The Alabama Crimson Tide is set to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores to open SEC play on Saturday night in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide is 3-0, having defeated Utah State, Texas and Louisiana-Monroe in non-conference play.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban emphasized before the game with Chris Stewart the need for the Tide to play to its standard, regardless of the opponent, and has stressed his team's need to find consistency in performance.

"All the things that we've done to this point is to get ready for the SEC Games. Not that the first three games weren't important, they were, but the things we've talked about that we need to improve on and get better at, now's the time to show that we've made the improvement," said Saban.

The Crimson Tide is a 40.5-point favorite heading into the conference opener but Saban is encouraged by what he saw last week against Louisiana-Monroe that might carry over into this week.

"There was elements of Alabama football there, in terms of how physical we played, the effort the guys gave. The one good thing, we didn't play down to the competition, we sort of tried to play to our standard, which is a pattern that you want to create so that you can play with consistency at a high level. So hopefully that's the standard that we'll continue to build on and try to stack some positive performances with as we get into conference play," said Saban to Stewart.

The Tide kicks off at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network and on Tide100.9 FM as well as 95.3 The Bear. You can always hear Saban's pregame conversation with Stewart one hour before kickoff on Crimson Tide Sports Network through both Tide100.9 and 95.3 The Bear.

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