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Nick Saban calls Alabama defense ‘way too soft’ at end of loss to Tennessee
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Nick Saban’s Alabama defense surrendered 52 points in a loss at Tennessee on Saturday.
It was the most points allowed by a Nick Saban team dating back to 1996 when he was at Michigan State.
Tennessee’s 52 points are the most against a Nick Saban-coached football team since Sept. 7, 1996, when Nebraska put up 55 points on Saban’s Michigan State Spartans.
Twenty-six years.
(per my quick research)
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 16, 2022
The Crimson Tide also gave up 567 total yards in the game, including 45 yards over 2 plays in 13 seconds that allowed the Volunteers to kick the game-winning field goal on the final play of the game.
Saban expressed after the game that he was specifically displeased with what happened during that fatal stretch.
“We played way too soft at the end to let them go down the field 50 yards and get in field goal range,” Saban said during his postgame press conference.
Beyond that, however, Saban said that in spite of all the adjustments that he and defensive coordinator Pete Golding made during the game that the Volunteers simply connected on big plays far too often.
“I don’t think the no-huddle offense was the issue for us,” Saban said. “I think it was covering their receivers and allowing way too many big plays. They created a lot of mismatches. We were trying to play nickel, so they were trying to get their best receivers on our safeties and they did it a couple of times. … We made some good adjustments in the game but just gave up too many big plays. Even in the second half, they scored on big plays.”
Today’s loss to UT may finally be the beginning of the end for Pete Golding at Alabama.
Nick Saban was highly critical of his defense postgame, including this line: “We played way too soft at the end to let them go down the field 50 yards and get in field goal range.”
And this: pic.twitter.com/TrSraQ7ZxW
— Alex Byington (@_AlexByington) October 16, 2022
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
