Nick Saban Comments on Alabama Playing FCS School Charleston Southern

Alabama head coach Nick Saban made it clear Wednesday he's not overlooking Charleston Southern this week, even though the Buccaneers carry the FCS label.

When asked about potentially getting some younger players in the game, thus highlighting the expected one-sided affair, he scoffed, per Michael Casagrande of AL.com:

"

Well how in the hell do you know they're going to get to play. What makes you think you can just assume that they're going to get to play. Because you're assuming the other team is not very good? They do have a Division I quarterback. He plays like a Division I quarterback ... if we don't play against them ...

"

Austin Brown, a senior, passed for 301 yards and four touchdowns in Charleston Southern's victory over Liberty last week. The win moved the Buccaneers to 9-1 on the season, and they are ranked inside the Top 10 in both major FCS polls.

Saban pointed toward an example from 2011 when the Tide found themselves in a similar situation. They had one loss on the season with the Iron Bowl against Auburn on the horizon when they faced off with Georgia Southern. They won, but the 45-21 triumph was a contested battle into the second half.

He noted the Bama defense, which was filled with future NFL players, "could not stop them." So he stressed the importance of taking every opponent seriously.

"And everybody said the same thing in that game. Y'all took a week off," Saban said. "This wasn't important, so it's not important to anybody else. It has to be important to the players, and it has to be important to us."

Even though the Crimson Tide are 38.5-point favorites, according to Odds Shark, just showing up isn't acceptable to Saban. Charleston Southern is one of the better FCS teams in the country, and a poor performance could hurt Alabama with voters.

After the Charleston Southern game, Alabama will finish its regular season Nov. 28 at 5-5 Auburn.