We’ve reached Thursday night in Week 8 of Alabama’s football season. That means it’s time for Hey Coach and the Nick Saban radio show airing live at 7 p.m. CT.

We’ll have the important updates once they get underway. Refresh the page for the latest.

Segment 2

— Mississippi State does a great job of spreading out a defense and has an experienced QB and most of the starters back on both sides of the ball. They use their WRs in different ways to suit their talents and they have strong RBs even if they don’t run it often.

— What makes it difficult to defend the air raid? They use 4 wideouts on the field which can cause mismatches. They do a lot of bunches and stacks that force you to adjust coverages. Formations change but the passing concepts are the same. You have to understand their offense like they understand it, he said from a defensive standpoint. They spread you out and look at the leverage you’re using/safety alignment, etc., and they know exactly how to take advantage of it.

Segment 1

— Saban joked with media guest and meteorologist James Spann about his important role in determining if they practice inside or outside.

— On Tennessee, Saban said if they make any of the five plays that ended the game, they would have “probably won the game.”

— On a phycological standpoint, he wants the players to take a more positive approach and to have more fun. There’s too much concern with failing as opposed to playing to win.

— Peewee from Grand Bay asked about reverse rat poison. Saban said he doesn’t read or listen to anything when things are good or bad. Outsiders don’t know better than those inside the program on how to fix things. Saban said fans should support the players and that most people don’t have any appreciation for the kind of work that goes into this.

— Saban said he’s been doing a lot of thinking about all the external factors that can creep into players’ mindsets. The anxiety can come from external factors and they can be impacted by the outside noise they hear on social media, etc. Saban said this kept him up at night this week so he spoke to the leadership group about it.