Saban, Tide Not Looking Ahead Toward Iron Bowl [VIDEO]

Will Alabama be looking past this Saturday's game against Western Carolina and on to bigger things? Not on Nick Saban's watch.

After mentioning the importance of the team staying focused for this week's game during the opening statement of his weekly Monday press conference, the final question of the day brought the topic back full circle for the coach.

"I think the most important thing to do at this time of year is everybody stay focused on what they got to do. Focus is like momentum," Saban said. "When you lose the momentum in the game, it’s really hard to get back. So if you don’t stay focused on what you need to do to get better. It’s not about the other team, it’s about what we need to do as a team."

Any reason for looking ahead would be due to Alabama's regular-season finale at home against Auburn, its chief rival. If Alabama beats the Tigers (along with the Catamounts), the Crimson Tide will advance to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta as the SEC West representative.

But Saban thinks that type of mindset would be detrimental to the present in terms of player improvement, even though the team is taking the day off from practice Monday for rest purposes.

"Are you going to get better that way or not?" Saban said. "Taking advantage of the opportunity that you have is much bigger than that. I need to play better, I need to improve. I need to help my teammates play better. We didn’t execute these plays properly, we need to start getting this right, we need to do a better job whether it’s covering, blocking, figuring out fakes, catching balls, whatever it is."

Saban’s rant begins at the 12:47 mark in the video above.

Watch the player interviews from Monday below:

Defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson:

Safety Nick Perry:

Tight end Brian Vogler: