"I’m not worried about winning a national championship, and I don’t want our players to worry about it, either," Saban said. "I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask them, although I know you will.

"What I want our players to focus on is playing their best football and to assume that they’re going to play the best football team they’ve ever played and they’re going to be playing against the best player they’ve ever played against, and that’s what they should be working to do and what they should be focused on."