TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ā It was hardly the homecoming rout most predicted, but No. 11 Alabama was still able to stave off an upset bid from Arkansas and hold on for a 24-21 victory inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.
With the win, Alabama (6-1, 4-0 in the SEC) retained its spot atop the SEC West standings and recorded its 17th straight victory over Arkansas (2-5, 0-4).
Hereās a transcript of Nick Sabanās postgame press conference as well as my takes on his comments.
Opening Statement
āIāll tell you like I told the team: itās great to win. Itās great to be where we are in the SEC relative to how weāve progressed. But thereās a difference between beating the other team and winning the game. We played pretty well in the game up till 24-6, which was able halfway through the third quarter, and then we didnāt finish. We got penalties. The whole momentum is on the third-down stop. We get a grabbing the guy by the facemask after the play, which to me, itās bad. I mean, you can say what you want, but a guy does that, itās putting himself ahead of whatās best for the team and putting yourself in harmās way of having a chance to win. And then they go down the field and score.
āThe momentum of the game changes. We go three-and-out on offense, have a couple dropped balls, miss a couple throws and not executing, not hitting on all cylinders, let the other team back in the game. But had the resilience to take the clock at the end of the game and not give them the ball back, which was really, I think, important in the game. But hopefully, we can learn how to beat the other team. Not just win the game but beat the other team, which means youāve got to play for 60 minutes. Youāve got to execute, do your job, have discipline, do it one play at a time for 60 minutes in the game.
āLook, if we didnāt have the intensity we needed in the second half, thatās on me. Itās my responsibility. I always get asked what the halftime message was, but obviously, this one was not worth repeating, so why would we even talk about it? Obviously, it wasnāt very good. But anyway, weāve got a lot that we can learn from.
āIāve got a lot of respect for this team. I told our team, I said, āThis is going to be a different fight, aight, because Sam (Pittman) is an offensive line guy. Heās a tough guy. Heās a physical guy. And their team is going to keep fighting in the game, no matter what. They always do when they play us. So we need to be ready for that.ā Obviously, I didnāt make that point as well as I needed to.ā
Tonyās take: A win is a win, but this one was pretty ugly ā at least the second half of it. If Alabama had shut down the way it did in the second half against a contender, it would have likely blown the game.
From stupid penalties to the passing game completely falling apart, the Crimson Tide was a tough watch after the break. Kudos to Alabama for picking up a couple of first downs and running out the clock on its final possession, but itās hard not to be worried about this team with tougher tests against Tennessee and LSU on the horizon.
On improvements in the running game
āWe ran the ball really well the first time we had it in the second half. I mean, we had 3-4 really good runs. Look, we think weāve got four running backs that can play, so weāre going to play them when we feel like we have an opportunity to play them. Thatās always the plan. Have we always been able to do that? No. Sometimes the game doesnāt dictate it. But Iām glad to see all those guys got to play, and I think they all had good moments.ā
Tonyās take: After averaging less than 1 yard per carry last week against Texas A&M, Alabama had a much better showing on the ground against Arkansas, picking up 177 yards and a touchdown on 42 attempts. Even more encouraging was the fact that the Crimson Tide flexed its depth in the backfield, relying on more than just its two senior backs.
The seniors still led the way as Jase McClellan carried the ball 16 times for 83 yards and Roydell Williams had 68 yards on seven attempts. However, Alabama was also able to get redshirt freshman Jamarion Miller and true freshman Justice Haynes some reps. Miller finished with 40 yards on four carries while Haynes gained 11 yards on two touches.
Excluding Jalen Milroeās five sacks, which resulted in a loss of 34 yards, Alabama averaged 5.7 yards per carry against Arkansas. That was one of the few positives of the day for the offense.
On whether his team got too satisfied
āItās two games now. We came out a little flat on defense at Mississippi State when we were ahead at halftime. But the first drive was really the best drive we had in the second half. When we got the ball and got the kickoff, we went down the field. Didnāt finish the drive. And again, just didnāt execute the way we needed to execute. From the third-down penalty, Jaylen Key, we had like 1-2 penalties up until that point. We got multiple penalties after that. We got pass interference on third down, which would have got us off the field again, and then they had to kick a field goal. And we had multiple penalties on offense, which put us behind the eight ball. Weāve just got to teach and learn from all these things and hopefully realize what it takes not only in the game but in the week of preparation leading up to the game so that you can go out there and play the way you need to play against really good competition.
āIāve got a lot of respect for Arkansasā team. I mean, LSU beat them by three points, Ole Miss beat them by a touchdown on the road. This is not the kind of team that you all think they are. Theyāre a good team, and that quarterback is a handful. When a quarterback can take a major college football player and sling him off like a gnat on a cowās ass, I mean, that was one of the most impressive plays Iāve ever seen a player make. But we said one gets a guy, youāve got to hold on, youāve got to hang on and weāve got to clean him up. And we didnāt clean him up. We made a couple mental errors on defense in some of those drives that let them get back in the game, too. We run a stunt the wrong way, quarterback runs for 25 yards on a big play on 2nd and Long. But we learn from all these things.ā
Tonyās take: I would not want to be Jaylen Key right now. Saban brought up the safetyās 15-yard facemask penalty multiple times, and for good reason. Not only did it give the Razorbacks a first down on what would have been a third-down stop in the third quarter, but it also served as a key turning point in the game.
As Saban pointed out, itās already difficult enough to stop players like K.J. Jefferson. The last thing Alabama needs to do is make life harder on itself by giving him extra chances. Itās the same on offense. When you are struggling to move the ball, a 5-yard false start can turn into a drive-killer.
On getting his message across this week and if his players learned a lesson
āI hope. I hope so. I use you guys to send a message to the team, so if thatās the message you got, I hope they got it on Wednesday. That make sense? It wasnāt like I was just trying to you all. I donāt really lie. I try to be an honest person, tell you like it is. I donāt always tell you everything you want to know, but sometimes.ā
Tonyās take: Maybe Alabama will learn from this. Maybe this is the wake-up call the Tide needed to start playing disciplined football for a full 60 minutes. However, weāre now entering Week 8. At some point, you begin to wonder if this is just who Alabama is going to be this season.
On pass protection and sacks
āWe made some mental errors. We donāt fan the first sack of the game. We fan it to the left, the left tackle doesnāt fan, guy runs in there unblocked and sacks the quarterback. A couple times today we got beat physically. I mean, their rusher just beat our guy. But we have to handle pressure better. I mean, we have to be able to handle pressure and stunts better. I mean, this was a big boundary-pressure team. Itās exactly what they did. When 28 sacked the quarterback the first play of the game, itās something we practiced a lot and get in the game. With experience, I think our guys will learn from every one of these things and hopefully be able to get it corrected.ā
Tonyās take: At this point, you have to expect that Alabama will give up at least four sacks a game. Iāll predict that against Tennessee next week, against LSUās below-average defense next month and against any other SEC team the Tide lines up against moving forward. The question is whether it will be more down to Milroe holding onto the ball too long or the offensive line leaving him out to dry.
While I felt the sacks against Texas A&M were more Milroeās fault, Iād blame the line more this week. Iāll have to go back a rewatch the game to get a better feel, but it seemed as though Kadyn Proctor and Elijah Pritchett really struggled to protect the left side.
On Will Reichard setting the SEC point record
āIām extremely happy for Will. Honestly, I donāt really keep up with those types of things, but really happy for him. He has been, probably, as good a player at his position ā even though heās a specialist ā as anybody that weāve ever had here. And heās even a better person. I think that he wanted to come back and try to improve his kickoffs so that he would have a better chance to be successful in the NFL, and I think this is one of the good things that name, image and likeness brings to players, that the guy didnāt have to be poor and not be able to earn money and be able to come back and do that as a college player as opposed to going to the draft, being a free agent possibly, not making a team and youāre out. So thatās one of the very good things, I think, about name, image and likeness and players having opportunities to have a better quality of life while theyāre in college because they can stay and enhance their career if they need to. And Will was smart enough to understand that that was something that could benefit him and his future.ā
Tonyās take: The next time you feel like complaining about NIL, remember that Will Reichard would likely be in the NFL without it. Reichard might have come back for another year in order to work on his kickoffs, but itās unlikely he would have done so for free. While NIL presents its fair share of problems, it did allow us to witness another season of the best kicker in Alabama history.
On the injury statuses of C.J. Dippre and Trezmen Marshall
āI donāt think theyāre bad hurt. One guyās got a pulled muscle. The other guyās got bruised ribs. I canāt tell you the extent of the injuries. I donāt even think we know that yet.ā
Tonyās take: Neither of these injuries seemed too severe, but Alabama wonāt want to be without either player for next weekās game against Tennessee. Weāll likely learn more about the statuses of Dippre and Marshall on Monday.
On how the defense did without Malachi Moore
āMalachiās a huge asset for us because heās the most experienced player in the interior to make calls and make adjustments. And I do think the guys played better having a week of preparation than what we did a week ago. It was tough when he went out because everybody hadnāt practiced enough at those positions to do the things we needed to do. But I thought both guys did a pretty good job today. We actually played Caleb (Downs) when they were in, what we call, silver people, which is 12 personnel ā two tights and two wides. We played Caleb at Star, a little bigger guy, a little more physical against the runs. And when we played against three wideouts or more, we played nickel where Terrion (Arnold) was the Star. I think Kristian Story stepped up and did a pretty good job out there. Trey (Amos) did a pretty good job for us. Those guys were able to take advantage of their opportunities. Weāre hopeful ā Malachi actually even went out and warmed up today. We werenāt going to play him in the game, but heās getting close. So hopefully, heāll continue to make progress.ā
Tonyās take: If Alabama was playing for a national title today, Moore would have been on the field. The senior defensive back suited up in full pads and took part in warmups but watched the game from the sideline.
With Moore out, Alabama moved Terrion Arnold to STAR and inserted Trey Amos at the cornerback position opposite of Kool-Aid McKinstry. For the most part, that worked out well. Alabama limited Jefferson to 150 yards and two touchdowns while allowing him to complete 14 of 24 passes.
That being said, I think Moore might have done a better job of wrapping up Jefferson than Arnold did when he allowed the quarterback to wrestle his way out of a sack in the fourth quarter.
Closing comments
āIt was a great homecoming crowd, with great enthusiasm. I think the enthusiasm the crowd showed at the end of the game was really helpful to the team, it affected them a little bit. We got a big sack that got us the ball back, and then we were able to take air out of it. Appreciate the crowd.ā
Tonyās take: A win is a win. Itās time to move on.
With the win, Alabama (6-1, 4-0 in the SEC) retained its spot atop the SEC West standings and recorded its 17th straight victory over Arkansas (2-5, 0-4).
Hereās a transcript of Nick Sabanās postgame press conference as well as my takes on his comments.
Opening Statement
āIāll tell you like I told the team: itās great to win. Itās great to be where we are in the SEC relative to how weāve progressed. But thereās a difference between beating the other team and winning the game. We played pretty well in the game up till 24-6, which was able halfway through the third quarter, and then we didnāt finish. We got penalties. The whole momentum is on the third-down stop. We get a grabbing the guy by the facemask after the play, which to me, itās bad. I mean, you can say what you want, but a guy does that, itās putting himself ahead of whatās best for the team and putting yourself in harmās way of having a chance to win. And then they go down the field and score.
āThe momentum of the game changes. We go three-and-out on offense, have a couple dropped balls, miss a couple throws and not executing, not hitting on all cylinders, let the other team back in the game. But had the resilience to take the clock at the end of the game and not give them the ball back, which was really, I think, important in the game. But hopefully, we can learn how to beat the other team. Not just win the game but beat the other team, which means youāve got to play for 60 minutes. Youāve got to execute, do your job, have discipline, do it one play at a time for 60 minutes in the game.
āLook, if we didnāt have the intensity we needed in the second half, thatās on me. Itās my responsibility. I always get asked what the halftime message was, but obviously, this one was not worth repeating, so why would we even talk about it? Obviously, it wasnāt very good. But anyway, weāve got a lot that we can learn from.
āIāve got a lot of respect for this team. I told our team, I said, āThis is going to be a different fight, aight, because Sam (Pittman) is an offensive line guy. Heās a tough guy. Heās a physical guy. And their team is going to keep fighting in the game, no matter what. They always do when they play us. So we need to be ready for that.ā Obviously, I didnāt make that point as well as I needed to.ā
Tonyās take: A win is a win, but this one was pretty ugly ā at least the second half of it. If Alabama had shut down the way it did in the second half against a contender, it would have likely blown the game.
From stupid penalties to the passing game completely falling apart, the Crimson Tide was a tough watch after the break. Kudos to Alabama for picking up a couple of first downs and running out the clock on its final possession, but itās hard not to be worried about this team with tougher tests against Tennessee and LSU on the horizon.
On improvements in the running game
āWe ran the ball really well the first time we had it in the second half. I mean, we had 3-4 really good runs. Look, we think weāve got four running backs that can play, so weāre going to play them when we feel like we have an opportunity to play them. Thatās always the plan. Have we always been able to do that? No. Sometimes the game doesnāt dictate it. But Iām glad to see all those guys got to play, and I think they all had good moments.ā
Tonyās take: After averaging less than 1 yard per carry last week against Texas A&M, Alabama had a much better showing on the ground against Arkansas, picking up 177 yards and a touchdown on 42 attempts. Even more encouraging was the fact that the Crimson Tide flexed its depth in the backfield, relying on more than just its two senior backs.
The seniors still led the way as Jase McClellan carried the ball 16 times for 83 yards and Roydell Williams had 68 yards on seven attempts. However, Alabama was also able to get redshirt freshman Jamarion Miller and true freshman Justice Haynes some reps. Miller finished with 40 yards on four carries while Haynes gained 11 yards on two touches.
Excluding Jalen Milroeās five sacks, which resulted in a loss of 34 yards, Alabama averaged 5.7 yards per carry against Arkansas. That was one of the few positives of the day for the offense.
On whether his team got too satisfied
āItās two games now. We came out a little flat on defense at Mississippi State when we were ahead at halftime. But the first drive was really the best drive we had in the second half. When we got the ball and got the kickoff, we went down the field. Didnāt finish the drive. And again, just didnāt execute the way we needed to execute. From the third-down penalty, Jaylen Key, we had like 1-2 penalties up until that point. We got multiple penalties after that. We got pass interference on third down, which would have got us off the field again, and then they had to kick a field goal. And we had multiple penalties on offense, which put us behind the eight ball. Weāve just got to teach and learn from all these things and hopefully realize what it takes not only in the game but in the week of preparation leading up to the game so that you can go out there and play the way you need to play against really good competition.
āIāve got a lot of respect for Arkansasā team. I mean, LSU beat them by three points, Ole Miss beat them by a touchdown on the road. This is not the kind of team that you all think they are. Theyāre a good team, and that quarterback is a handful. When a quarterback can take a major college football player and sling him off like a gnat on a cowās ass, I mean, that was one of the most impressive plays Iāve ever seen a player make. But we said one gets a guy, youāve got to hold on, youāve got to hang on and weāve got to clean him up. And we didnāt clean him up. We made a couple mental errors on defense in some of those drives that let them get back in the game, too. We run a stunt the wrong way, quarterback runs for 25 yards on a big play on 2nd and Long. But we learn from all these things.ā
Tonyās take: I would not want to be Jaylen Key right now. Saban brought up the safetyās 15-yard facemask penalty multiple times, and for good reason. Not only did it give the Razorbacks a first down on what would have been a third-down stop in the third quarter, but it also served as a key turning point in the game.
As Saban pointed out, itās already difficult enough to stop players like K.J. Jefferson. The last thing Alabama needs to do is make life harder on itself by giving him extra chances. Itās the same on offense. When you are struggling to move the ball, a 5-yard false start can turn into a drive-killer.
On getting his message across this week and if his players learned a lesson
āI hope. I hope so. I use you guys to send a message to the team, so if thatās the message you got, I hope they got it on Wednesday. That make sense? It wasnāt like I was just trying to you all. I donāt really lie. I try to be an honest person, tell you like it is. I donāt always tell you everything you want to know, but sometimes.ā
Tonyās take: Maybe Alabama will learn from this. Maybe this is the wake-up call the Tide needed to start playing disciplined football for a full 60 minutes. However, weāre now entering Week 8. At some point, you begin to wonder if this is just who Alabama is going to be this season.
On pass protection and sacks
āWe made some mental errors. We donāt fan the first sack of the game. We fan it to the left, the left tackle doesnāt fan, guy runs in there unblocked and sacks the quarterback. A couple times today we got beat physically. I mean, their rusher just beat our guy. But we have to handle pressure better. I mean, we have to be able to handle pressure and stunts better. I mean, this was a big boundary-pressure team. Itās exactly what they did. When 28 sacked the quarterback the first play of the game, itās something we practiced a lot and get in the game. With experience, I think our guys will learn from every one of these things and hopefully be able to get it corrected.ā
Tonyās take: At this point, you have to expect that Alabama will give up at least four sacks a game. Iāll predict that against Tennessee next week, against LSUās below-average defense next month and against any other SEC team the Tide lines up against moving forward. The question is whether it will be more down to Milroe holding onto the ball too long or the offensive line leaving him out to dry.
While I felt the sacks against Texas A&M were more Milroeās fault, Iād blame the line more this week. Iāll have to go back a rewatch the game to get a better feel, but it seemed as though Kadyn Proctor and Elijah Pritchett really struggled to protect the left side.
On Will Reichard setting the SEC point record
āIām extremely happy for Will. Honestly, I donāt really keep up with those types of things, but really happy for him. He has been, probably, as good a player at his position ā even though heās a specialist ā as anybody that weāve ever had here. And heās even a better person. I think that he wanted to come back and try to improve his kickoffs so that he would have a better chance to be successful in the NFL, and I think this is one of the good things that name, image and likeness brings to players, that the guy didnāt have to be poor and not be able to earn money and be able to come back and do that as a college player as opposed to going to the draft, being a free agent possibly, not making a team and youāre out. So thatās one of the very good things, I think, about name, image and likeness and players having opportunities to have a better quality of life while theyāre in college because they can stay and enhance their career if they need to. And Will was smart enough to understand that that was something that could benefit him and his future.ā
Tonyās take: The next time you feel like complaining about NIL, remember that Will Reichard would likely be in the NFL without it. Reichard might have come back for another year in order to work on his kickoffs, but itās unlikely he would have done so for free. While NIL presents its fair share of problems, it did allow us to witness another season of the best kicker in Alabama history.
On the injury statuses of C.J. Dippre and Trezmen Marshall
āI donāt think theyāre bad hurt. One guyās got a pulled muscle. The other guyās got bruised ribs. I canāt tell you the extent of the injuries. I donāt even think we know that yet.ā
Tonyās take: Neither of these injuries seemed too severe, but Alabama wonāt want to be without either player for next weekās game against Tennessee. Weāll likely learn more about the statuses of Dippre and Marshall on Monday.
On how the defense did without Malachi Moore
āMalachiās a huge asset for us because heās the most experienced player in the interior to make calls and make adjustments. And I do think the guys played better having a week of preparation than what we did a week ago. It was tough when he went out because everybody hadnāt practiced enough at those positions to do the things we needed to do. But I thought both guys did a pretty good job today. We actually played Caleb (Downs) when they were in, what we call, silver people, which is 12 personnel ā two tights and two wides. We played Caleb at Star, a little bigger guy, a little more physical against the runs. And when we played against three wideouts or more, we played nickel where Terrion (Arnold) was the Star. I think Kristian Story stepped up and did a pretty good job out there. Trey (Amos) did a pretty good job for us. Those guys were able to take advantage of their opportunities. Weāre hopeful ā Malachi actually even went out and warmed up today. We werenāt going to play him in the game, but heās getting close. So hopefully, heāll continue to make progress.ā
Tonyās take: If Alabama was playing for a national title today, Moore would have been on the field. The senior defensive back suited up in full pads and took part in warmups but watched the game from the sideline.
With Moore out, Alabama moved Terrion Arnold to STAR and inserted Trey Amos at the cornerback position opposite of Kool-Aid McKinstry. For the most part, that worked out well. Alabama limited Jefferson to 150 yards and two touchdowns while allowing him to complete 14 of 24 passes.
That being said, I think Moore might have done a better job of wrapping up Jefferson than Arnold did when he allowed the quarterback to wrestle his way out of a sack in the fourth quarter.
Closing comments
āIt was a great homecoming crowd, with great enthusiasm. I think the enthusiasm the crowd showed at the end of the game was really helpful to the team, it affected them a little bit. We got a big sack that got us the ball back, and then we were able to take air out of it. Appreciate the crowd.ā
Tonyās take: A win is a win. Itās time to move on.
