Alabama football coach Nick Saban is giving new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian the thumbs-up following the first two practices for Monday night's championship game in Tampa against Clemson.
The No. 1 Crimson Tide worked out indoors Wednesday for two hours in full pads.
"It's been excellent," Saban said Wednesday night in a news conference. "It's been very positive and very upbeat. Practice has been good. The energy level has been good, and the attitude has been really, really good."
Sarkisian, the former Washington and Southern California head coach who joined Alabama's staff at the beginning of the season as an offensive analyst, was named last month as the offensive coordinator for the 2017 season. That role was sped up Monday, when Saban announced a parting of ways with Lane Kiffin less than 48 hours after the sluggish offensive showing Saturday during the 24-7 win over Washington in the Peach Bowl.
Crimson Tide true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts had his least efficient game against the Huskies, completing 7 of 14 passes for 57 yards and rushing 19 times for 50 yards.
"I think Jalen was a little frustrated with the way he played in the last game," Saban said. "He puts a lot of pressure on himself to prepare well, but it's our job as coaches to do a good job with him to help him prepare so he feels comfortable and confident."
As an offensive analyst, Sarkisian could assist Kiffin with the weekly organization and game plans, but he was not able to work with players in practice. He is making up for lost time in that regard somewhat this week while planning how to attack the No. 2 Tigers.
Kiffin admitted after the Peach Bowl that he was very conservative in his play-calling, which resulted in sophomore receiver Calvin Ridley having one catch for six yards and junior receiver ArDarius Stewart going without any catches.
"Philosophically, I don't want to change a lot of the things that we're doing, because I think it features our players well," Saban said. "I just think we have other guys who need to get involved in what's happening in the game."
While Saban has yet to publicly say anything bad about Kiffin, he didn't express much joy in Alabama's final performance with Kiffin calling the shots.
"I saw a lot of poor execution and poor fundamentals," he said. "We didn't execute very well, and we weren't very consistent. We made some good plays. Bo Scarbrough played really well and some other guys played well, but we didn't play with enough consistency to eliminate a lot of the negative plays.
"I think a lot of people were frustrated with the way things went, and they're working hard this week to get those things corrected."
Not nostalgia time
Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of Saban's hiring at Alabama.
After a 7-6 debut season in 2007 that included an upset loss to Louisiana-Monroe, a sixth consecutive setback to rival Auburn and a victory over Colorado in the Independence Bowl to clinch a winning year, Saban has gone 112-12 with four national championships.
"I'm not really thinking about that right now," Saban said. "I'm really focusing on what we have to do. Look, I want to do the best job for this team and our guys, and this is not the time to be falling in love with what you did yesterday, last week, last year or 10 years ago.
"You have so much gratitude to the players and all the hard work they've done to put themselves in this position, and you just want to help them take advantage of it."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.