It’s fall break at the University of Alabama, but when it comes to football, it’s also a bye week, which means it’s back to the basics for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama (7-1) has played eight games back-to-back and is now getting a weekend off before it hosts LSU on Nov 7.

“Week to week, it’s such a quick turnaround,” offensive lineman Ross Pierschbacher said. “You just go from one game and go right into the next. Now we can really break down what we’ve done just over the whole season, just what we need to improve on, keys and reminders.”

It’s a much-needed break.

The main focus this week has been on Alabama and Alabama football alone.

“We’re just excited about getting better as a team,” Pierschbacher said.

With LSU more than a week away, the Crimson Tide isn’t even focusing on the Tigers at this point in time. It’s holding off until next week to watch film on LSU.

Right now, it’s all about the fundamentals.

“We’re just focusing and watching old film and stuff of what we used to look like during camp and stuff like that,” defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson said.

Although Alabama is more than halfway through its season, focusing on the basic, little things isn’t difficult to do. Tomlinson said it allows the players to focus on the small things like getting their hands inside, working on footwork and constantly moving.

During the 19-14 win over Tennessee last week, a couple of Alabama’s players were injured. Defensive back Eddie Jackson hurt his knee while Ronnie Harrison and Dominick Jackson both are facing an ankle injury.

At Tuesday’s press conference, coach Nick Saban gave an update on the injured players. He said Jackson was practicing a little bit Tuesday and he’ll get better every day and probably be fully back in a day or two.

“[Jackson] responded well,” defensive back Geno Matias-Smith said. “He’s been in the training room trying to get better.”

With Harrison, Saban said he is going to be in a boot for a couple of days but he thinks that by the end of the week, Harrison will be OK.

As for Jackson, Saban said he has the same injury and same procedure that Cam Robinson did last year also against the Volunteers. Saban isn’t sure if Jackson will be able to play or not and is day by day.

“This is a big week for us, for a lot of people who were hurt, banged up,” Matias-Smith said.

Alabama practiced on Tuesday, Wednesday and will today. Then, the team has the weekend off. Some players, such as Pierschbacher and possibly Matias-Smith, are going home.

It’s nice – and beneficial with the current injuries – to have time to physically rest, but mentally is a different story.

“Mentally, I don’t think we ever rest until the season’s over with,” Tomlinson said.

Alabama has one loss under its belt from Ole Miss. With the end of regular season and LSU coming up, a matchup that has a history of intense, close games, being successful is a must, but Alabama isn’t thinking that far just yet.

“The mindset is we want to go out there and win every game, but if we start looking ahead to other games, that’s where we’ll mess up the week we’re in,” Tomlinson said.

It’s one game at a time for Alabama. That way, Tomlinson said, the team is able to focus as much as possible on that one particular game instead of the rest of the season in general.

But that doesn’t mean all the other games are forgotten about.

“At Alabama, I’d say every week is a must win,” Tomlinson said.