Tide notebook: Saban pleased with bye-week progress

TUSCALOOSA — Don’t think that a bye week translates into an automatic win for Alabama.

Nick Saban-coached college teams are 10-10 in all regular-season games following an open date.

He is 1-1 after open dates at Alabama. Last season, Alabama defeated Ole Miss 24-20 following its bye week. The year before, the Crimson Tide lost 41-34 at home to an LSU team that eventually won the national championship.

Saban was 2-6 after bye weeks in five seasons at Michigan State. He was 7-3 in five seasons at LSU.

Still, the coach said he was encouraged by his team’s three days of work last week.

“I was really pleased with the progress and effort that we had last week during the bye week,” Saban said Monday. “I think we made some improvement as a team. We had good focus on what we were doing. ...

“I think the most important thing is we wanted to improve in areas we felt like we needed to make progress in, and I felt really good about what we were able to accomplish.”

The coach added that Alabama worked on some schemes future opponents run — including LSU.

TV Schedule: The No. 3 Crimson Tide faces ninth-ranked LSU on CBS this Saturday.

It is the fourth CBS appearance for the Tide this season, joining Arkansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee games. The Auburn game is also set for CBS on Friday, Nov. 27 at 1:30 p.m.

Alabama learned Monday its Nov. 14 game at Mississippi State will be a 6 p.m. kickoff, broadcast by either ESPN or ESPN2. The network will be determined after this weekend’s games are played. The Auburn-Georgia game will also kick off at 6 p.m. and will be carried on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Other SEC games to be televised on Nov. 14 include Tennessee at Mississippi (11 a.m. on CBS), Kentucky at Vanderbilt (11:21 a.m. on the SEC Network), Florida at South Carolina (2:30 p.m. on CBS), Louisiana Tech at LSU (6 p.m. on ESPNU) and Troy at Arkansas (6:30 p.m. on CSS).

Bouncing back: Saban said three injured players remain day-to-day coming out of the open date.
Tight end Colin Peek, who barely played against Tennessee after spraining his knee in pregame warmups, ran in the pool Sunday and ran at practice on Monday.

“Hopefully, he will be able to do some functional things on Tuesday and if everything goes well, we’re hopeful he will be able to play in the game,” Saban said.

The coach said backup running back Terry Grant and backup cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, who both play on special teams, are still battling muscle pulls.

“We tried to rest them some last week,” Saban said. “This has been an ongoing thing with both guys and we are going to try to continue to see how they respond.”

Pass rush: One of the improvement areas Alabama focused on was its pass rush. The Crimson Tide has been less effective disrupting quarterbacks in the past two games. Jonathan Crompton of Tennessee was particularly effective with a moving pocket.

“I think we got to work with a lot of the young players a little more than we normally do in the bye week,” Saban said. “Courtney (Upshaw) is doing a better job. Chavis (Williams) did a good job when he was in there. Jerrell Harris, it was a good week for him just to go back and work on fundamentals and assignments and things that can help him improve as a player with all the time that he missed. I think all those players are better for it. I don’t think we’re ready to announce any changes in any of those things, but I think all those players will have a chance to make a contribution in some way.”