Watch Nick Saban Discuss Jonathan Taylor’s Dismissal, Geno Smith’s Arrest [VIDEO]
After two highly-publicized arrests in one day over the weekend, the mood at Monday’s pre-scheduled news conference wasn’t about to catch anybody off guard.
Alabama coach Nick Saban was again forced to address the controversial decision to add since-dismissed defensive lineman Jonathan Taylor earlier this offseason, as well as safety Geno Smith’s status with the program following the second DUI arrest of his Crimson Tide career. SportsCenter broadcasted the entire press conference live on ESPN2.
On Taylor:
"The guy came here with some very specific guidelines and zero tolerance and obviously he didn't live up to that. And while we've created many opportunities for players through the years and sometimes those things have worked out extremely well.
"We're sad to say that in this case it didn't and we all take responsibility for that. We have a good program here at Alabama and we have a lot of good players who have done a lot of good things in this community, on our team and how they've represented the university. I feel like we have a lot of people here who have positively impacted players.
"And though I'm very, very sorry about the way this worked out, we're going to continue in the future to create opportunities for people who have the right stuff, and obviously it's not always going to always work out, but we're also going to stay focused on all the good things that we've done in the past and how that has helped our players in the past have a better chance to be successful in life."
On Smith:
"Little disappointed in Geno Smith. When he does a few things that he needs to do over the next few days, and he’s going to have quite a bit of things he has to do in the future, which I’m not going to be willing to share with anybody – that’s kind of a private matter – then he’ll be back on the field and we’ll allow him to practice again.
But our focus right now is to try to help Geno in every way that we can, do the things that we need to do so that he can be a productive person, a productive student and a productive player. He’s always been a good student and he’s always done a good job and he’s always been a good competitor on our team. And has always set a pretty good example in terms of how he’s played."
Saban also confirmed the reports on wide receiver Cam Sims, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament during Saturday’s practice. He did not, however, give a timetable on the rising sophomore's return.
For more commentary on Taylor and Smith, watch Saban’s press conference in its entirely above.
Player interviews and Tide 99.1's videos of Saban's press conference:
Thanks to AL.com for sharing Saban's video.