Nick Saban Teleconference 11/11/09

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Notes from Nick Saban’s teleconference:

* Saban wants his team to improve to “make ourselves a dangerous team… again.”

* Saban pointed out how competitive Mississippi State has been against a lot of highly-ranked teams.

* Javier Arenas has enhanced his draft stock with his play at cornerback.  He’s not just a kick returner at this point.  “He’s had an outstanding year.”

* Asked about taking orders on the set of “The Blind Side,” Saban said, “It’s easy to take orders when you don’t know anything about what you’re doing.”  “I’m not ready to change professions or get rid of my day jobs, I can tell you that.”

* Michael Williams has “done a really good job of improving throughout the season.”  Saban thought he played “really well” against LSU.

* Saban didn’t bite on a request to compare Mark Ingram with Anthony Dixon.  He did praise Dixon as a “big, physical” player that Bama has had “a hard time getting on the ground” when they’ve faced him.

* MSU is very effective at running the ball and Bama’s first objective is to stop the run.  “It’s a challenging offense to defend.  I think Coach Mullen has done a great job over there.”

* LSU’s no-huddle and late subsitutions gave Alabama some problems.  “Everybody has a routine.”  LSU’s hurry-up took the Bama defenders out of their routine.  “We should have probably practiced it more for them.”  Saban credited LSU’s coaches for doing something that they don’t often do.  He also said that he isn’t too worried about facing no-huddle attacks in the future, because he’ll have his team better prepared for it.

* Two-sport athletes.  Don’t care.  Saban says he never had a problem with it.  He also wants the UA program to have success in many sports.