Nick Saban says he had nothing to do with 10-second rule; Offers up other thoughts

The new proposed 10-second rule has drawn a lot of talk from around the college football world lately, mainly negative reactions. Most of that ire is pointed in the direction of Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban as if he came up with this dastardly plan to take all of the fun out of the game.

However, as he pointed out to AL.com, he had nothing to do with the proposed rule which would give defenses time to substitute before the ball is snapped, basically taking away some of the effectiveness of the hurry up no offense.

"“I think one thing people don’t understand is they don’t have all the facts about this. The reason — I had nothing to do with the idea of the 10-second rule, but the committee decided the 10-second rule because they took 12 games of three fastball teams: Oregon, Auburn, Texas A&M and I forget the fourth one, it might have been Baylor, I’m not sure. And they said, OK, how many times did they snap the ball in the first 10 seconds of the play clock? It averaged four times a game, so you’re really not changing — I don’t think anybody was trying to change what they do or how they do it, but the fact that they can get on the line and snap it quick, you can’t substitute. All right"

While his claim is that he had nothing to do with the rule, he did go on to tell a bit of his side of the story as to why he at least supports it.

"“When you look at plays that are run, and a team averages 88 plays, and we average 65 at Alabama, that’s 20-something plays more a game over a 12-game season, that adds up to four more games a year that guys have to play,” Saban said in quotes transcribed by al.com‘s Joel Erickson. “I think it’s wear and tear and tougher to prepare players when you have to play against a hurry-up offense because of the way you have to practice.”"

Do you believe that the legendary coach had nothing to do with this? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.