By Gabe Bock

Notes from Joe Namath interview

* He goes to Tuscaloosa, Alabama quite often and even lived in the city for about four months out of the year when he played football professionally. The tradition is strong with the Alabama program and the program’s legacy that was started with Bear Bryant was able to continue through Gene Stallings and now to Nick Saban.

* The way he was brought up makes Nick Saban such a good college football coach. Saban truly believes in what he does and is a no compromise guy when it comes to his football teachings and getting the young players to understand about life. Saban is great on the football field, but he also demands a certain type of character and poise in everyday life from his players.

* He has watched A.J. McCarron since he was a freshman, and it’s clear that McCarron has been able to grow as a player while at Alabama. McCarron is surrounded by good talent which is something very important to the overall status of how well a quarterback plays. McCarron felt like he had let his team down prior to the game-winning drive against LSU, which is why he was so emotional on the sidelines after they were able to pull out the victory. McCarron is very selective in his throws and knows when to throw the ball away which is why he is having great success as a passer this season.

* Coach Saban has his team working hard in practice this week in order to defend A&M’s proficient offense. Johnny Manziel makes a lot of plays and he is amazed at the ability of the redshirt freshman. The poise Manziel shows as a freshman is pretty remarkable and Alabama will have their hands full trying to stop him on Saturday. As a defense, you have to be incredibly sharp and play with great discipline if you want to be able to slow down the A&M offense. It’s always difficult to cover a scrambling quarterback, but adding in the ability for a scrambler to throw the ball well puts a whole different spin on the way you have to play defense.

* When he watches the spread offenses of today, he visualizes himself playing in that kind of offense and really enjoying it. On the other hand, winning is the bottom line and what you play the game for. When he was a sophomore under Bear Bryant, Bryant pulled him aside one day and told him he wasn’t throwing the ball enough. He continued to say, “I want you to throw the ball more than you’ve ever thrown it before. Heck, I don’t care if you throw it 20 times in a game!”

* In addition to a good offense, you have to have a very good defense to have success. He hopes that the Alabama defense can slow down A&M, and that the Alabama offense can muster up a running attack even though A&M is good at stopping the run. Saturday’s contest will be a game of execution. Whichever team doesn’t beat themselves and can make a few big plays will end up on top.