Nick Saban's SEC Conference Call Comments

See this tag to find links to all coach comments from the April SEC coach conference call.

• The team had a good spring, and he's pleased with the progress made. The skill players on offense are strength of team. The specialists in kicking game need work. He didn't observe any complacency after the national title.
• He thinks that the 12 team format works well for the SEC. He believes that Mike Slive will make a good decision on the issue. He also thinks that Big Ten will find plenty of interest if it decides to go up to 16.
• In regards to Alabama's scheduling snafu, he's most concerned about playing Auburn on a short week (the Iron Bowl is on a Friday) while Tigers have a bye going into it. He's not going to make the opponents-coming-off-of-bye-weeks issue an excuse. Both the school and the SEC are looking into possibilities for moving games around.
  
• He feels he learned good lessons for dealing with the issues that crop up the year after a national title while at LSU. He said sometimes success opens door for more, citing Phil Mickelson's inability to win a major for many years then winning plenty after he got his first one. Staying focused on the process of playing good football is the hardest thing to get the team to commit to doing.
• He pushed the start of off season activities back thanks to the late end of the season. The players responded well to that. He's trying to keep them focused on next year, not last year.
• Alabama is in the "best situation we’ve ever been in" at the quarterback spot. He likes the progress made by the guys beyond Greg McElroy.
• He thinks gap between top and bottom of the conference is closing. There are lots of good teams and good players everywhere. The SEC has lots of parity, so you must be ready to play every week.
• Kirby Smart stayed at Alabama because it matched an offer extended to him from another school (i.e. Georgia, though Saban didn't name this mysterious other school). He doesn’t feel like he needs to justify the high salaries of his assistant coaches because they all do a great job. He's glad the school can pay them what they’re worth.