Nick Saban on Bret Bielema-Cam Robinson Incident: ‘I Have Not Seen It’ [VIDEO]
As soon as the video went viral, a request for comment from Nick Saban seemed inevitable.
To little surprise, that was, in fact, the case.
During his Monday noon press conference, Saban was asked about a video posted to Twitter late Sunday night, showing an incident between Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and Alabama left tackle Cam Robinson during last Saturday’s game between the two schools.
In the video, which the ESPN broadcast of the game didn’t air, Bielema appears to feign a shove from Robinson, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Crimson Tide player following Jake Coker’s second interception of the game late in the first half.
“I have not seen it,” Saban said. “What I did see was Cam got blocked pretty well on the play by one of their players. On our tape, he got up and shoved another player in frustration. That's basically what I saw and that's what I assumed the penalty was for or about.
“So, that's really all I can comment on. I think when you retaliate or push a player, you can expect to get a penalty. The rest of it I can't really comment about, because I haven't really seen it.”
After taking a hard block from Arkansas defensive lineman Hjalte Froholdt near the end of the play, Robinson stood up and shoved defensive lineman JaMichael Winston, who appeared to taunt the sophomore while he was on the ground. Bielema then stepped in between the two players, where the flag was thrown.
Bielema then celebrated the call, which put Arkansas on the Alabama 12. Three plays later, the Razorbacks scored their first touchdown of the game to go up 7-3 at halftime. The Crimson Tide later overcame the deficit to win, 27-14.
Left guard Ross Pierschbacher, who also had not yet seen the video, said Robinson made no mention of the incident after it occurred.
“I really didn’t even see anything,” Pierschbacher said. “I didn’t even notice anything. I’ve heard about it, but I didn’t see anything really that went down.”
Saban’s response begins around the 3:31 mark in the above video.
Remember, you can listen to Crimson Tide Sports Network’s coverage of Alabama-Texas A&M this Saturday on Tide 99.1 FM and our sister station, 95.3 The Bear FM.
Watch player interviews from Monday: