Alabama football is a week into preseason camp after going through its sixth practice on Wednesday. Entering camp, Nick Saban’s message was simple: He wanted his players to focus on every play, with less emphasis on outcomes.

His reasoning was simple. The team had made mistakes at the end of its two longest games of last season, Tennessee and LSU, that cost it the contests.

“The number one thing we need to focus on is we have to increase the level of attention to detail (and) focus on every play so that we can play and not have penalties and missed assignments. Communication goes with that, I don’t care whether you’re playing the offensive line and have to make line call or you’re playing secondary and make a coverage call so everybody’s on the same page. You can anticipate things, play better and you can play faster, but I think sometimes when things get a little bit difficult, we lose our focus a little bit”

Attention to detail had to improve. So far, Saban said he thinks the Crimson Tide is getting the message.

“I think they realize the importance of it,” Saban said. “I think there [were] a lot of lessons learned from last year as well as every day that we’ve been pointing out in practice where we could’ve eliminated this if we had better communication, or better focus, or better eye control or discipline and eye control — whatever it may be. We’re going to continue to harp on those things and hopefully one day everyone will get it.”

At the start of camp, Saban played his team a highlight reel of plays from crunch time last season, trying to make the point about how they never know which snap is going to win or lose the game. On Friday, linebacker Deontae Lawson said the team had taken the lesson to heart.

Still, Saban said Wednesday he wasn’t fully satisfied with what he had seen so far.

“If I did (see a tangible difference) and I was satisfied, I wouldn’t be preaching it,” Saban said. “I don’t think it’s anything that you ever give up on. I will never give up on it. I think the players want to do it. I just think you’re changing a mindset that has been the way guys go about things for a long time. Sometimes guys that are talented — it’s more challenging for them to develop the right mindset because they haven’t had to do those things all of the time.”

The next step for Alabama is the team’s first full scrimmage on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After just two full outdoor practices that didn’t have to be moved for inclement conditions, Saban was excited for the opportunity to better know where the Crimson Tide is before the rest of camp.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to be able to stay focused in these kinds of conditions especially toward the end of practice when guys are getting tired and Saturday’s scrimmage will be no different,” Saban said. “We want to evaluate whether guys can block, tackle, execute what they’re supposed to do; not so much try to game plan and experiment with things but just see how guys can play winning football, whatever position. That’s something that I think is really, really important.”

Alabama’s preseason camp will run through Aug. 26 before its season-opener Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee State.