In Saturday’s 34-24 loss to the Texas Longhorns, not much went the way that head coach Nick Saban had anticipated.
The Crimson Tide had turnovers, which Texas turned into points, and a multitude of penalties, two of which neglected touchdowns for the Crimson Tide. Mental errors led to big plays.
“So, I don’t think it’s any huge secret or anything that we did not execute on a consistent enough basis in this last game,” Saban said at his Monday press conference. “Too many turnovers, penalties, mental errors on defense, sacks, things that are helpful in being consistent, in terms of whether it’s sustaining drives, not giving up big plays that lead to field position and scores. So the focus is 100% on how we get it turned around.”
Nick Saban and his staff have a lot of problems to address over the next few days, but Saban believes in his players and that all these problems are fixable.
"The future is now," Saban emphasized. "So how do we get our players to - we’ve got to do a better job as coaches to help them be able to play better, more consistently in the game. Put them in a position where they have the best chance to be successful. But I think all these things are fixable. I believe in our players, I think we’ve got good players. Texas has a good team and it’s like I said before, it was a test. It was an early test in the semester. We didn’t grade out very well in the test so what are we going to do to get a better grade.“
Alabama's loss to Texas on Saturday marked the end of a 21-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium, their first home defeat since 2019. Additionally, it signified the first time they lost to a non-conference opponent at home since 2007, corresponding with Saban's first season.
Losing to Texas was not the ideal situation for the Crimson Tide, but their goal of making the playoffs is still in their control. The question will be can the players and staff take Saban’s famous quote of “Never waste a failure” and use it as motivation for the rest of the season.
See how Alabama responds this Saturday as the Crimson Tide travels to Tampa, Fla. to take on South Florida.
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