Nick Saban says being unable to communicate with sideline in quarantine ‘doesn’t seem quite right’
By SDS Staff
Published:
In COVID-19 quarantine, Nick Saban has managed to stay involved in Alabama’s preparation for the Georgia game thanks to technology like Zoom. Come Saturday, however, Saban won’t be able to communicate with any sideline staff due to NCAA rules.
Saban expressed his disappointment with the protocol during his Thursday weekly radio show:
“The protocol is, if you’re in quarantine, you can’t have any remote access to the sidelines and you can’t go to the game, even if they put you in an isolated area. So, never having thought much about that — and I’m not being critical here — if you’re the head coach, there ought to be a better way to do it.
“I don’t know exactly what that is. But there should be a better way to do that. You ought to have some kind of communication with the sidelines, just like I have communication with somebody on the field during practice. I can’t directly talk to a player, but I can say, ‘Tell 22, that he was supposed to re-route the guy,’ or whatever.
“You can’t have any of that. That doesn’t seem quite right. I think you could probably do without an assistant, if you had to. Maybe a little harder if it was a coordinator who calls the plays and maybe you don’t have somebody that is effective at doing that, or experienced at doing that, on your staff.”
The door hasn’t been closed on Saban possibly being back on the Bryant-Denny Stadium sidelines for Saturday. If the test is determined to be a false positive with three-straight negative tests, as ESPN college football insider Heather Dinich shared on Thursday’s “College Football Live.” Dinich did not specify the timeline between negative tests in the report from 247Sports.
[H/T AL.com]
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
