Alabama is up

ALABAMA COACH NICK SABAN

• There is much anticipation. The crowd was hushed when told of Saban's proximity.
  
  
• Saban has arrived with his posse.
  
  
• He just pulled the mic down.
  
  
• "It's great to be back to work."
  
  
• "We did have a great vacation. I hope you had a great vacation."
  
  
• "It's very difficult to predict what a bunch of adolescents are going to do. We have 100 of them."
  
  
• We have a winner in the Who Can Say Less With More award.
  
  
• "When I worked with Bill Belichick, we only had one sign in the building. It said: `Do Your Job.' We don't have one individual who can make our team great."
  
  
• He just dissed Andre Smith (indirectly) for being a "blinking light" and undermining the Tide prior to the Sugar Bowl.
  
  
• On quarterback Greg McElroy: "The players like him."
  
  
• On replacing Andre Smith and Antoine Caldwell: "I don't think you can really replace guys like those guys." (He later referred to Smith as "Smitty".)
  
  
• On opening against Va Tech in a neutral site ... and doing the same thing last season (against Clemson): "Playing that game over there -- win, lose or draw -- helped our team play on the road. It helps your offseason. The players are more intense about what they're doing because they're preparing for a huge game."
  
  
• Coach, how you doin'?: "Great."
  
  
• You look good: "Thanks." (This was hilarious to hear.)
  
  
• He's discussing Marquis Maze and Rolando McClain.
  
  
• On the SEC West: "There are a lot of good teams and a lot of good returning players. There are some great coaches. Every team in our league, on our side of it, has a chance to win the championship."
  
  
• "Auburn has good players coming back."
  
  
• Urban Meyer vs. Bill Belichick: "Urban is a great coach. They work as hard as anybody we know. We're a blue-collar program, so we have a tremendous amount of respect for that. Urban was like that before he met Belichick. I know I coached for four years with Bill Belichick. I probably learned as much from him ... as anybody I've ever been around. His success proves that what he does, the process he uses, is very effective."
  
  
• He claims to have for Tebow as the first-team SEC quarterback. "Everybody should have a right to vote for whoever they want."
  
  
• Saban made the unusual link between people giving their lives for freedom and being able to vote freely for the All-SEC team.
  
  
• On Tebow in the NFL: "It's a difficult evaluation when you play a little different kind of offense. I'm not being critical (of Florida's offense), but it's different. They have a defined prototype that they evaluate for. Nobody is disrespecting him. It's just more difficult to evaluate."
  
  
• "I didn't expect anything from Julio Jones last year."
  
  
• Does the celebrity ever get old?: "My daddy said: `You only have a problem when nobody asks for your autograph.' If there's not a stir downstairs, I know I'm in trouble."
  
  
• Saban spoke about playing a small role in the upcoming movie, "The Blind Side," about former Ole Miss tackle Michael Oher. "It's not the lines that get you, it's the camera angles. You think they get that in one shot. It doesn't work like that."
  
  
• "The concept of a spread offense is great. It's the multiple (formations) that make it difficult."
  
  
• On Mike Slive's asssertion for teams to stop sniping at each other: "What other people do doesn't affect (what he does at Alabama). I've never been critical of anything anybody else does or says."
  
  
• On Alabama's attrition: "We have a demanding program. I'm not talking about football. We have a personal-development aspect of our program. We create the right kinds of habits. We spend a lot of time and money and effort trying to create ... personal characteristics from the players on our team. We have demands. We have players who don't meet those demands. We have a demanding academic system. There are playing who don't meet that. None of these players are leaving because of the football player they are. I tell the players: `I don't want you to leave, but you have to be satisfied with your role on the team.'" I don't know how these things get out. I only address these things when we start fall camp. We have some players who will be grayshirted and know they will be grayshirted. We have some who will be suspended."
  
  
• "I'm not a big statistical guy."
  
  
• On wearing an LSU shirt for the movie: "I hope our fans understand that it's a movie based on a historical event. It's no disrespect to LSU or anybody at LSU. We have a tremendous amount of respect for our fans at University of Alabama. We wanted to do that in the right way for LSU and the fans at University of Alabama."
  
  
• On Alabama's loss in the SEC championship game: "Florida didn't win the game (because) of our lack of execution. They made the plays they needed to make. That's the way you want to win a game."
  
  
• "You are the conduit to all the fans to the players and the program. We thank you for that."
  

THAT'S A WRAP. Next up is Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt at 11:15ish.