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Nick Saban shares his thoughts on the position group that needs to improve the most for Alabama in the second half of the season

Michael Wayne Bratton

By Michael Wayne Bratton

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Alabama is the lone undefeated team in the Southeastern Conference and is entrenched as the No. 2 team in the nation in both major college football polls with a trip to Atlanta for the latest SEC Championship Game looking all but assured at the midpoint of the season.

So all’s well in Tuscaloosa then?

We all know better than that as Nick Saban shared his thoughts on an issue that needs to be corrected during the latest airing of his radio show.

“Every time there’s an explosive play, most of the time the safeties are involved in it,” Saban shared on Wednesday.

Saban has a point.

He also pointed out nearly every safety Alabama is playing this season is inexperienced.

If you study how many 30+ yard pass plays given up by Alabama this season, the Tide have surrendered 10 such plays this season — in just five games. The only SEC team that has allowed more is LSU, which has surrendered 15 of those plays. Even worse for the Tigers, they’ve only played four games this season.

While Saban issued his belief that the corners have played well, he again shared his thoughts on the less than stellar performance of the Tide safeties.

“We’ve not tackled really well. Had a lot of missed tackles. We’ve made some poor adjustments,” Saban continued. “We’ve played the ball poorly on several occasions that gave the other team big plays.

“So, I think the players are actually learning from all these mistakes and they’re actually improving as we go. We’re just going to keep coaching them and coaching them, and try to make them realize what they have to do to be better players. But look, when you have really good safeties on your team, it makes a difference.”

You can watch Saban’s latest coaches show below, which features guest appearances from basketball coach Nate Oats and former Alabama and NFL defensive back, and current SEC Network analyst, Roman Harper.

Michael Wayne Bratton

A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com

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