ALABAMA NOTEBOOK: Tide taking a no-frills approach to Tennessee

TUSCALOOSA | There won’t be any orange jerseys on scout team players at University of Alabama football practices this week. “Rocky Top” won’t be blaring from loudspeakers at the practice field or in the locker room.

Nick Saban is taking a no-frills approach to his first game against the Tennessee Volunteers as Alabama’s head coach. While some previous Crimson Tide coaching staffs have used such motivational tactics to emphasize to the team how important the Alabama-Tennessee game is, Saban doesn’t believe in gimmicks.

“I’ve really never done much of that,” the coach said, “so I don’t have a lot of experience in how that affects you one way or the other. I don’t have any plans to do it. If somebody else has plans to do it and wants to do it, thinks it’s going to help us, I’m all for it.

“When you go out and play and line up, it’s about who you are and what kind of character and competitive attitude you have. A lot of that external stuff really doesn’t matter in terms of your ability to focus and do what you need to do to be successful.

“I don’t know if there’s any song or jersey color or anything else that helps you do that. If somebody has any evidence of that I’d certainly try it if you prove it to me.”

Senior wideout Matt Caddell has been through Tennessee game weeks in the past where players had “Rocky Top” ringing in their ears after every practice session.”Saban really doesn’t care about that stuff,” Caddell said. “His main thing is the team and how we execute more than any song or anything like that.”

Saban doesn’t have to be told that Alabama-Tennessee is an important game for a lot of reasons.

“I think this is a great rivalry,” Saban said. “There’s great tradition here. There’s great tradition there, and this has been a big game for a lot of years. I think that sometimes when you live through these things that you really get the real sense of what it’s like. I can stand here and say that I know, but until you kind of live it then you really find out what it’s like.

“Saying that, I know it’s a big game for them, it’s a big game for us, it’s an SEC game and it’s a great traditional, national rivalry that we certainly want to play well in and do a good job in and have our players have the best chance to be successful.”

Last weekend’s game did give Saban some sense of how some games are different now that he’s coaching at Alabama.

“We didn’t get treated quite as badly at Ole Miss when I was at LSU, I can tell you that,” Saban said.

Assistant coach

accosted?

Saban didn’t shed much light on rumors that a member of the Alabama coaching staff was accosted by one or more irate Ole Miss supporters after last Saturday’s game, but confirmed that something occured.

“I don’t know a lot about the incident,” Saban said, “but based on what the coaches said to me, the people at Ole Miss did a fantastic job of managing and handling the situation.

“It was one of those games where fans get a little bit excited and upset about circumstances in the game and show their emotions a little bit, which I guess fans can do ... and we certainly respect that, and the people there, I think, did a fantastic job of handling the situation.”

Steele cited in Hoover report

Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele was mentioned in an investigative report into improprieties in the Hoover High School football program that was released to the public over the weekend.

The report states that Steele called a Hoover High administrator on May 30 to inquire into the grade of a recruit — identified in media reports as UA football player Josh Chapman — grade in a class that would impact his collegiate eligibility. The grade was changed due to “innocent human error,” the report stated.

Saban said Monday that the UA athletic department’s compliance department has handled the matter, and voiced confidence that Steele was not involved in any “wrongdoing.”

“I did not read the report,” Saban said. “I know that Coach Steele was involved in the recruitment of the player. As a policy, we try to have our compliance people handle and manage all academic eligiblity situaitons and circumstances with the [NCAA] Clearinghouse.

“I think there are always times ... assistant coaches’ names can come up in the circumstance, but I certainly don’t think there was any wrongdoing done on our part, and I think our people here did everything they were supposed to do in a very professional way from a compliance standpoint to manage that situation or institution.”

Arenas honored

by SEC

Javier Arenas has been named Southeastern Conference Special Teams Player of the Week for his play in the Tide’s victory over Ole Miss.

Arenas returned two punts for 71 yards, including a 54-yard return that set up Alabama’s game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, and had 93 yards in kickoff returns. Arenas is ranked sixth in the SEC and 12th nationally with a 16.2-yard punt return average.

The Alabama coaching staff named seven players as its players of the game for the Ole Miss contest. Quarterback John Parker Wilson and DJ Hall were singled out on offense, along with safeties Rashad Johnson and Marcus Carter on defense and Arenas, Demarcus Waldrop and Charlie Higgenbotham on special teams.

Injury report

Kick returner Jonathan Lowe is the only player listed on Alabama’s injury report for the week. Lowe (ankle) sustained an injury in practice last Thursday and was held out of the Ole Miss game.

“He may be out, day to day,” Saban said.

Offensive guard Justin Britt, who missed the Ole Miss game due to his mother’s health, returned to the team Monday.

“Hopefully he’ll be back this week if everything continues to improve with his mother and his family situation,” Saban said.