I think that sometimes when you don't play well and win, guys have to be smart enough to learn from that. We didn't have a lot of emotion. We didn't play with a lot of passion. I can't really understand that. I am not sure if it is because of the short week, if we were tired or the distractions, but it was a difficult preparation. It says a lot about their team but I will say that I am most proud of my team and the way our guys competed in the game to overcome the adversity. We expected a tough game. We got a tough game and we overcame what we had to to win the game. I think this is the first team in Alabama history to win 12 games in two regular seasons in a row, so we kind of made history out there today. There was nothing that I could say. Only the strong survive, but the strong still get their ass whipped and that was my message to the team. I shouldn't use that kind of language but we did survive because of our character and resilience. You have to win games like that and I am proud of our team the way they did it."

Coach Nick Saban after the game