Saban on Penalties: “It’s Ridiculous. We’ve Got to Fix it.”
Alabama head coach Nick Saban was not very happy with his team's discipline after the 48-14 victory over Mercer.
During the post-game press conference, Saban emphasized the one thing a player has to have is discipline. Saban said discipline creates the proper habits with a player's intensity and decision-making skills.
"The one thing you got to have is to be able to be disciplined as a player," Saban said. "It means the choices that you make as a football player are legal, and you're not getting penalties, and you have to maintain your intensity, so you can have good discipline that creates the right kind of habits...It's ridiculous. We've got to fix it."
Last week, the Tide had five penalties on special teams in the season opener against Miami and had nine for 95 yards in Saturday's home opener, including an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Jameson Williams. When asked about specials team play, Saban said they played fine, except for the penalties. Saban discussed how the team did not take advantage of the positive plays that could benefit the opposing team.
"We negated positive plays. I don't care how you run a football game; 100 yards usually equals seven points," Saban said. "If you get 100 yards of penalties, you just gave the other team seven points because you gave up that much field position. When you have a 25-yard return and get a 10-yard penalty, that's a 35-yard penalty. You just keep adding those up, and you see what you're giving up."
Saban and the Crimson Tide will have to clean up the penalties this week as the Tide travels to the Swamp to take on the Florida Gators. If the penalties keep happening, it could be trouble for the Tide next week.