Nick Saban calls for uniformity on pass interference calls in college football

Pass interference became a big talking point during the course of Alabama’s loss to Tennessee over the weekend. Whether the feeling is that calls were missed or were misinterpreted, the through line is that work may still be necessary when it comes to that specific rule. After the defeat where a few of those calls arguably cost his team, Nick Saban wants to see exactly that.

Saban spoke about changes to pass interference during media on Monday. He said he wants to see dependability in the call and that an NFL take on the rule would really help college football.

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“Look, my big thing is just consistency. Call it the same for everybody. It’s hard to define exactly what you can and can’t do. So I would rather see that happen,” said Saban. “In the NFL, they define exactly what you could and couldn’t do. It’s a really, really difficult judgement call, but you knew exactly what you could and couldn’t do. I think that would be beneficial.”

The crew potentially missed at least one pass interference for Isaiah Bond. On the other end, though, Ja’Corey Brooks may have gotten a favorable call of his own in the end zone on what was a fourth down for the Tide. However, it was the final pass interference call that was a game-changer.

On fourth down with four minutes to go, Kool-Aid McKinstry picked off Hendon Hooker in the endzone. As it turns out, though, the referee threw a PI flag against Malachi Moore for his coverage versus Princeton Fant. It gave Tennessee a new set of downs and it led to Jalin Hyatt’s fifth and final touchdown of the game. It tied the game at 49 and set Tennessee up to kick the winning field goal at the buzzer after Alabama’s missed kick.

Saban wants to see change, but only to a degree. Uniformity is one thing but more reviews are too far considering the way it would affect the sport.

“I don’t know whether it should be a reviewable call or not. If we make everything reviewable, why would you call anything?,” said Saban.

Alabama can’t point solely to this handful of pass interference calls as the reason they lost Saturday. Still, it’s tough to argue the role they played over the course of the game on both sides. It’ll be used as evidence by Saban to attempt to make the changes he wants to see in how the sport is officiated moving forward.