Play.
The Alabama team is being joked about by the coach.
Nick Saban jokes that he has no patience to begin with when asked if this season was a test of his patience. It was 0: 43.
11:30 AM.
Alabama might have taken a little longer to get on track this season, but it wasn't necessarily a test of patience for the coach.
"Anything that happens is a test of my patience, including sitting in this chair right now," he joked during his final news conference on the eve of the College Football Playoff semifinal against Cincinnati.
In the SEC championship game, the Tide played their best game of the season in a 41-24 victory over Georgia. After suffering their first loss to an unranked team since 2007, they came back to beat LSU by a touchdown and then drove 97 yards in the final 1:32 of regulation to tie the game and win 24-22.
"I think it's difficult to have the same hunger and sense of urgency to prove something after winning a championship," said the Alabama coach, whose team went 13-0 a year ago to win their fifth national title in the last 10 years. "I think that's part of the human condition, that when you have success you want to be rewarded, but you also want to be a little relaxed, so I don't think it's unusual from that standpoint."
When we have a successful season and are coming off a successful season, but because we were young, it took this team a little longer to respond on a consistent basis like we wanted them to."
Alabama had 10 players taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft, including eight in the first two rounds.
It took us a while to get everyone on the right track, but I think it's just as important to be successful as it is to buy into and commit to.
There are no issues that would affect players' availability in the game, according to the coach. He said that Jalyn Armour-Davis would be a game-time decision.
"He knows if he can go out there and do the job, he's a mature player and knows that," said the coach. Josh Jobe is not expected to play, so getting Armour-Davis back would be important for the Tide. The freshman is in line to get his third start at the corner.
After missing the last three games with an injury, freshman receiver JoJo Earle will be a game-time decision. John Metchie leads the team with 96 catches. Metchie tore his knee in the SEC title game and will miss the rest of the season.
Alabama will be making their seventh semifinal appearance in the CFP. The Tide have won all five of their games by double digits.
On Thursday, the day before the Cincinnati game, the Alabama coach likened playing in these types of games to boxing because of the ability to react to what the other team does.
The boxer trains well for the fight, but he also has to respond to taking a punch and having a man rattled. "You have to have the mindset that you're going to stay focused on what happens next, the next play and the ability to overcome adversity when you play good teams because you're not going to win every single down."
When it comes to knowing if his team is locked in for a big game, he has been fooled before.
He said that you never really know. I can tell or I can't tell. 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 when we didn't play well.
"You never know until you get out there on the field and see the look in their eye and how focused they are and how important it is for everybody to maintain intensity."
The coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats, who has won 23 of their past 24 games dating to the end of the season, thinks that what Alabama has done is unprecedented.
Fickell said at his news conference that the ability to stay there was important. I can't say enough about him. I don't know him very well. I've been with him a few times. I've studied everything they've done over the last 15 years.
