Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke to the media after the team’s 52-49 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday.
The Alabama Crimson Tide have had multiple close calls this season, from the 20-19 victory over the Texas Longhorns in Week 2 to their 24-20 win over the Texas A&M Aggies just last week. It felt like the team should have had two losses to their record already, but they finally got their first.
In Week 7, the Crimson Tide were defeated by the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers 52-49 on a last-second field goal by Chase McGrath. This was also Alabama’s first loss to Tennessee since 2006, to add further salt to the wound.
After the game, head coach Nick Saban talked to the media about suffering their first loss of the 2022 season.
Nick Saban postgame press conference: What coach said after loss to Tennessee
Saban started off by saying that while this is a loss, this is also a learning experience for the Crimson Tide.
"You've got to learn from these experiences. You've got to learn from the mistakes that you made."
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) October 16, 2022
Nick Saban after Alabama's heartbreak loss to Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/gYWlr6Bunp
“You’ve got to learn from these experiences,” Saban said. “You’ve got to learn from the mistakes that you made. You never improve when you can’t learn from the mistakes that you made. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. I hope everybody is all-in on trying to do that work so that we can improve and play better.”
Saban brings up that the playoff hopes are far from done. They will have to win out against West Division rivals to make it to the SEC Championship game.
The Alabama head coach was critical of the performance of the defense, as they surrendered big plays. Two of the most notable plays being Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker’s two huge passes that set the team up for their successful, game-winning 40-yard field goal attempt.
Saban said that there were mismatches that resulted in Alabama surrendering big plays, citing how Tennessee had their best receivers on their safeties. You can listen to Saban’s answer below, courtesy of On3Sports’ Alex Byington.
Today’s loss to UT may finally be the beginning of the end for Pete Golding at Alabama.
— Alex Byington (@_AlexByington) October 16, 2022
Nick Saban was highly critical of his defense postgame, including this line: “We played way too soft at the end to let them go down the field 50 yards and get in field goal range.”
And this: pic.twitter.com/TrSraQ7ZxW
“I don’t think the no-huddle offense was the issue for us. I think it was covering their receivers and allowing way too many big plays,” said Saban. “They created a lot of mismatches. We were trying to play nickel [defense], so they were trying to get their best receivers on our safeties. They did it a couple of times, and we gave up big plays.
“We started dropping eight guys and that helped us in the second quarter. We did the same thing in the third quarter. We played some dime [defense] so we’d have better matchups against them. So we made some good adjustments in the game, but we just gave up too many big plays. Even in the second half, they scored on big plays.”
Alabama’s goal for this season is to now win out to ensure they get a shot at making the SEC Championship Game. If they do, they could get a shot to sneak into the College Football Playoff. Let’s not forget, they did the exact thing last season by defeating the Georgia Bulldogs. They made it to the National Championship Game, but lost to Georgia.
The Crimson Tide take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Oct. 22.
For more College Football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.