Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa absorbed a couple of low hits around his legs during the 24-0 win over Mississippi State, and coach Nick Saban was not pleased with the injuries.

Tagovailoa was already dealing with a knee injury over the last few weeks, but he took a serious shot to his quad in the third quarter on Saturday.

Tagovailoa was replaced by third-string quarterback Mac Jones, and was seen on an exercise bike late in the game.

Saban was asked about the repeated hits.

“The NFL has a rule for that,” Saban said shrugging. “The NFL has a lot of rules to protect people. Some of which people complain about. I think we have a lot of capable people in the NCAA to make decisions about, ‘What are good rules relative to player safety.’ I’ve always been supportive of those rules and I think someone else should really make a decision about whether there’s anything wrong with what happened in this game today. I’m not complaining about it. Football is football, and it is what it is. We need to do a better job of protecting our QB so people don’t get a chance to hit him.”

Now that the issue is raised about a high-profile player on the No. 1-ranked team in the country, it’ll be interesting to see if it is addressed with offseason rule changes, or at least responded to by Commissioner Greg Sankey or anyone else in the SEC office.