Nick Saban had a lot of praise for Bryce Young but his ire was directed at Alabama’s mental errors as they fought off an upset bid from Texas.
No one expected Texas to give Alabama football a game on Saturday…until they did just that.
The Longhorns stuck with the Crimson Tide, even leading the game with under two minutes to play.
It was not a performance you’d expect from a Nick Saban squad. Squeaking out a victory was admirable but the head coach was clearly frustrated by the outing.
Nick Saban postgame press conference: Alabama coach frustrated
Saban wasn’t pushing the panic button by any measure. However, he did take a moment to chastise his team for their sloppy play.
“We made a lot of mental errors. Shooting ourselves in the foot,” Saban said, per Ross Dellinger.
The head coach had warned his players that going into Texas would be akin to their conference road matchups but even that didn’t seem to prepare them for the atmosphere they faced.
“This is like playing an SEC game on the road,” Saban said. “They’re going to be in the SEC. If they were in the SEC now, they’d probably be in the top half of the league.”
At least Saban knew he could count on quarterback Bryce Young to get the team out of trouble late.
“Why is he so good?…If I could actually tell you that, I don’t know if I’d be doing this,” Saban joked.
He then went in on all the things he loves about his QB.
“The guy studies, he prepares for the game, he understands exactly what the defense is in and what they’re going to do. He understands protections. He knows how to protect himself, knows when he’s got to throw the ball hot. He’s athletic enough to extend plays and make plays. He’s accurate throwing the ball. He’s very very instinctive. He plays quarterback like a point guard in basketball and he’s got talent but he doesn’t just play with his talent. He’s very well prepared and knows exactly what the game plan is and what he needs to do to execute it,” he said.
It’s the way Saban ended his answer that should have the rest of Alabama’s offense on notice.
“Players around him have got to play well too,” Saban said. “Quarterback is a hard position to play when players around you don’t play well.”
Saban made sure to focus on the team’s resiliency in the face of trouble. They’re going to have to be resilient in practice as well as the head coach gets them ready for the rest of the season.
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