Nate Oats promises Alabama 'will not have a repeat' of loss to Ole Miss

Alabama is fresh off a massive win against Kentucky on the road, taking down a top-10 team. But the game still on the mind of Nate Oats is Ole Miss. A home loss last Tuesday, Oats is attempting to make sure Alabama does not put up another clunker at home against Vanderbilt.

Oats was late to his Monday press conference due to practice going late. He explained a message he gave to the team following the Ole Miss loss, preaching accountability. Now, Oats is putting into action what he has previously preached.

“Sorry about the delay,” Oats said. “Practice went a little long. We got to make sure we don’t have repeat of last week. So, we had to do it over again until we got it right. Took a few drills, few minutes longer than we planned. I told them, last week on my end, that I’m going to hold them a little more accountable and they’re seeing I’m serious about it.”

Just looking at the score, you can tell Alabama played its worst game of the season against Ole Miss. Only scoring 64 points is unlike an Oats team, with the previous season low being 72 against McNeese State. In all but three games, Alabama has been over 80 points.

A lot more than just scoring went wrong, though. Alabama committed 21 turnovers as the Ole Miss defense found a ton of success. Oats even questioned his team’s preparation and called them out postgame.

“Like I told the whole team, you’ve got to earn the right to play well,” Oats said. “Are you spending enough time in the gym working on your game outside of practice? Or are we having to beg you to get into the gym? Some of these guys have got to get in the gym and work on their game.

“We’re not going to practice them for three hours a day at this point of the season… You got to deserve to play well. I’m not sure, right now, everyone on our team deserves to play well.”

Beating Kentucky was a nice bounceback for Alabama. Oats is attempting to make sure there is no complacency in the locker room with an unranked Vanderbilt coming to town. After all, the Commodores are off an upset win against Tennessee.

However, this is a season-long declaration from Oats. Perfection in the SEC was going to be near impossible but if there is another loss for Alabama, it will not be due to the issues that plagued them against Ole Miss.