Nick Saban critical of Alabama assistants, third down defensive issues vs. Vanderbilt

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer has been at the center of the criticism following the Crimson Tide’s stunning loss to Vanderbilt last weekend. However, former Alabama coach Nick Saban feels that the assistants shoulder some of the responsibility for the loss.

Saban appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and was asked about Vanderbilt’s upset last Saturday.

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According to Saban, Kalen DeBoer had the right message for his team leading into the game but his assistants didn’t properly reinforce it.

“One thing I would like to comment on is, talking about Kalen, I always really put a lot of pressure on the assistant coaches, because they’re kind of your lieutenants to get the message to the team,” Nick Saban said. “And I think Kalen has been doing a good job of getting the right message to the team, but you know, everybody in the organization has to reinforce that.”

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As Saban pointed out, assistant coaches spend much more time around individual players than head coaches do.

“They’re the people that sit in the meetings every day with the players, and they’ve gotta impact that,” Nick Saban said.

In particular, Saban was disappointed with the Alabama defense on third down. Vanderbilt had the ball for 42:08 compared to 17:52 for Alabama.

The Commodores also ran 75 plays, compared to 46 for the Crimson Tide. Both of those stats are so lopsided because Alabama couldn’t get third-down stops.

“You know, I mean Vandy was 12-for-18 on third downs. I mean there’s no way. That’s why they have the ball for 76 plays in the game or whatever,” Saban said. “You’ve gotta get off the field on third down. Now the good news is you created 18 third downs, so something got done right before that.”

Nick Saban added that he has not spoken with Kalen DeBoer since the loss. Prior to the season, DeBoer said that he would lean on Saban at times, but this is not one of them.

“I talk to him when they do something well and I just didn’t want to get in the way this time,” he said.

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