Nick Saban comments on John Metchie’s bone-crunching hit to force a Florida fumble
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Alabama QB Mac Jones doesn’t often throw interceptions, but he tossed one in the first half of the SEC Championship Game on Saturday night in Atlanta.
However, as Florida DB Trey Dean returned the pick, he was taken down with a bone-crunching hit by Alabama WR John Metchie. And, as he fell, Dean fumbled, giving the ball back to the Crimson Tide.
It was a key play in the game. Afterwards, coach Nick Saban praised the talented receiver for not giving up on the play (via ASAP Sports):
“That was a great play, no doubt,” Saban said. “I mean, not a great play for us, for them to get an interception. But for guys to keep hustling. We do every day for the first five minutes of practice, we do maybe eight or nine different sort of take-care-of-the-ball-type drills. He’s always on the other end of that. We do circle chase, we do midline, we do stumble bum, stiff arm. He knows exactly what the defensive players are trying to do to get the ball out because we do it every day. He’s the other guy, aight?
“Tonight he had a chance to strip it out. I’m sure that those experiences of working every day against the defensive players, trying to get it out on him, was where he got the idea of how to get it out. But it was a big play in the game. We were down in the red zone. When you turn it over down there, it’s a double whammy lots of times. So to get the ball back was really important. Then to be able to score was huge because we stayed two scores ahead in the game until the end of the game. That was critical against a good Florida offensive team.”
Metchie also had 4 catches for 62 yards in the game, so he made an impact in more ways than one.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
