Nick Saban has received a lot of praise for Bryce Young, but his anger was directed at Alabama’s mental errors while fighting a surprise attempt from Texas.
No one expected the Texans to give a soccer game to Alabama on Saturday…until they did just that.
The Longhorns stuck with Crimson Tide, even leading the game with less than two minutes to play.
It wasn’t a performance you’d expect from Nick Saban’s team. The victory was impressive but the head coach was visibly disappointed with the outing.
Nick Saban Post-match press conference: The Alabama coach is frustrated
Saban wasn’t pressing the panic button by any measure. However, he took some time to reprimand his team for their dirty play.
“We made a lot of mental mistakes. Saban said: Per Ross Dillinger.
The head coach warned his players that going to Texas would be akin to conference road games, but even that doesn’t seem to prepare them for the atmosphere they faced.
“That’s like playing a SEC game on the road,” Saban said. “They would be in the SEC. If they were in the SEC now, they would probably be in the top half of the league.”
Saban at least knew he could count on midfielder Bryce Young to get the team out of trouble late on.
“Why is it so good?…If I could tell you that, I don’t know if I would,” Saban joked.
Then he got into all the things he loves in his QB.
“The guy studies, he prepares for the match, he understands exactly what defense is and what they are going to do. He understands protection. He knows how to protect himself, he knows when he has to throw a hot ball. He’s athletic enough to stretch plays and make plays. He throws the ball accurately. He’s instinctive. Very. The quarterback plays like a point guard in basketball and has talent but he doesn’t just play with his talent. He is well prepared and knows exactly what the game plan is and what he has to do to implement it.”
It is the way Saban ended his answer that the rest of the Alabama offensive should be noted.
“The players around him have to play well too,” Saban said. “A midfielder is a difficult situation to play when the players around you are not playing well.”
Saban was keen to focus on the team’s resilience in the face of problems. They will have to be flexible in practice plus the head coach prepares them for the rest of the season.
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