After Alabama’s loss to Ohio State, Saban thought his team was out-played by the Buckeyes.
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He went on to add that he wished the day to declare for the NFL Draft would be moved back so players can focus on finishing their seasons.
In between, the Tide lost to Ohio State 42-35 on January 1 in the Sugar Bowl.
Shortly after making the statement, Saban responded to those criticisms. “There’s no excuse. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to play”. Its first three, WR Amari Cooper, S Landon Collins and RB TJ Yeldon, were underclassmen and selected in the first two rounds.
No one knows who will be the Tide’s starting quarterback against Wisconsin, but center Ryan Kelly says he’s trying to mold them.
“I don’t think anyone’s come to the forefront yet”, Saban said. “Obviously, it was in the back of a lot of guys’ heads”. “I didn’t even know about that stuff until after the game; I was just set on playing the game”. “This is an opportunity that we gave a player that didn’t work out”. Not only cable and broadcast sports outlets but social media have made Power Five head coaches constant conduits for their program’s perception among both fans and the 16- and 17-year-olds who will shape their destinies.
Coach Bret Bielema has done the research: The Razorbacks are the only SEC team this season that has two stretches of 2+ consecutive conference games on the road.
“The way we finished previous year was definitely a disappointment”, senior offensive tackle Jordan Swindle said.
“I got goosebumps about that”, Ragland said about the 2013 Kick-6.
And while I’m sure most people are plenty exhausted of this topic, that’s a pretty bold statement.
But fair is fair, so let’s join Saban in playing the excuse game. He wants that date pushed back until after the final game to prevent possible distractions.
“Every year there are some guys thinking about other things, the NFL and what not”, he said. “And I would be very supportive if, as a league or as an institution, we did some of those types of things so that we could better manage this in the future”. It might have been best if he just kept his mouth shut on this one.
“We had six guys in this situation this past year and 11 the year before”, Saban said.
“I was pretty surprised, too, but Reggie said when he first got there, it seemed like winning was just automatic; they were on the conveyor belt to championships”, Zucker said. Weve got to get that back..
“The bar hasn’t changed”.
“Being an old NFL guy, the way you play defense in the NFL is you play a lot of specialty defense because everything is based on situations”.
As for the special teams unit, Saban feels it will be a strength particularly with speed and depth.
“So we’re going to have to do a better job of keeping our team where they need to be so that we can finish strong”, he said. It felt like we were discussing sleepers more than champions, unproven positions more than stability.
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Alabama celebrates with place-kicker Adam Griffith (99) after he kicked the game tying field goal to send the game to overtime during the fourth quarter of the Alabama at LSU football game, Saturday, November 8, 2014, at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
