Nick Saban Urges Players to Establish Productive Routines, Watches ‘Hard Knocks’ [VIDEO]

Alabama coach Nick Saban has said in the past that the only channel he watches is the Weather Channel, but on Wednesday he dropped a hint that he watches a little more television than just that.

As an example to talk about the importance of his players developing a routine to be successful football players, he mentioned Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith talking about just that on HBO's "Hard Knocks."

"This week, what we’re trying to get across to the players is how important it is to establish a routine," Saban said. "You probably saw Coach Smith talk about on the "Hard Knocks" thing that’s on HBO or whatever about how so important it is for players to establish a routine, so they can sustain through season. I think that’s very true for college players. Whether it’s hydrate, eat right, sleep right, prepare for the game right, mental preparation, go to practice every day, learn in the meetings. All these things help establish a routine. It takes a lot of maturity, and I think that’s very important for players improving, so that they can from the meeting room to the walk route to the practice field, and then take that to the game and be able to execute in the game and feel comfortable and confident in their communication and playing together as a unit.

"That’s certainly been the emphasis this week on trying to develop the kind of practice habits and routine that’s going to help us improve as a team."

The Falcons are the featured NFL team on this year's edition of the popular HBO show. Alabama has two former players currently on the team -- wide receiver Julio Jones and cornerback Javier Arenas.

Filling DeAndrew White's spot

Senior wide receiver DeAndrew White (shoulder) was one of two players to suffer significant injuries in Saturday's 33-23 victory over West Virginia, and his replacement for the next two weeks could be a number of different players.

"Christion Jones can play where DeAndrew plays," Saban said. "Chris Black can play there and is a guy who probably deserves to play more than he probably has played (over the course of his career), so this is an opportunity for him. ArDarius Stewart can play there as well. All those guys will probably get some opportunity to play there."

Jones is usually Alabama's third option at the "H" receiver. Black is a redshirt sophomore who played sparingly last season after missing all of his first season on campus due to injury, while Stewart redshirted last year because of the Crimson Tide's veteran receiving corps.

Both Black and Stewart saw the field on a number of plays against West Virginia. Saban said the in-game experience was a valuable experience for Stewart, who was making his first game appearance for the Crimson Tide.

"Some of these guys that are young players that haven’t played before, they don’t understand the importance of attention to detail," Saban said. "They get in the game and don’t do things exactly right, and it’s a great learning experience for them. I think he learned a lot from the last game and will probably be better prepared this time around and hopefully he’ll improve because of that."

No-huddle not necessarily about fast play

Two prominent names made their debuts for Alabama last Saturday and with that came at least one notable change.

Quarterback Blake Sims, making his first-career start, and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, coaching his first game for the Crimson Tide, can both be at least partially credited for the arrival of Alabama's no-huddle offense – a look that was shown at times against the Mountaineers. Still, it wasn't really used in the win to keep West Virginia off-balance on defense.

"We weren’t really trying to go fast," Saban said. "I mean, we can go fast, but to me for us, it was a communication issue. It’s easier to communicate when you’re going no-huddle because you just have sort of code words and short words for plays and passes and all that kind of stuff. It eliminates the communication in the huddle, it makes it easier for the quarterback."

The Crimson Tide first starting implementing it during the second quarter, when Saban said Sims was rattled and calling the wrong formations.

"That’s the reason we went to it, to settle Blake down in the game," he said. "We weren’t trying to go fast, we were just trying to help him manage the game better and have more time when he got to the line. It was effective for him and for us."

Watch a few player interviews from Wednesday below: