Some of the Alabama Crimson Tide have hinted that Ole Miss may have had their defensive signals during Saturday’s shootout, and Nick Saban is trying to clarify his thoughts on the subject.
Saban raised some eyebrows when he mused about the Rebels possibly having Alabama’s signals, adding that it seemed as though “they had the best play that they could have” against anything the Tide called. On Monday, he clarified those remarks, blaming Alabama for doing a poor job of disguising its plays.
“I think what I was really speaking to was we were more like, I felt like we were always one play behind,” Saban said, via Charlie Potter of 247Sports. “When I say one play behind, I mean, sometimes when you play in the NFL against Joe Montana or somebody really good, you always feel like you’re one play behind because if you call this, they do the right thing against that. I think that was more what I was referring to, as if they knew what we were going to do.
“Some of that is our issue in terms of how we disguise things. They were going fast. We were struggling to get lined up. We didn’t do a very good job of disguising things.”
One member of Alabama’s team was more explicit when discussing what he thought was happening. The speculation was even more feverish considering Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is a former Saban assistant. Ultimately, it doesn’t appear Saban is interested in getting into a spat over this. In fact, he essentially downplayed signal-stealing as a possible explanation. As usual, it’s something his team needs to address, not anyone else.
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