Everything Nick Saban Said After Alabama's 34-24 loss to No. 11 Texas

The Crimson Tide head coach talked about the team's heartbreaking fall to Steve Sarkisian and Texas.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Saturday, Alabama suffered a crucial blow in the form of the Crimson Tide's first loss at home since 2019. 

Here's everything Nick Saban said during his postgame press conference following the 34-24 loss against No. 11 Texas. 

Saban: "This was a test for us. [...] we obviously didn't do very well, but it's the midterm, it's not the final."

Saban on Jalen Milroe: "He didn't get the poor-me's over any of it. He was competing like crazy."

• Saban said he appreciated the atmosphere at Bryant-Denny Stadium tonight.

• Saban said he considered playing multiple quarterbacks, but opted to stay with Milroe after taking the lead late. 

• Saban closed the press conference by saying it's a privilege to play in games like that and expressed his admiration for fan support. Specifically:

"It's a privilege to play in games like this. It's a privilege to play at The University of Alabama. It's a privilege to play at a place where you have such good fan support. So, thank you."

Here's the full transcript: 

Opening Statement

“This was a test for us. I told the players early in the week last week that this was gonna be a test, that we were gonna play a really good team and we would actually find out where we were as a team. And this was a test for everybody. It was a test for the coaches, it was a test for me, it was a test for all the players, and we obviously didn’t do very well. But it’s the midterm, not the final. So if we can learn from some of the mistakes that we made, coaches and players alike, we can all get better and have a lot better opportunity, I think, to be successful in the future.

“But everybody’s got basically two choices: You can throw in the towel and quit and be mediocre, or you can fight and grind and do the hard things that you need to do to be successful. And I think you don’t wanna waste a failing, and we certainly don’t wanna waste this failing. So we’re all gonna be committed to trying to do things better, practice better, prepare better, have a better plan for the players, whatever it is, all of us, coaches and players alike, and it all starts with me, and I obviously let our team down in terms of how we were able to execute and play. 

"We went back up and had like 10 penalties, two of which negated touchdowns. They got 10 points off of turnovers, and we gave up way too many explosive plays on defense. We have to correct all those things if we’re gonna be able to play and have the kind of team we’re capable of playing. 

"I believe in these players. These players have worked hard. There was a great atmosphere in the stadium tonight. I appreciate the fans. They did their part, for sure. We didn’t do our part well enough. It starts with me, as I said before. But we’re gonna do everything we can to get it right and get it fixed.”

On pass protection:

“A lot of those sacks were four-man rushes. One of them, I think, was a three-man rush. We didn’t get any pressure on their quarterback. We’re trying to play so we could cover their receivers and rush four guys, and we didn’t affect him at all. The third-down stuff that we did do they did a good job of moving the pocket, picking us and playing man-to-man. So we didn’t do a very good job of affecting their quarterback. We just gotta do better. I can’t sit here and say one guy broke down in pass protection. I know something different happened just about on every one of those. And I think sometimes we held the ball at quarterback. We’ve gotta do a good job of reading it and getting it out of your hand. And I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting away from people and getting open, and they did a good job of matching the patterns.”

On Jalen Milroe and if he considered using multiple quarterbacks: 

“I did. But when he put the drive together to go down the field and score when we got ahead, I thought that gave him a lot of confidence. But we never, ever discussed it. I can’t sit here and say the thought doesn’t come to mind for any player that’s having a difficult time. But he made some good plays at the end of the game, and that was good to see. Obviously, the interception was critical in the game. We’re just gonna work to try to get all our players better.”

On Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and his success against the defensive backs:

“We didn’t do a very good job adjusting to some motions. We made some mental errors, got people in the wrong spots and we didn’t match the patterns. A couple times, we were fine. We had a middle of the field safety. We got pass interference a couple times. They made a good catch one time. Kool-Aid had the guy covered really well, and [Adonai Mitchell] made a really good catch. We were playing quarters, and they had a quarters beater and we didn’t poach the safety. It’s a lot of technical stuff, but you can’t let people throw the ball over your head if you’re playing the secondary. So we need to get that fixed.”

What happened with the bad snaps:

“That’s a good question. It was very surprising to me. We haven’t had an issue with that in the past. We haven’t had an issue with that in practice. And those kinds of things put you behind the eight ball on offense. You get a 5-yard penalty. We had a couple of those. False starts, I think we had two snaps and one false start. So it puts you behind in the sticks. So the discipline of playing – and this is one of the things I talked to our players about, It’s great to have emotion and play with emotion. Everybody should have that, but that emotion has to be channeled into tangible, functional execution. So you’ve gotta focus on the task at hand one play at a time. It’s gotta be very intentional. If you get emotional, then you make bad choices and decisions. Your brain doesn’t work like it needs to, and bad things happen, whether you make mistakes on defense, whether you snap the ball poorly, whether you jump offsides. I mean, we a had chance to stop them at the end of the game a couple times and couldn’t get off the field. Let them bleed the clock. Just all-in-all, we just didn’t do what we needed to do to have a chance to be successful against a good team.”

Saban on if Milroe was cautious on his first interception:

“I can’t really answer that. It’d probably be a better question to ask him. I think they kind of catted the corner from the backside and they rolled the coverage, we were in trips, and I don’t think he saw the thing roll up. It was a poor decision. But I didn’t see a bad look from him on the sidelines ever. He was into it. He was talking to Tommy [Rees]. He was getting new information. So he certainly didn’t get the poor me’s over any of it. He was competing like crazy and came back and made some really good plays. I mean, we had a chance. We got ahead in the game and what was there 11 minutes to go in the game or something?"

What changed between the third and fourth quarters:

“No, they hit big plays. If you look at until the end when they ran the clock out with like 5-6 minutes to go, we had a chance to stop on third down. They ran for a first down. We had another chance to stop them on third down, jumped offsides. But all the plays that they made were all explosive plays. All were explosive plays. And that was the difference. They didn’t make explosive plays in the third quarter, and we played better, we got off the field on third down. They took a lot of shots in the game, and they made them. And we knew they would take shots in the game. They did last year. That’s how they play, and it’s a good way to play. But if you play them correctly, they can turn out to be long, foul balls, too. And we didn’t do that. We didn’t make that happen.”

How Alabama handled substitutions, alignments, hurry-up:

“A couple times not good, and that’s when we twice missed a match on wide delayed pass where they fly the back out, the tight end comes across. We didn’t match the pattern. And I think in both cases, I think we had the call, but I think when they went hurry up on it, we were on our heels. So I don’t think we did a good job of that.”

[Saban unprompted]

“But I do think it was a great atmosphere out there. Our fans did a tremendous job. We appreciate the support. It was fantastic. It’s a privilege to play in games like this. It’s a privilege to play at the University of Alabama. It’s a privilege to play where you have such great tradition. It’s a privilege to play where you have such great fan support. We really appreciate it.”

SEE ALSO: What Steve Sarkisian Said After Texas' 34-24 Win Over Alabama