Nick Saban 'not concerned' about issues with Catapult game footage
Friday evening, news broke that Catapult — a service that provides game film to teams across college football — was looking into a potential data breach. The company said local authorities were involved, and that came after players from Alabama and Michigan said they weren’t using iPads to review film.
Just two days before the Rose Bowl, Nick Saban was asked about when he knew about any issues with Catapult. He kept his focus on the game and downplayed the situation during his Saturday press conference.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Saban said. “Our players have had every opportunity to get ready for this game just like any other game. It’s not an issue that I’m concerned about or that our players are concerned about or is worth discussing here 48 hours before the game.”
Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel reported the investigation isn’t centered on Michigan — which is at the center of its own investigation — but rather one other unnamed school. Catapult is widely used by teams across college football to analyze film from games and practices.
In a statement to On3 Friday night, Catapult said it didn’t find a security breach as part of its internal inquiry to the situation.
“We are aware of the ongoing investigation of the alleged unauthorized access to NCAA football video footage,” the company said. “We have conducted an internal investigation and have not found any security breach in our systems.
“We have shared this with local authorities that are conducting an investigation. We will continue to support the ongoing investigation with the NCAA and local authorities. At Catapult, we hold ourselves to the highest of standards and safeguarding customer information is of utmost importance to us.”
Multiple players from Michigan and Alabama said they weren’t watching film on iPads and, instead, keeping things in-house. That includes Isaiah Bond, who was among the first to confirm the decision, and his impression was it was related to the Michigan situation. That was not the case, and Wolverines offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore said he just heard about the situation Friday.
“Just caught wind of things that could be going on, and just told our kids, I think it was early November, hey, we’re not watching stuff on the iPads anymore,” Moore said Friday. “Watch it in-house and handle it that way.”
As for whether it was a CFP-related decision, Moore said it was a team call to stop watching film on iPads.
“It’s something we decided from our own perspective that people heard some things and we wanted to make sure that we were safe on our end,” Moore said.