Alabama Football Welcomes Colorado State to Bryant-Denny Stadium this Weekend
9/11/2017 3:05:00 PM | Football
The Tide begins preparations for its weekend matchup with the Rams
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama football team put in a 75-minute session in shells on Monday afternoon indoors at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility in preparation for this weekend's home matchup with Colorado State.
The Crimson Tide and Rams will meet for just the second time in series history. The Tide's first meeting with Colorado State was a 31-6 win over CSU on Sept. 21, 2013, in UA's home opener at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama and Colorado State are set to kick off at 6:05 p.m. CT at Bryant Denny Stadium. The game will air on ESPN 2 with Mark Jones and Rod Gilmore in the booth and Quint Kessenich on the sidelines.
Nick Saban met with the media prior to practice on Monday afternoon. Following is his opening statement:
"First of all, our thoughts and prayers are out to all the people that are affected by Hurricane Irma. We have lots of friends that are placed in Florida, so you kind of get the full feeling of anxiety that comes with all this. Hopefully we'll able to do something to help those people as well.
"From a game standpoint, I thought we improved some as a team in this last game. Our execution was a little bit better and our attention to detail was a little bit better. We didn't finish some plays that we could have finished. I'd like to see us be a little bit more aggressive in terms of how we got on our heels a little bit on defense because they did some things we hadn't practiced or weren't prepared for, which can happen. Our players need to understand that it will happen a lot of the times, but we've got to be able to adapt and adjust and still play and be aggressive. We had some god performances and you've got the players of the week. Matt Womack is the (SEC) Offensive Lineman of the Week, which is a good thing.
"From an injury standpoint, Lester Cotton will be out today and will probably be back to practice tomorrow. Dylan Moses is out of practice today and will probably be back sometime soon. I don't think either one of them have serious injuries.
"Colorado State is a really good football team. I think (head coach) Mike Bobo has done a really good job there. These guys play hard, they're physical and they're very aggressive in their style. They can run the ball, they can throw the ball and they've got a good quarterback. They've got a lot of balance in what they do. They've scored a lot of points so far this year, and they've limited their opponents pretty well when it comes to point totals and what they've been able to give up. They've got a really good receiver in No. 4 (Michael Gallup) and a good running back. The quarterback, who I've already mentioned, is a very good passer, and they've made a lot really big plays in the passing game. This is a good team and it's going to be a challenging game for us. We need to play better on both sides of the ball. I think the one thing is that if you're any player, and you ask yourself, 'If I was a stock, has my stock gone up based off the way I played the first two games, or is there things I need to work on to get better?' Hopefully, most of the players would say at this point, we need to be working to get better. That's certainly how I feel as a coach and what I'd like to try and help our players do."
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