Although Alabama may take a little longer to get on track than coach Nick Saban this season, he said Thursday wasn't necessarily a test of his patience.
“I have no patience, so whatever happens is a test of my patience, including sitting in this chair right now,” Saban told his final news conference on the eve of the college football playoff semifinal matchup against Cincinnati. joked during Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
The Crimson Tide easily saved their best game of the season in thumping then-numbers 41-24 for the SEC championship game. 1-ranked and favored Georgia. After suffering his first loss to an unranked team (Texas A&M) for the first time in the season since Saban's first year in 2007, a weakening by a touchdown in the final 1:32 of regulation to tie the game. It was playing his backup quarterback while outrunning the LSU team and driving for 97 yards and winning 24–22 in four overtime against three consecutive losing Auburn teams.
"I think it's always challenging when you're holding off on winning championships for the same appetite for players and the feeling to prove something," said Saban, whose Crimson Tide lost 13-0 a year ago to their fifth national. Went to win the title. In the last 10 years. "I think it's a part of the human condition, that when you have success you want to be rewarded, you want to relax and be a little complacent, So I don't think it was unusual from that point of view.
"We anticipate when we will have a successful season and are coming out of a successful season, but because we were young, it took a little longer for this team to respond on a consistent basis than we would have liked."
13½-point favorite Alabama against Cincinnati had 10 players on the 2020 squad that were drawn into the NFL Draft, including eight in the first two rounds.
"You've heard me say that sometimes what you choose to ignore is just as important to succeeding as you are willing to buy and commit, and I think we should all It took a while to get on the right track," Saban said.
Saban said he was not aware of any issues that would affect the availability of players in the game. He said starting cornerback has given Jalin Armor-Davis some practice and it will be a game-time decision.
"He's a mature player and knows if he can go out there and work," Saban said of Armour-Davis, who has missed the last two games with a hip injury.
Bringing back Armour-Davis will be big for the Crimson Tide, as senior cornerback Josh Jobe (Turf Toe) is not expected to play. Freshman Kool-Aid is in line to make his third straight start at McInstree cornerback.
Saban also said that new wide receiver Jojo Earle would be a game-time decision after having been injured in the last three games. The Crimson Tide is already without starting wide receiver John Mechey, who leads the team with 96 catches. Mechi tore his ACL in the SEC Championship Game and was ruled out for the season.
This would be Alabama's seventh semifinal in the CFP. The Crimson Tide is 5–1 in those competitions, and all five of their wins have been by double digits.
Saban on Thursday called Cincinnati "the best team we've played all year" and compared playing in such games to boxing, being able to react to what the other team does.
Saban said, "[The boxer] prepares for the fight, trains well for the fight, but has to respond to a punch, as well as to a man's rattle. Is." “You have to have the mindset of what is going to happen next, you are going to focus on the next game and when you play with good teams you have the ability to overcome adversity because you are not going to win every single one. "
Saban, who is 11-3 in the CFP Games/BCS National Championship Games, said he has been fooled in the past when it is known in advance whether his team is really off to a big game.
"You never really know," he said. "I can sit here and tell you whether I can tell or not. There have been games when I was concerned that we had the right mindset and went out and played well, and there have been games that I thought were We were really ready to play and we didn't play very well.
"You really don't know until you get out on the field and start the game and look into their eyes and how focused and how important it is for everyone to maintain the intensity."
Cincinnati coach Luke Fikel, whose Bearcats have won 23 of their last 24 matches by the end of the 2019 season, said what Saban has done in Alabama is phenomenal.
"Not just getting to where he's gotten to, but the ability to stay there," Fickell said Thursday at his news conference. "I can't say enough about him. I don't know him that well. I've been with him maybe a couple of times. But for the last 10, 12, 15 years, I've studied pretty much everything that they've done as a program."