Preparation is key for Alabama football. Habits are developed, practice is maximized for efficiency and external factors are either ignored, like rat-poison rankings, or prepared for, like crowd noise and weather conditions. Nick Saban will have his team ready.

It’s not surprising then that Saban, in his 50th year on a football coaching staff, even has a plan in place for scouting the officials.

“We let the players know (for example) these guys call a lot of holding. Whatever they call, it’s the historical background. It’s not a criticism or anything,” Saban said when asked if UA has reports on the refs assigned to its games. “It’s, ‘This referee really protects the quarterback.’ I mean, it’s just a little bit of knowledge about what the history is. I guess that’s all a scouting report really is, right? It’s history.”

The public won’t know who the referees are for Alabama-LSU until Saturday. Their names will appear in the StatBroadcast feed hours before the 6:45 p.m. kickoff. Each team usually finds out its SEC’s officiating crew schedule near the start of game week. While it’s not as important as studying the opposition or self-correcting mistakes, it’s another data point that players can use so they’re ready for whatever is thrown at them.

Alabama has committed 49 penalties in eight games, the sixth-fewest in the conference. Limiting the flags was a point of emphasis coming into the season. The Tide struggled with penalties in 2022, especially in the LSU loss, and charted penalties throughout camp. Players were tasked with up-downs if they were cited.

Aside from the home defeat against Texas (10 flags) and the rally at Texas A&M (14), UA has mostly played clean games. Against Tennessee on Oct. 21, Alabama had a season-low one penalty accepted. A disparity that caused Vols’ coach Josh Heupel to have a stern postgame reaction.

Saban isn’t immune to having outbursts on the sideline. He gave the refs an earful as the Tide took the field following a lightning delay on Sept. 16 at USF. But when it comes to postgame breakdowns, Saban is mostly understanding. He said it comes from watching his dad getting booed as an official at basketball and baseball games growing up in West Virginia.

“I think our officials really, really try to do a good job and it’s a tough job. I’ve talked about that before,” Saban said. ” … I kind of have a different kind of respect for what officials do and how a hard job it really is. I know our guys have a lot of pride in what they do and they try to do the best job they can.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].