The SEC has yet to announce whether it will make up Saturday’s postponed Alabama-LSU game, and if so, when that game would be played.
Speaking Thursday evening during his weekly radio show, Nick Saban said his team is preparing for the possibility that the remaining schedule — games against Kentucky (Nov. 21), Auburn (Nov. 28) and Arkansas (Dec. 5) — could be altered.
“We’ve had an opportunity to practice against everybody, to some degree, that we’re going to play to finish the season,” he said. “In doing in that, if our schedule got changed around for some reason, we’d probably be pretty nimble in being able to switch around what we need to do to get our team ready.”
Alabama does not have an opponent scheduled Dec. 12, which was designed as the SEC’s make-up date before the SEC championship game Dec. 19. LSU is scheduled to make up its game against Florida on Dec. 12, meaning the conference would likely have to shift one of Alabama’s three remaining scheduled games to Dec. 12 in order to play Alabama-LSU on an earlier date.
“We can’t control what other people do. We can’t control the schedule. We can control what we do. So whoever we play, whenever we play, we’re gonna be ready to go,” Saban said. “We’re trying to keep the players in a rhythm and a routine that won’t hurt us too bad that we didn’t play for a couple weeks. We’re looking forward to having the opportunity to play and hope that opportunity will come this week coming up.”
Saban said Alabama players were “really looking forward” to playing LSU this week and are “all disappointed” that game in Baton Rouge will not happen as scheduled because of COVID-19 infections and contact tracing at LSU.
“I hate it for the players from the standpoint that this just drags out the season,” Saban said. “We still have to practice this week, and now we don’t have a game. There’s going to be another game at some point in time that they’re going to have to practice for. You just got to be positive about it.”
Alabama (6-0) is coming off its bye week last week and now will be idle for consecutive in-season weeks for the first time since 1978. Saban said he would have treated this week as a bye week if the team had played last Saturday; instead, he has continued practicing normally this week.
The Tide practiced Monday through Thursday, and will practice again Saturday instead of playing a game. That session will be focused on Kentucky, followed by typical film meetings Sunday.
“We’re not really doing anything any different than we normally would, nor do we want the players to do anything different than they normally would,” Saban said.
Postponements because of COVID-19 have hit college football hard this week, with four of the SEC’s seven games called off as well as No. 3 Ohio State’s game against Maryland.
Alabama, which has not seen any notable players miss games because of COVID-19 this season, had only one positive test earlier this week, Saban said Wednesday.
Saban wants the virus issues happening elsewhere to stay away from his building.
“Our guys have been pretty good about it,” he said Thursday evening. “The thing I tried to emphasize to the players today is people are having issues because they’re getting complacent and relaxing about social distancing and taking care of their personal bubble. That’s where all these things have an issue.
“The thing that could upset our season, as much as any opponent that we play, is if we don’t pay attention to detail and we get lax and relaxed about what you have to do to stay safe in your personal bubble. Because if you don’t do that, you get a spread on our team, that’s going to affect our chances to be successful in the future. Our guys have been really good about handling those situations and we just want to keep it that way moving forward.”
Saban told players they were only allowed to visit family while off from playing last weekend. However, freshman wide receiver Traeshon Holden traveled to Baton Rouge to visit his friend and LSU receiver Koy Moore.
Should positive COVID-19 cases or contact tracing thin Alabama’s roster numbers over the balance of the season, Saban said the team has cross-trained players such as DeVonta Smith to play cornerback and Patrick Surtain to play wide receiver. Other positions could be more difficult to fill without a steep learning curve.
“I think that’s also a very good reason to manage your personal space so we don’t have that kind of an issue,” Saban said.
“Complacency on the field leads to a blatant disregard for doing things right. I think complacency off the field can do the same thing because our biggest enemy right now could be this virus.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
