Nick Saban offered a whole new context to his famous “rat poison” line following Alabama’s upset win over Georgia in Saturday’s SEC championship game.
Saban, asked about how his players responded to the Tide being underdogs for the first time since 2015, directed his answer at reporters and referenced many predictions that the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs would beat Alabama.
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“I think what these guys really wanted to sort of gain was more respect,” Saban said. “Not just the fact that they were underdogs, because I think we had a tremendous amount of respect for Georgia, their team and what they accomplished.
“But you guys gave us a lot of really positive rat poison. The rat poison that you usually give us is usually fatal. The rat poison that you put out there this week was yummy.”
Alabama’s 41-24 win will likely result in the Tide receiving the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff when the four-team field is announced Sunday.
“We’ve probably had to overcome more adversity and this team has had to endure and have more resiliency from a competitive standpoint than probably most of the teams we’ve ever had,” Saban said.
“I’m really proud of them for that. The competitive character that they have. Last week at Auburn to come back at Auburn, to come back and win the game. They come into this game that nobody thought we had a chance to win and really go out there and perform well in the game against a really good team.”
Here is what else Saban said after the win:
-- “Just a tremendous victory, team victory,” Saban said. “Defense got a couple of turnovers, couple of fourth-down stops that were very important. Offensive line did a really good job of blocking their pressures. Gave Bryce the opportunity to operate, which he did a magnificent job of all night. So great team win for us.”
-- “I think it gave us an opportunity to have a two-game season,” Saban said of the win. “We have a two-game season now, I hope. That’s what we’re going to work for. That’s what we want to do.”
-- Alabama fell behind 10-0 in the first quarter. Saban: “I think sometimes when you start a game, the speed of the game gets you a little bit. The speed of their defense, maybe a couple times their backs got outside of us because it probably happened a little faster than what we practiced and what we’re used to. I think once you sort of get used to the speed of the game, like their pass rush and all that, I think you start operating a little bit better. Our efficiency got much better on the offensive line as well as on defense.”
-- Saban on offensive line: “[It] really answered the challenge that we put to them in terms of them being more physical in this game. They probably prepared a little better than I’ve ever seen them all season long in terms of studying the guys they had to block and the things they had to do.”
-- More Saban on offensive line: “I still think that it started up front. [Georgia’s] front has been so dominant in terms of pressuring people, kind of taking them out of their game. You could never, ever really get the ball out very successfully on a very consistent basis, which is a tribute to them, their scheme, their players are very good. It still goes back to the offensive line did a very, very good job of allowing us to get the ball down the field and our receivers to be able to work in the passing game, which we knew was going to be something that was going to be really important in this game.”
-- Saban on losing to Texas A&M in October: “The big thing I like about these guys is they responded the right way when they got beat. Nobody ever really thinks when I say sometimes it’s not a bad thing to get beat. Jordan [Battle] mentioned the word humility. Having respect for winning and what it takes to win and what it takes to prepare to win are all things that are really important. Sometimes when you win 19 games in a row, you lose a little respect for that. That’s why I think from the Texas A&M game on, we’ve been able to grow as a team. We haven’t always been the most consistent, but at times when we played well like we’re capable of playing, we’ve been very, very good, and we’re just trying to get that on a little more consistent basis. I think the players understand that.”
-- Saban: “You can coach guys, but they don’t have to take coaching, and these guys have all done a marvelous job, in my opinion, of doing what the coaches ask them to do, trusting and believing in the system, trusting and believing in each other. And I think that’s probably where we’ve made sort of the greatest strides in becoming a team.”
-- Saban: “There was a lot of big plays in the game, which was something that we wanted to -- I think that the Jameson Williams long touchdown in the beginning of the game, they came down and played two trap. The safety was supposed to trap him. We got through him. I think that changed the momentum of the game a little bit for us, so that was really important.”
-- Saban on final offensive drive: “From a coach’s perspective, to be able to manage the last drive when we needed to take the air out of the ball and not keep giving them the ball back, which our defense was really, really tired when we played a lot of plays in the third quarter, that was huge. A lot of those were four-yard gains, five-yard gains, eight-yard gains. So they weren’t the big plays, but those are things that win games when you can take the air out of it at the end of the game and don’t give the other team an opportunity to get back in the game.”
-- Saban on defensive game plan against Stetson Bennett: “I think that you try to change the picture as much as you can and make the quarterback try to make decisions after he gets the ball in his hand. Stetson Bennett to me is very instinctive, very good player. If he knows what the picture is -- and I couple times tonight when he knew what the picture was, that’s when he made plays, and several big plays.”
-- Saban: “We need to continue to try to develop a balanced attack to that we don’t put ourselves behind the eight ball down and distance-wise. I think that’s when we’re most effective.”
-- Saban on whether he saw the win coming in practice: “When I think the players have the right mindset in terms of how they go through the week and how that leads up to the game, then their focus, their preparation are all things that created habits that are going to help them play better in the game. When we do that, I think we usually perform well. Did I foresee this happening? Sometimes you do all that, and the other team makes some plays too. But I think we had the right mindset in this game in our preparation for the game.”
-- Saban on replacing John Metchie: “I think we have some young guys that are going to get opportunities now. They certainly -- Ja’Corey Brooks did it last week and this week. And I think Slade prayed really well. But I also think that a lot of that comes from Bryce having trust and confidence in those guys as well because a good quarterback can make receivers look good, and those guys have to run good routes and do things the right way to get open.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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