Nick Saban Press Conference 4/6/13

Nick Saban addressed the Media Saturday afternoon, following the first scrimmage of the Spring. The first words out of Saban's mouth... "We're not where we'd love to be or we'd like to be. We got a lot of work to do." Saban clearly is intending to inspire confidence in the fanbase. It sounds like mental intensity/toughness were lacking a bit on the whole. Saban cut off the Spring break excuse on the front end, saying "if everybody would’ve done what they were supposed to do over spring break, I don’t think we’d have some of the issues that we have right now."

He then took an opportunity to say that basically all of the offensive skill positions played well and did a good job, and specifically complimented Blake Sims (haters to the left). Defensively, it sounds like there was a relative lack of consistency, which is not all that surprising, considering the experience in the groups Saban complimented, and the youth on the defensive side of the ball.

• Regarding the kicking game, it sounds like this scrimmage didn't allow for much in the way of quality field goal practice, while punting was generally good.

• Regarding the glut of quarterbacks - It sounds like the QBs are rotated a good bit, to give each player opportunities, with a set of four each day getting the "quality" reps with the ones and twos. Blake Sims played a third of the time with the ones today (Still on the left? Cool. Just hang out there.)

• Regarding the early enrollees - It sounds like Derrick Henry can already be penciled in as the third string running back, at the very worst. I can't wait to see this kid run on the 20th. On the other hand, O.J. Howard needs to work on his blocking in a hurry if he's to make the impact that the fanbase is anticipating.

• Regarding tackling for the first time - the tackling was fine, but again, the intensity was lacking.

• Regarding receivers coming off of injury - Kenny Bell has been the slowest coming back, Deandrew White and Chris Black are fine.

• Last but certainly not least, there are no new injuries to announce. Let's keep it that way, fellas.

Full video of the press conference is below. Roll Tide.