Nick Saban reveals what happened in incident where Alabama players were stranded on boat

Over the weekend, Alabama coach Nick Saban took some of the Crimson Tide team leaders out on the lake in his boat, with less-than-ideal results.

That’s because the boat died in the middle of the lake and the coach and his players had to be rescued by a mechanic.

On Monday, Saban told ESPN’s Chris Low what happened, explaining that a fuel pump on the brand-new boat was defective:

“Brand spanking new, and it’s the first time I’d been out in it,” Saban told ESPN. “So when it stalled, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. I bought a new boat, and they didn’t put gas in it.’ I didn’t even think about it. You just assume that it’s got gas in it when you get a new car or a new boat. My heart sunk for a minute because I had all those kids out there. I had two of them on tubes when it happened. We had fun, but I sure heard about it.”

Saban said he’s been hearing about the incident all weekend, with his players giving him a hard time for it:

“We didn’t run out of gas. But when the fuel pump runs out, that’s exactly what it feels like,” said Saban, who was on the boat with members of the Alabama football team’s leadership group. “I’ve got all these kids on the boat, and I say, ‘We must have run out of gas,’ and then look at the gas gauge and it’s full. So I call for a mechanic, who brings another boat, and he resets the thing or whatever. I told him, ‘You drive that boat. I’m driving your boat.’

“I’ve been getting busted about this for a week, but the kids sure had fun with it.”

At the very least, the mechanic who helped Saban and the Tide out will have a great story to tell for years to come. It’s not every day you get to rescue a six-time national champion.

Adam Spencer

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.