players in the best position we can to have an opportunity to be successful. The other stuff is pretty minor.

One of the most difficult parts of my job is having to release players, and the past week has emphasized this fact. This is especially true when those players made significant contributions to the success of the team in the past. Ideally, we would like to keep many of those players on our roster, but we are simply not able to do that.

I would have liked to determine it a month ago or two weeks ago. I would like to determine it. I don't have a problem with determining it. We are trying to determine it. But we don't want to upset the apple cart of what we are trying to accomplish with the development of both of these players by trying to determine something that is not ready to be determined.

I would be a little disappointed for our players (if a blackout occurs). These guys have worked hard, and we have done a lot to try to make the team better.

I don't care if you are a coach or player, you have family and personal issues and those things that are of concern. Everybody's safety is of concern. I have a great appreciation for the players and what they were able to do today to stay focused on the things that we wanted to try to get accomplished.

Ideally, we would like to keep many of those players on our roster, but we are simply not able to do that.

I can't sit here and say that our players aren't as good as their players. I feel terribly that we didn't get the result that we wanted.

I don't think anybody goes out there not knowing what to do, ... I don't think anybody doesn't know they didn't do it right after it happens. I just think that you are talking about a lot of different multiples and adjustments that have to occur. They happen quickly in the game and I think the more repetition you get on things like that, the more confidence the players gain in their ability to adjust.

The Pac-10 obviously did pretty well against the SEC this past week, ... Our players need to be aware of that and know that our league is nationally-known and when we go play places people are anxious to play us.

He's played a great role for this team all year. He's been unselfish, he's been a really good team guy and he's been very helpful with a lot of other players in terms of what he's done. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it as an organization based on what he's done and how he's played and how he's overcome a lot. We're real proud of him.

I think that's a great example -- and those players know it who were involved -- that to play a game for 60 minutes, you've got to be disciplined and you never want to have undisciplined, unprovoked penalties like that. My advice is act like you've been there.

I think the evaluation is he played behind two really good players that were both drafted, and to find out if he has the right stuff to be a consistent performer.

Sure, I think that would put two good players together. We thought a lot about how we would implement that on offense and the fact that one of those players won't be here for some of the games in the beginning of the season would make it a little harder to develop at this point.

Sure. I expect it to be ongoing. I guess we could take two approaches which is, make it simple, or we can keep trying to build the way we want to play and get the players to continue practicing it and develop confidence in it and kind of go from there.

I think everybody needs to understand that we're not really changing our offense and we're not changing our defense. We're going to keep things as consistent for our players as we can.

It doesn't mean that just because we work somebody out that we have an issue. That is not something that anybody should assume. There are things called information gathering and we are allowed to use workouts of players who are not under contract to gather information about those players.

My biggest concern is how many players do we have that can go in and play (winning) football,

We have some players that I think don't play with the kind of confidence that I would like to see, ... It affects their ability to make plays.

We have an idea of how we're going to use him, but we don't have an idea of where he is in terms of how much we'll use him. There's a difference. You try to bring players back role-wise without putting them at risk for injury.

We didn't do what we needed to do to get a stop. We have to do a better job as coaches getting our players ready so we have a better chance to be successful in those situations and we have to be more consistent in the way we perform.

There are a lot of questions about the offensive line, and we're going to continue to work some different players in different spots to get the best combination of what we can do,

When other players think it's not acceptable by their peers how they go about what they do, they will change more readily. If they don't change then, then maybe they are the wrong guys.

We would like to have all of our players here.

We had a chance to stop them at the end of the game and they bang us with a big play right off the bat, ... Those things are disappointing. I was very proud, though, of the way our players fought back in the game.

There are good players at every spot. Including 16.

The players showed a lot of pride in their part to establish an identity we're trying to form here,

We've obviously started our research in terms of what the options are going to be for us. One of the goals that we have is to develop the players we have so somebody can be a starter for our organization in the future, or to bring somebody to the organization that has the potential to be a future starter relative to our situation.

Well, he just didn't look comfortable all the time in terms of making decisions ... and that's something that you'd always like to do with your players is make sure you're asking them to do things they're comfortable doing. You play to their strengths.

We lost two great players who were part of a dominating front, ... Young players are going to determine the depth and quality of the kind of defensive team we're going to have.

We certainly feel both those players are capable. Sometimes when you play corner I think it's very important that you play with confidence and do the things you need to do technique-wise.

To be honest, I didn't even get a chance to watch the game. We came back from practice and watched film on our practice, so I didn't get to see any of the game. We respect the system that is in place and we are playing Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship game. It's a tremendous opportunity for our program and right now all we are focused on is getting our players ready to play Oklahoma.

We are going to get the quarterback ready that is going to play in the game and we are going to try and get the backup ready to be the backup. It is really insignificant to me, because there are players at every position that get limited amounts of reps to be backups and if something happens to the guy ahead of him, whether they are having trouble performing, they get injured or whatever, that guy has got to get you through the game.

Even though our offensive line did a really good job this year, it is an area of our team that we may be able to add something to that might enhance it even more, especially with the kind of running backs that we have. I don't think we have an older guy on our team who is not capable of continuing to play. I think the issue becomes, can they do it and sustain it for the season? Those are the tough decisions that we have to make, but we are going to have to do that with defensive players because we need to get younger.

I've always believed the players I coach can learn a lot from the success of their predecessors, and that's especially true here in Miami.

Sometimes, players have never had things explained that way to them, and maybe that's why they see it a little bit different,

Sometimes, just like when players are available, you have to make decisions on whether we should bring someone like that into our organization. It's not about whether you have an opening or not. It's about whether this is a positive addition to our organization. That's what we've done. That doesn't mean that it creates other issues for somebody else.

You really don't know what's going to be available. There's going to be quite a few players picked before we pick. We have to do a good job making sure we've evaluated all the players ahead and behind where we might pick.

This is not really about me at all. I'm really pleased for the players. These players have suffered a little bit over the last year. I think that they all wanted to prove something, and I'm just happy that we could help them accomplish that.

This game is really about our players and not about me going back to Baton Rouge,

There may be 25 players out there we feel are potential guys that would be first-round picks regardless of where we pick. We have to bring to some kind of organizational order to who brings the most value to us. That's something that's a work in progress.

There's a twofold purpose. Not just for bad weather but sometimes helping players recover.

It will be a challenge for our players to face the defending Super Bowl champions in their first game. It just reinforces the importance of our off-season program and training camp to make sure we're ready to play at a high level to begin the season.

It really goes back to the way I've always tried to teach, ... A lot of people teach players what to do. Some people teach players how to do it. But not everyone always teaches someone why it's important to do it that way.

Doesn't that make perfect sense? Isn't it the Dolphins offense? We don't change systems just because we've got one new guy walking in the building. Why would we change it for all the players on offense? We want to build on what we have.

It's most important that we use caution right now, in terms of trying to keep some of our better players and more experienced players that have impact and leadership ready for the season,

The best way to disrespect somebody is to just walk away from them. But that is the show business part of what we have to deal with, and to me it's wrong. It's a bad example for young people to see and it's not the kind of character and attitude that we want our players to represent this organization in, our owner, the Miami Dolphins ... or the people on the team who all have to suffer because of that.

It's difficult to know what 15 players are going to get picked before we pick. This is a time when nobody really ever really tells the truth about what they plan to do. We have to be ready and have every player evaluated.

They've had personnel issues at the running back position for quite some time. They are getting those guys back now and I think those guys are playing better and better. I think they're as healthy as they've been all year. I think that's the key to it. They ran the ball effectively down here. Heath Evans was basically playing tailback. I don't think there is anything wrong with their running game; I just think that they haven't had all the players available in all the right spots being healthy this year that can help them develop the running game more quickly, but it's certainly developing nicely now.

I know they didn't play all of their players the whole time. At the same time, we did what we had to do in the game. It probably shouldn't have been as close. I'm pleased with the way these players came out given the situation.

I know Randy has learned a lesson from this. It's important for all our players to understand that they represent this team and this community, and conduct themselves accordingly. Regarding anything we will do in this specific instance, it's a team matter and as such will be handled privately.

I'm really pleased for the players. These players have suffered a little bit over the last year or so in terms of things not going so well for them, ... I think that they all wanted to prove something.

If you don't have an indoor facility, you've got to cut down the practice time in preparation for the game so the players can recover. Or you change the environment they do the work in, which an indoor facility allows you to do. It's really a player health and safety issue as much as anything.

If Florida State had a workout last week that ends up on there, I can pull it up and look at it and watch those particular players, even though they may not have been on there two weeks ago when I looked at those particular players at that time.

I don't think we are going to do a lot of stuff. We haven't done much the whole preseason. . . but what we want to do is, go through a preparation so the players get an idea of what we are doing and the kind of adjustments they have to make and things like that. It's more the idea of going through the process than it is to do different things.

A.J. did a pretty good job when he was in there, ... I want to build on the identity, the attitude. We want our players to overcome adversity in the game.