Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney both held their last pregame press conference before the 2016 National Championship game on Monday.
Here is what we heard:
Both Saban and Swinney had similar opening statements, emphasizing their respect for one another and the hospitality of the College Football Playoff staff.
“Going undefeated is very difficult to do, and we certainly have a lot of respect for their players and their accomplishments, their coaching staff, and the great job that they have done all season long. Our players are very excited about the opportunity they’ve created for themselves to have the chance to participate in the College Football Playoff against arguably the best team in college football, which is the Clemson Tigers,” Saban said.
“It has been a great experience starting with the semi-final in the Orange Bowl. This has been great for our program, great for our team. This was our goal, to have the opportunity to compete at the highest level, and not only are we getting a chance to do that, but we are getting the chance to play the University of Alabama, which to me has been the standard in college football for a long time,” Swinney said.
As the last two teams standing in the FBS, Alabama and Clemson are preparing to play a 15th game. Although each team has had a long stretch of games, the coaches each believe that their players have done a great job on refocusing for the final matchup.
“I think we’re in as good a shape as you can be,” Swinney said. “We were able to really get our team physically, mentally, and emotionally kind of gathered back up. I think the timing of this has been excellent because it is almost like we’ve got ready for the opener again.”
“As a coach, you certainly acknowledge the fact that your players are going into the 15th game of the season. I think you have to respect that in every way. You try to get people not to focus on necessarily how they feel, but to make decisions about what they need to do to continue to play well,” Saban said.
Although Swinney says that the team is in great shape physically, defensive end Shaq Lawson’s injury status has been day to day. On Sunday morning, Swinney said that he expects Lawson to play.
“We expect him to play. Hopefully, he’ll be able to perform to the level that we all know he can, but you know, if not, I don’t think Coach Saban is going to cancel the game over there. We’re going to have to keep playing, so we’ll put the next guy in there. That is just the way it is, but we expect him to play and he looked good yesterday,” Swinney said. “He has done everything that he needs to do to play in the game.”
With the game quickly approaching, Saban says that his main message to his players is to just stay focused on the plays and nothing else.
“I think that what w’re trying to get our players to do is stay focused on the things that are going to help them play well in the game and not be affected by the external factors, all the things that are going on around this game. It’s a big game, there’s no doubt, for every player that has created the opportunity to play in it on both sides. You’ve got to focus on the next play and what you have to do to do your job to help your team be successful,” Saban said.
For Clemson, there has been a lot of talk about which juniors will be leaving early for the NFL Draft, but Swinney said that they are entirely focused on the game at this point.
“I pretty much know what everybody is going to do already. It is one of the things that I don’t like the timing of, but it is what it is, so no sense in acting like it is not there. They’re focused on the game. All these guys understand that they have a tremendous opportunity, and they’ve done a nice job of focusing on getting themselves ready. I think their decisions or announcements or whatever, Tweets, whatever they do, will be pretty quick once the game is over,” Swinney said.