Saban fired up earlier today

"We may not win every game we play at Alabama; nobody ever said we would," Saban said in a brief press conference prior to speaking at a meeting of the Cellular South 1st and 10 Club at Heron Lakes Country Club. "But we've probably already won a helluva lot more than anybody thought we would already, and we're going to focus on what we need to do to get better as a team, and come out with guns a blazin' and be positive about the last four games that we have this year and do the best we can as a team. And we'll see if we're good enough or not."

"I told the guys after practice today, 'Look guys, you've done a nice job, you've worked hard, you've made some improvements as a team,'" Saban said. "We appreciate the effort. Now get some time off and get rested a little bit.

"But what do you want to accomplish? And what do you want to do? I mean, we want to come back and play our best football when we come back off this break."

Saban said he isn't concerned about the close call against Tennessee last weekend or the way his offense has sputtered in recent games, preferring instead to look at the positives of the 12-10 win over the Volunteers that Terrence Cody saved by blocking a last-second field goal.

"We gave them an opportunity to kick a field goal," Saban said. "But they didn't make the field goal, we blocked it. And our players made the play in the game to win the game and, you know, it's a little bit disconcerting to me that we've won 20 out of our last 22 games and people ask me questions like you're asking, like it's going to be the end of the world."