Alabama head coach Nick Saban participated in his third weekly radio show of the 2022 season Thursday evening at Baumhower’s Victory Grille. Below are some of the most noteworthy things Saban said ahead of the Crimson Tide’s game against the ULM Warhawks.

While it was the radio show in advance of Alabama’s Week 3 home game against ULM, most of the talk centered around the Tide’s 1-point win at Texas this past weekend. When assessing the 20-19 road victory in Austin, Saban shared he sensed a tough game coming in practice.

“I do think we have a good bunch of guys on our team,” Saban said. “We don’t have a lot of guys that don’t wanna do it right, they don’t wanna be good. They really work hard. I just think the focus is what’s the challenge that I talk about all the time.

“We had a great Monday practice for Texas, one of the best we’ve ever had. Then we get to be 20-point favorites and everybody picks up the paper and it’s like we just show up and win and things just kind of go downhill for the rest of the week because everybody thinks you’re just gonna show up and win. You can’t think that way.

“When I say these are the lessons you need to learn – because those habits that you create in practice are gonna show up in the game, aight, and everybody needs to understand that. And it is really, really difficult to sustain that every day, every day. A player comes to practice, every day it’s hard, every day it’s hot. It’s really difficult to sustain.”

The narrow win at Texas was the latest close game Alabama has had away from Bryant-Denny Stadium. There were three true road games a year ago that were closer than some expected in Florida, Texas A&M and Auburn, and last week’s bout with the Longhorns joined the shelf.

Saban said he mentioned that to the players this week while using former teams as examples.

“We used to play better on the road around here, aight, than what we played at home, aight, because we had some hateful competitors on our team, and when they played on the road, they were mad at 100,000 people, not just the 11 guys they were playing against,” Saban said. “They wanted to prove something to everybody. And as time has gone on, I think that maybe just winning the game is the focus.

“There’s been three games – and I told the players this – we didn’t play very well at Florida last year, we didn’t play very well at Auburn last year, we didn’t play very well at Texas this year. You can’t be a team that lets the other team think they have a chance to beat you just because of the circumstances that you’re in, and the inconsistencies in your performance so far is starting to let people know that, which is not a good thing.

“So there’s a lot of these things that are just decisions that you have to make. ‘Are the decisions I’m making helping me get closer to my goals or not?’ And if they’re not, why would you make them? Whether they’re choices and decisions about how you practice, what your focus is, how you pay attention to detail, and that’s true in your life, not just in football.

“That’s what we’re trying to get them to do, and they have done better this week, I think. There were some lessons learned.”

After the final whistle, some of Alabama’s players could be seen giving the “Horns Down” hand gesture as the Tide escaped Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium with a win. But that didn’t sit well with their head coach, who shouted, “Don’t do that shit!” as he made his way to shake Steve Sarkisian’s hand at midfield. Saban discussed that moment on Thursday evening.

“I said it after the game, aight, ‘Don’t do that…’ – I’m not gonna say it, I’ve cussed on this show too many times – ‘Stuff,’” Saban said. “I’m gonna say stuff. ‘Don’t do that stuff.’ I told our players, ‘We’re not doing this. Don’t do it. It’s not classy. We don’t need to degrade the other team's traditions. Just go play.’ So I saw somebody doing it after the game, and I said, ‘Don’t do that... stuff.’ But the point being is, I said, it’s the same way in all the things that you do.

“You make choices and decisions, whether it’s in school, as a person, as a player, and every time you think you’re not doing the right thing – and most people who don’t do the right thing know it’s not the right thing before they do it, they just do it anyway. So don’t do that stuff. Maybe we need to have that as a motto.”

The heat in Austin was discussed quite a bit last week, and Alabama, although used to summer heat in Tuscaloosa, seemed to be taking every step in order to make sure that the players were properly hydrated. On Monday, Saban revealed that some players dealt with cramps late in the game against the Longhorns and were unable to finish the contest. He shared one in particular Thursday that led to a bust in coverage and a crucial play for Texas.

“We do hydration tests, I talked about that last week. Brian Branch, for instance, he goes out of the game in the most critical play in the game because he’s getting cramps. Malachi (Moore) runs on the field, doesn’t even have the call and the 25-yard pass that they hit, aight, to get in field goal at the end of the game, it was a busted coverage because we’ve got a guy running off the field. We’ve got a running on the field, doesn’t even get the call, so we don’t play the defense right, and they could have won the game on that.” 

Did you know that BOL has a podcast? The BamaOnLine Podcast brings you the latest Alabama news and insight from Travis Reier, Charlie Potter, Hank South and Tim Watts. Catch the latest episode right here  or subscribe on iTunes  today!

Contact Charlie Potter by personal message or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter ).

© 2005-2022 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc.