TUSCALOOSA, Ala. After the bye weekend, Alabama football is back to its regularly scheduled programming for a game week, which means head coach Nick Saban is back to doing his Monday pre s conferences. On his birthday, Saban will speak to the media at noon ahead of the Crimson Tide's big SEC West showdown at LSU this Saturday.Follow along for live updates throughout the pre s conferences with a full transcript and video Chidobe Awuzie Jersey to be posted after.Saban says the bye week was a great time for self-a se sment. "We really need to come together as a team against a good opponent."Saban says LSU is playing as good as anyone else in the country."Brian Kelly has done an outstanding job there at LSU. " Saban also complements LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.Saban says the running game needs more diversity in what it's doing.Jaheim Oatis and DJ Dale will both start back at practice this week and it will determine their availability when the game comes.Saban wants Eli Ricks to just be himself this week and not get caught up in playing his former team this week.Saban calls Tiger Stadium one of the most challenging places to play in the country, but the team "can't beat itself this weekend." The focus can't change just because they are playing in a crazy environment.Saban says you never know how a bye week is going to affect the team, but he wants to see how the team responds mentally.Opening Statement"So we had a good work week last week. Really tried to emphasize with the players, what are you going to attach yourself to for the upcoming challenges for the rest of the season? Its a great time to do a little self-a se sment of what we need to do to get a little more consistent execution, whether its individual players systematically, offense, defense, special teams. So we really need to come together as a team versus a good opponent. And thats obviously going to be really important for this game versus LSU, Scotty Washington Jersey who right now is probably playing as well as anybody in the country."Theyre very well-coached. This game has always got significant implications theyre always ranked, were always ranked. Its kind of a rivalry game thats always a really important match-up. Brian Kelly has done an outstanding job there bringing his team along, improving each week. Jayden Daniels is one of the most productive quarterbacks in the country with his ability to run the ball, rush the ball. Very effective, efficient pa ser. Theyve got really good running backs. Theyve got a whole corps of receivers that have 20 or more catches that all do a good job in terms of getting open, catching the ball, run after catch. Very good systematic scheme on offense. Their defense is allowing, like, 21 points a game which is one of the tops in the country. Theyre aggre sive, theyve got good rushers, theyre athletic. Theyve got good cover guys in the secondary, and theyve got good skill guys on special teams. Their specialists are very, very good so very challenging game all around for us. Were gonna have to do a great job of paying attention to detail, preparing for the game so we can get Tyler Shelvin Jersey more consistent execution and play for 60 minutes in the game."Diagnosis for inconsistent running game?"Well it obviously wasnt very good in the last game. It needs to improve and I think theres a couple things. Weve got to have a little more diversity in what were doing as well as being able to execute it a little better on a more consistent basis."Scroll to ContinueInjury updates on defensive linemen Jaheim Oatis and DJ Dale"Yeah, I think both guys are going to start back to practice this week. Well kind of, you know, determine how they do during the course of the week and what their availability will be when the game comes."Ricks progre s before MSU and confidence gained?"Yeah, I think so. I think fundamentally we worked really hard to get Eli to understand the expectation for what we want him to do, to have a good understanding of the scheme of how were playing and what were playing. I think hes developed confidence throughout the season as hes learned more and gotten more comfortable. I think he played well the last game, so hopefully he can build on that. But I think its important that he just goes into this game and bees himself and doesnt think he has to do something fantastic just because hes playing against a team he used Zach Kerr Jersey to play for. I think thats always important psychologically for guys to be able to focus on whats in front of them and do their job well."Carryover from Notre Dame for Brian Kelly?"Well, theyre always very well-coached. Theyre always physical. This will be a physical game. They always have balance on offense. Theyre going to run the ball. They got a very good throwing scheme. Utilizing the personnel that they have very, very well. Theyve historically played very well on defense and special teams. Its typical of what a well-coached team usually does. Theyve gotten to the point where and all of his teams have been this way they dont beat themselves. Youve got to execute and beat them, and I think thats got to be the focus for our team."Challenge of defending dual-threat quarterbacks?Well I think its very challenging to play against quarterbacks who are dual threat type of guys and this is obviously going to be a big challenge for us. I think that its something where the emphasis has to be on all 11 guys really doing what they need to do whether its pa s rush lanes, whether its how you cover people, keeping contain of the quarterback, keep him in the pocket whether even when he steps up, you can retrace the rush so theres a lot of elements to doing this. You just cant rush and think youre going to get a sack and get pushed by the quarterback and then hes going to have lanes to run in. So all of these things are going to be real points of emphasis Germaine Pratt Jersey for us all week long so that we have a chance to contain a guy thats a very good pa ser but he can also beat you with his feet.Enjoy playing in Tiger Stadium at night?Well its great. They have a great tradition there. They have a great atmosphere. Its always challenging to play on the road in this league, anywhere you play. Obviously this is one of the more challenging places. All the more reason to have great focus and attention to detail. We cant beat ourselves. We have to be able to have enough poise to be able to execute in this kind of environment, not let it affect us in terms of how we go about one play at a time and how we want to execute and get things done.What makes the Alabama defense so hard for DBs to understand? How much has Eli Rick progre sed mentally since August?Um well I talked about how he progre sed throughout the cours