Alabama is taking advantage of an extra week of rest and preparation time ahead of a huge game against LSU on November 3.

Head coach Nick Saban will only make one media appearance during the bye week and he did that on Tuesday evening. The message he's been driving home to his players is how to approach this bye week.

"The players got the idea, what I talked about yesterday at noon was can you create momentum during a bye week by what you do? Define what a bye week is. Is a bye week a week off or is a bye week a week that you don't have a game but you have an opportunity to go out everyday and improve on the things that you need to improve on."

The other benefit to the bye week is getting younger players more reps and also planning for some things they'll see in their final four games.

"We also take a lot of things that we're going to face in the next four weeks and try to get a little bit of work on all those things. So that's what we tried to do today."

Here's what Saban discussed during the 12-minute press conference:

  • Nothing new on injuries but referee Eddie Conyers is back off the IR and at practice.
  • How does Tua Tagovailoa handle the extra attention he's receiving nationally after his strong start to the season?
  • Hunter Brannon has been suspended from the team and he'll have some internal things to complete to change his status.
  • Christian Miller's growth as a player and a leader in the program.
  • His evaluation of the offensive line and where they've improved over the past month and why he feels every group needs to improve.
  • Quinnen Williams' ability to push the pocket from the inside and how it's help the defense.
  • An update on Mac Jones and his improvement.
  • The importance of November and why it defines teams.
  • Why he thinks LSU is legitimate and a contender for the league title.

You can watch the full video above to hear everything Saban said.

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