Saban Address Media at Weekly Luncheon 11/24/03 BATON ROUGE -- LSU football head coach Nick Saban met with the media Monday at his weekly press luncheon. Held in the fifth floor conference room in the LSU Athletics Administration Building, the press conference covered this week's game against Arkansas, plans for the shortened week, the injury report, college football's current postseason design, and the play of the defense. It was also announced that Coach Saban's meeting with the media after practice Wednesday has been moved to Tuesday. Coach's radio show will remain on Wednesday. A transcript of the press conference is now available below. Members of LSUsports.tv can watch the press conference now archived on the website. COMMENTS FROM LSU COACH NICK SABAN AT WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE On the Ole Miss game: "This was one of the most difficult, competitive situations that I think our team has ever been in. The atmosphere that we went into this last game was a real tough one. Their fans were really jacked up and all that so I think that only kind of brings a lot of credence to the fact that even though we may be disappointed in some ways in the execution, we certainly are not disappointed in any way with the results. Our players competed well through a lot of adversity and got a great win on the road." On this week's preparations: "I think the thing that we want to focus on this week is making some technical improvements in some of the things that we didn't execute very well in the game. Particularly offensively I felt like we made a lot of mental errors in the game and we had a lot of trouble blocking their movement up front. We did not execute in the passing game very well in terms of timing and route running. We had some problems with the turf, we had a lot of guys falling down, which certainly we need to correct in the future when we go back there and play. Penalties, missed assignments, negative plays, all created negative down and distance situations that kind of took us out of what we have been able to do very well the last four or five games. Hopefully by making some technical improvements, fundamental improvements, corrections, teaching and getting players to believe and trust in doing their jobs correctly, will help us have success. That is everyone together as a unit and a team and then we will be able to make some improvements." On playing Arkansas: "I think this team that we are going to play this week, Arkansas, is an outstanding football team. They had some great wins early in the season, beating Texas, and they have won four games in a row right now. They had some guys early, they lost all their running backs, but right now they seem to be playing probably as well as they have played all year. I think their defense really plays hard and is very aggressive. They are an eight-man front type of team. They play a lot of man-to-man and have two pretty good corners. On offense, they have a big offensive line. Shawn Andrews is probably as good an offensive lineman is there is in the country. The combination of some pretty good skilled receivers and a running quarterback, who runs options and scrambles a lot and makes a lot of big plays, on scrambles and things that are really broken plays in some ways you would call them is tough to defend. They have some good skill guys and some good receivers, (Cedric) Cobbs is a good running back. This is a really good football team that will take one of our best efforts of the year probably to have the kind of success that we would like to have in the game." On LSU's players of the week for the Ole Miss game: "We had some guys who had some outstanding performances last week. The players of the week on offense are Justin Vincent, who had over 100 yards, and Eric Edwards played very consistently at tight end. Defense it was a little more difficult to pick. I know Chad Lavalais had a great game and was the SEC Player of the Week, but as a coaching staff it was hard not to just give the entire defense the award. I thought the front people did a good job of stopping the run and pressured the quarterback, affected him in the game. We probably had more broken-up passes and good coverage in this game than we have had in any game that I can remember, so we just gave it to the entire defense. Special teams, Eric Alexander, Adrian Mayes, Bennie Brazell, who had three tackles on kickoff after going in for Michael Clayton after he (Clayton) hurt his neck a little bit, were our choices. Donnie Jones, with a 50-yard average in punting, which was really big in field position, is also a guy that we want to recognize." On LSU's injury situation: "We do not have anybody injured. Alley Broussard will be in a red shirt today. He bruised his ribs in the game and that is why he did not go back in the game but I do not think it is a really serious thing and it probably should not affect him in this game but we just have to see how it goes." On whether or not last season's last-second 21-20 loss to Arkansas serves as any type of motivation for the game this week: "Well I think what is most important is that every time we have played these guys, at least the last two years that we have played them, they always come back in the game. Two years ago, and I did tell the team this, that we were ahead 41-25 and it got to 41-38 and we have got to make a first down with a minute to go in the game so they do not get the ball back in good field position with a chance to tie the game with a field goal or win it with a touchdown. Last year we are ahead 17-7 and the last five minutes of the game they score twice and I think it was a tough loss for everybody. I think guys remember that but this is a different year and they are a different team. Hopefully we are going to have the right mental attitude based on our preparation for this game to play good football. I am sure everybody remembers that game and that is going to have something to do with it but I do not think it is going to be the sole motivating factor for the players in their competition." On the BCS and the distractions that it causes: "I know that it is difficult to sometimes understand but you want your team to play well all the time and focus on execution and fundamental things that are going to help them play well. I think sometimes when you start thinking about all that other stuff it is just kind of clutter that can affect your ability to prepare, focus, and have the kind of poise and discipline that you need to be able to do the things that you need to do well in a game to have success. I do not think they go hand in hand. Does anybody on our team not know that they are there? I think probably everyone does. Do we use that as a motivating factor in the game, I would be more inclined to say that if we were playing us versus us who won. Which means if everybody brings their "A" game and we play very well then we get what we want. So it is the process for us that is important and that is what we try to focus on and that is what we try to get the guys to look at and prepare for and pay attention to. I think you can get distracted by other things and it really comes down to performance. We have to play well in the game and preparation helps you do that." On the BCS versus a playoff system and Saban's stance: "I did not say I did not necessarily like the playoff system, I said I think the bowl system as we have it is important to college football. I have also said that if we had a two-team or a four-team playoff after the current bowl system that that is something that I would be more in favor of. I think bowl games give a lot of schools and fans and players opportunities to get some positive self-gratification for what they have accomplished in their season. The one thing special about college football unlike high school or pro ball is that there is an opportunity for a lot of people to get some positive self-gratification with the opportunity to go to a bowl game. In high school you just have one state champion and in the NFL just a Super Bowl winner and everyone else just kind of fails. No do I think they are short of having some kind of playoff system. There is always going to be from a subjective standpoint some area to criticize relative to how we pick the best team. If there were two or four teams at the end of all that, most people are out of school and not worried about finals and all that kind of stuff, you would use the bowl games to decide who those teams might be, then do a playoff. I think a lot of people have done a lot of research to try to make the current BCS system as fair and equitable. There has got to be some way to decide and I know a lot of good football people and I know a lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to improve the system and make it better, and for right now it probably is the best. I heard that, and I do not really spend a lot of time on this stuff so I have no idea about it, but I heard that if we have the opportunity to play in the championship game (SEC Championship Game) and we play the team that we beat before that we would not get the same quality points for that. I think you should get more. It is hard to beat the same team twice and there are other teams that are ranked that do not even have to play because their conference does not have a conference championship game. When we beat Tennessee they were No. 2, they were going to go play in the national championship game. If they were in a conference where they didn't have to play a game they would not have had an opportunity to lose. If they have an opportunity to lose then they ought to have an opportunity to gain by having success."
