Alabama football took time off between its SEC championship game win over Georgia and the start of practice for the College Football Playoff semifinal Rose Bowl game. The Crimson Tide prioritized rest and healing as it prepares for a final push for Nick Saban’s seventh national championship in Tuscaloosa, starting with Michigan.

When they resumed practice Saturday, Saban wanted the team getting back to basics.

“The first three days of practice we’ve really tried to focus on fundamentals,” Saban said Monday. “I think everybody’s got to practice with a plan, a sense of purpose. Everybody’s got to kind of reinvest into conditioning, reinvest into fundamental techniques, discipline to execute, blocking, tackling. It will all translate into positive performance in the game.”

The Crimson Tide continued practice Tuesday. It’s a busy time of year, with the early signing period for the recruiting class of 2024 starting on Wednesday, and the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl matchup with Michigan coming up fast.

Saban was complimentary of how his team has handled the time so far. His quarterback agreed with him on how important emphasizing fundamentals is early in the bowl practice time.

“With us, we just try to fall back on our level of training and work on our fundamentals and read things properly and little things like that,” Jalen Milroe said Tuesday. “We’re trying to take our game to the next step in this time period before Michigan. We’re really trying to master our game and improve and little things like that. This is a great opportunity for our team, and I’m happy to have this time.”

For safety Malachi Moore, the first several practices served to get the competitive juices flowing.

“Just a lot of good-on-good,” Moore said. “Going against our good receivers, going against our first-team O-line, first-team offense and just going out there and competing. Making sure we’re working our technique, working on the fundamentals that we really don’t get to harp on as much when we game-plan for a team in game week.”

The Tide was back on the field Tuesday and will continue practicing on Wednesday. Alabama is the No. 4 seed in the CFP, preparing for No. 1 Michigan.

As the game draws nearer, Alabama will be more focused on game-planning for the Wolverines. But for the first several days, things were a bit simpler.

” It’s just been a good couple of days,” outside linebacker Dallas Turner said. “Guys had a lot of time off. These last couple days we just had to buckle down, just get used to playing football again. Just having the contact, even little things like hand placement, technique, stuff like that.”

The Crimson Tide and Wolverines will face of Jan. 1 in Pasadena. The winner of that game will play either Texas or Washington in the national championship game in Houston on Jan. 8.