Bama Continues Preparations For Noles

Alabama Sports Information Excerpts:

The University of Alabama football team held a two-hour practice Wednesday afternoon at the Thomas-Drew Practice Facility as preparations continue for Saturday’s non-conference showdown with the Florida State Seminoles at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.

“We certainly worked hard on the basics and got back to working on the fundamentals,” Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban said following Wednesday’s practice. “We are trying to work hard on the commitment to discipline and getting it right and controlling what we can control and improve what we can improve. We have talked about excellence is a habit. When you do things right and you have good habits it becomes spontaneous in terms of how you react and how you do things.

“Everybody has to evaluate his own individual performance to see what part of the problem they are, whether it’s coaches, players or all of us. We have to do something to make a difference and try to make some kind of change to help us improve. I’ve been fairly pleased for the most part with the way the team has responded to that. Every guy needs to make a difference. Everybody’s role is important. Most of the guys are trying to do the things we want and we will have to replace the guys that don’t as soon as we can replace them.”

Saban also said on Wednesday that senior linebacker Darren Mustin (Brentwood, Tenn.), sophomore nose guard Brian Motley (Autaugaville, Ala.), redshirt freshman tight end Preston Dial (Mobile) and senior kicker Jamie Christensen (Norcross, Ga,) have all returned to practice and could be available for Saturday’s game with Florida State.

Saban also noted that junior offensive lineman Cody Davis (Tuscaloosa) “is another guy that came back to practice this week and had another problem with his shoulder and probably going to be out indefinitely.”