Nick Saban: Clemson used ‘copycat’ plays against Alabama

Nick Saban was surprisingly optimistic during his halftime interview despite his team trailing Clemson by 15 points during the National Championship Game on Monday.

Saban praised his offense for executing well, but said turnovers were killing them. He also said seemed confident that the defense could make some changes to stop the Tigers’ offense, noting that Clemson had run some “copycat” plays against them that they hadn’t prepared for.

“Defensively we’re going to have to play a lot better than what we’re playing. They’re doing some things that — copycat stuff that other people have done against us — that we hadn’t practiced against. So we’ll get it fixed at halftime,” Saban said in his halftime interview with ESPN’s Maria Taylor.

Saban’s ability to recognize and diagnose so quickly what happened is impressive, but not too surprising for the successful coach. What is surprising is that Alabama didn’t seem to have been prepared for what the Tigers were throwing at them.

The defense gave up 24 first-half points and surrendered 197 passing yards. Saban’s defense being unprepared for what Clemson was doing is uncharacteristic of him.