Nick Saban addresses targeting no-call on Bryce Young, sends tape to SEC office

In arguably the biggest non-call of the season, Alabama fans screamed at their televisions when Bryce Young was thought to have taken a hit that looked like the clear-cut definition of roughing the passer, if not targeting.

Instead, the referees called upon to officiate the showdown between the Crimson Tide and Tennessee elected to keep their yellow laundry in their pockets. Indisputably, Nick Saban wasn’t happy with the decision, as he addressed it in his press conference while Alabama looks to move on from the loss.

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“No,” simply responded Saban, asked if he was given any kind of explanation on why a targeting call wasn’t made. “We turned the plays in. I’m sure the league office will look at it and make a determination. So, you know there’s two things that is an issue — at issue here, is targeting, but you’re also not supposed to hit the quarterback in the head.

“Last year against Texas A&M, Malachi [Moore] got thrown out of the game, guy was out of the pocket, jumped up to block the ball and ended up almost accidentally hitting him in the head, got ejected from the game. So there’s really two things that should be looked at.”

While Alabama had plenty of chances to defeat the Volunteers, one has to wonder how much the non-call changed a game that was won by literal inches. Regardless, Nick Saban and Alabama still have their destiny in front of them, and will be looking to get back on track next weekend against Mississippi State.

Nick Saban details what Alabama did wrong in loss vs Tennessee

Moreover, following Alabama’s 52-49 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, head coach Nick Saban opened his press conference with the laundry list of issues that led to the final result.

“I’ll kind of tell you what I told the team,” Saban said after the loss, “very disappointing loss, we didn’t answer the bell today. Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done. Way too many penalties did too many things to help them, gave up explosive plays, had a major error on special teams that was totally unnecessary that led to a score on their part.

“We didn’t execute well enough. Have to give our players credit for fighting back and having an opportunity to win at the end. Wish we could have done things a little different in the end. Play a little better, we played way too soft to let them go down the field 50 yards to get in field goal range.”

The Alabama secondary allowed one player, Jalin Hyatt, to score a program-record five touchdowns on six receptions. Saban shared how he felt the Vols exploited some key mismatches between the Tennessee receivers and the Tide safeties. 

“I don’t think the no-huddle offense was the issue for us,” Saban told reporters. “I think it was covering their receivers and allowing way too many big plays. They created a lot of mismatches. We were trying to play nickel and they were trying to get their best receivers on the safeties.”

Alabama ultimately finished with more total yards than Tennessee (569 to 567 yards). However, Saban’s squad gave up 130 yards on 17 penalties. The penalty total was the most ever for a Crimson Tide team.