Nick Saban explains how bye week has impacted Alabama injury recovery

Nick Saban and the Alabama football team are enjoying a much-needed break this weekend as they head into the bye week. They’ll get some rest for the next week and a couple of days, before finally taking the field again on Nov. 4th against the very talented LSU Tigers. On Thursday evening’s edition of the Hey Coach and The Nick Saban Show, the legendary football coach said the bye week will be a great opportunity for plenty of his players to rest up and heal.

“Well, you know, we’ve probably got maybe half a dozen guys that you know, really didn’t practice this week because of injuries. Their injuries but have kind of had a cumulative effect over the course of a season. And they just needed time to try to heal up. You know, it’s too early to tell how those guys are going to respond. And will they be ready to go, you know next week,” Saban began.

“But we’re hopeful that we’ll get them all back. But when you have some of those players out, it really helps some of the other players gain a lot of practice time and experience that sort of helps the development of your team, too,” Saban continued.

“So, the emphasis in a bye week is improve as much as you can on the things you haven’t done very well. That’s number one. You do quality control on all those things but also, try to improve the individual players based on their technique and fundamentals. And expose the players to things that we’re gonna see in the future that we have not had exposure too,” Saban noted.

“So, I thought we got lots of work on all three of those things. We practiced Tuesday and Wednesday at least. We practiced today so, and it’s fall break. So, the players will get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hopefully those guys, this week off will help them immensely in terms of their ability to come back and get healthy and be able to practice next week and prepare for the game,” the legendary football coach explained.

Alabama will have a tough test ahead in Jayden Daniels

Some SEC coaches probably feel like one week is not enough to prepare for LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. Nick Saban will be thankful he has two, with Alabama enjoying a bye week. But come Saturday night on Nov. 4, the stress of defending Daniels will be high in a game potentially determining the SEC West winner.

Saban has some time but he broke down the tough matchup Daniels will present to his team. He understands the challenge ahead of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, seeing it firsthand last season when LSU pulled off the upset at Tiger Stadium.

“We played against him last year,” Saban said on Thursday. “First of all, the guy is an outstanding athlete. He’s a dual-threat quarterback. He can run, he can make you miss, he can extend plays, and he’s a really good passer. And they have really good skill guys on offense.”

Daniels currently ranks No. 1 in the SEC in passing yards, yards per attempt, and touchdowns. He has been on an absolute roll and is throwing to one of the best wide receiver rooms in the country. Alabama is going to have its hands full attempting to defend the LSU passing attack.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article.