Texas A&M shocked the college football world on Saturday night when they defeated No. 1 Alabama with a last-second field goal that led to a field storming. While this college football season has been a wild one, it just felt like the Crimson Tide were destined to have yet another undefeated run into the College Football Playoff. Instead, they’re licking their wounds after having been exposed by an unranked SEC opponent.
Head coach Nick Saban spoke to reporters on Monday about what went wrong for the Tide and it sounds like he has a lot of questions for himself and his coaching staff regarding how aggressive they should have been on offense.
Nick Saban asked what Texas A&M did defensively that made it tough to run in RZ:
“I don’t know if there’s a good answer to that. I don’t know if we challenged them running as much as maybe we could. That’s one of the things that I think we need to work on trying to improve on."
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) October 11, 2021
“I don’t know if we challenged them running as much as maybe we could,” said Saban. “That’s one of the things that I think we need to work on trying to improve on.”
Saban praised running back Brian Robinson but noted that he planned to incorporate more running backs into the mix. He also noted that the key for them will be to respond the right way and be technical with the players when making adjustments.
As one media member pointed out, this is about as close as Saban will ever come to publicly call out one of his coordinators.
Yo – as Nick Saban press conferences go this is as close as he’ll ever come to questioning the decisions of his coordinators.
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) October 11, 2021
As far as where Alabama goes from here, they’ll have to figure it out quickly. Bama travels to Starkville, MS on Saturday to take on Mississippi State under the lights. Considering MSU defeated Texas A&M the previous week, you better believe the Tide won’t take them lightly. Saban called the Bulldogs “one of the most improved teams in the nation.” He also noted that Mississippi State’s quick passing game will be “more taxing for a defensive lineman.”
