Nick Saban expecting Alabama to cut back on penalties in 2023

In 2022, Alabama ranked 122nd out of 131 FBS college football teams in penalties per game. They were being called on 8.3 penalties each week for an average of 68 yards per game and ultimately finished the season missing out on the College Football Playoff for the first time in three seasons.

Nick Saban is the first to admit the Crimson Tide had a penalty problem last season, and is doing his due diligence to put those issues to rest before the Tide’s new season begins.

“Eliminating penalties has been something affecting our whole team. We had way too many penalties last year, we had way too many one the line of scrimmage,” Saban said during Wednesday’s presser. “We got a lot of penalties on offense, a lot of pre-snap penalties. Those are kind of lackadaisical.

“We try to do things in practice to get guys to play with more discipline to watch the ball, to not jump offsides, to not have illegal formations. I want better communication from the quarterbacks to limit pre-snap penalties and I think we’ve made some progress in those areas.”

Saban revealed that he decided to set a system in place over the offseason in an effort to track penalties during every live session at practice. If one player in particular is assessed more than one penalty during a given practice, the entire position group is punished.

At the same time, he doesn’t want his players to lose confidence in the fact that they were called out in front of their peers. The opposite is intended, as he’s training his players to be more disciplined before the snap.

The main players on the Tide’s offensive line this season will be Elijah Pritchett, Kadyn Proctor, Seth McLaughlin, Darrian Dalcourt and Tyler Booker, who all figure to be at the forefront of the improved Crimson Tide effort in the trenches. The OL always takes the blow when it comes to penalties, as pre-snap flinches and holding calls are avoidable for the most part, and after a poor showing as a group in 2022 — more is expected of them heading into the new season.

Alabama will put their offensive line to the test when their 2023 campaign kicks off on Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee State. Although, their first real test comes the following week when they host Quinn Ewers and the soon-to-be SEC-bound Texas Longhorns. Penalties could be the ultimate deciding factor for Alabama at the end of the day.