Nate Oats responds to criticism from Bruce Pearl, Bucky McMillan
Published:
Texas A&M head coach Bucky McMillan said his Aggies were disadvantaged by the NCAA over the Charles Bediako situation. Former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl called Nate Oats’s decision to play Bediako “selfish” and “wrong,” adding that it sent a message to the SEC that Oats doesn’t care about the league.
Everyone has had an opinion on Oats and his Alabama program bringing back Bediako, who had been in the G League for several years, while he sought an injunction against the NCAA.
“Good thing I read my bible every morning,” Oats said at a press conference on Friday when asked about the negative comments made by others.
Bediako played 5 games for Alabama before a circuit court judge in Tuscaloosa denied his preliminary injunction.
Oats has defended his decision to bring Bediako back, saying it’s his job to help his players. Other coaches have disagreed with his framing of the decision.
Oats was directly asked about McMillan’s comments and Pearl’s criticism. He addressed McMillan’s concerns directly, saying that, through private conversations he had with the Texas A&M coach, he felt McMillan’s issue was with the NCAA and not with Alabama.
“I think some of his (comments) were maybe taken out of context,” Oats said. “According to what he told me, he felt like Charles should be able to play the whole year. … I mean, he’s got a kid playing on a temporary restraining order as well. He felt like Charles should be able to play the whole year and he should be able to play against everybody else.”
Oats also said he has respect for McMillan, who was a high school basketball coach as recently as 2020.
“The guys that came up more like how myself, Bucky, (Chris) Beard was at the junior college ranks, the guys that came up there have a love for the players that you coach. … You’re in it for the kids, and for them, you’ve got a little different perspective,” Oats said.
Pearl, for instance, began his career as an assistant at Stanford and Iowa before getting head coaching jobs at Southern Indiana, Milwaukee, and Tennessee.
“Guys that are more sad for Charles have a viewpoint toward Charles,” Oats said. “Everybody that’s in college athletics, if you ask them, ‘Why do you do what you do?’ Probably their answer is, ‘We do it for the kids that we serve.’ Well, I guess we see who really does it for the kids they serve and who doesn’t.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
