Nick Saban expects a "dogfight" in the Sugar Bowl

Amid unusually cold weather and cloudy skies, No. 4 Alabama arrived in New Orleans for their Sugar Bowl and College Football Playoff Semifinal matchup against No. 1 Clemson. Nick Saban spent a few minutes talking with the media assembled at Louis Armstrong International Airport. 

"I'm proud of the fact that we will have 25 guys that will have their degree playing in this game. I think that brings the total to 126 that we've had in the last five years of players who have played in playoff games or bowl games with their degree," Saban said. "That makes us very proud because that is what we try to accomplish for our players to be able to develop their careers both on the field and off the field. That's certainly something that will benefit the quality of their life."

Saban continued, "I think when you get an opportunity like this, which is a special opportunity to

play a team like Clemson or any team that is in the playoffs at this point. The players obviously have to expect it to be a very difficult game as almost all these games are like a dogfight so you have to be able to overcome adversity and everybody has to take ownership to do their job. It comes down to what do you want to accomplish and what you are willing to do to do make it happen."

"It's like anything in life I think, you make up a goal, you understand there's a process of things that you have to do to accomplish the goal, and you have to have the discipline to execute it every day and that's not necessarily a feeling - it's a choice that you choose to be persistent at the things that are going to help you be successful and you resist the things that are not going to help you be successful."

Speaking of Alabama's preparation for the matchup with Clemson Saban noted, "To this point relative to the preparation, we've had I've been really pleased with the coaches and the players and how they are going about that. So hopefully we'll get started down here and be able to pick up where we left off and get ourselves ready to play an outstanding game against an outstanding team.”  

Saban also talked about Alabama’s journey to get back into the playoffs.

"Well, I think that you know one of the statements that I made last year after we didn't succeed in the championship game is don't waste the feeling. Which means, learn from the things that you did or didn't do and I didn't think we finished very well. We didn't finish very well in the game, we lost the game at the end of the game, and I think your identity as a team starts with how you finish," Saban said.

"And this team has an opportunity to try to finish this season a little better than what we did the last. I'm proud of the way they went through the season. I think we lost our identity a little bit in the last game, maybe forgot who we were and what we needed to do to be able to succeed in our last game. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to sort of rectify that in the playoffs.”  

Saban was also asked for an update on injuries or suspensions heading into the contest. 

“We don't have any suspensions but I think everybody's aware of the injuries that we do have. Dylan Moses was injured in practice, the third practice that we had and he won't be able to participate in this game. Hootie Jones, we lost in the Auburn game. So those two guys are definitely out. Shaun Dion Hamilton is out. But we do have Mack Wilson, and a couple of outside linebackers, Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis, that have been able to practice and come back and play. We've had a significant number of injuries on defense, some are back and we've lost some other guys.”