Nick Saban believes Alabama offensive line will rebound from rough performance against USF
Nick Saban made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, where he singled out the Alabama offensive line’s struggles against USF in Week 2, before stating his belief that they’ll bounce back over the next couple of weeks.
The Crimson Tide have been dealing with a myriad of injuries along their offensive line, and it led to a much closer game than anticipated against the Bulls last Saturday. Moving forward, Saban expects Alabama to be better for what they went through in Week 2, righting some of their wrongs in the process.
“I do think you constantly learn about your team, you constantly learn about your players, and players develop and players change, especially when so many young players are playing now,” Saban started. “There’s more young players playing now. I remember when I was at Ohio State, Woody Hayes made a statement — he wasn’t the coach, but he made a statement you know, back a few years earlier, ‘For every sophomore we start, we’re going to lose one game.’ Now, you’ve got these guys, 17, 18 years old, playing all of the time, everywhere.
“So, how many of them actually have the maturity to stay focused on the right stuff when the right stuff is needed, and they don’t get distracted by other things? So, these are all things that you learn about, old players, young players, right tackle, left tackle, and sometimes, there’s a reason for what happens, just like Alabama.
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“I’m not making excuses for them, but they don’t have either tackle playing in the game last week. You know, both starting tackles. They got exposed, and they moved their best guard to left tackle. He played okay. The right tackle had a hard time, and I think they get those guys back this week, maybe they learn something else about their team.”
While Saban believes Alabama will be better in Week 3 against Wisconsin than they were last weekend along the offensive line, the injury report isn’t exactly backing him up. Many Crimson Tide fans have hoped for Kadyn Proctor to return from injury on Saturday, but ESPN’s Pete Thamel dashed those hopes in his latest update.
He’s an important piece, as Proctor made 14 starts last season at left tackle for Alabama. He did so as a true freshman, after just being a Five-Star+ prospect, that earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors. After spending his spring elsewhere, he has since returned to Tuscaloosa with him now yet to make an appearance this season after the injury to his shoulder during fall camp.
At the least, Proctor’s status isn’t too complicated for the Crimson Tide. The question is when he does return rather than if he does return this fall for their offensive line.
He’ll certainly provide a much needed boost to the unit when he does. Until then, Nick Saban is expecting the Crimson Tide to not look so caught off guard in Week 3, as they look to get a road win against the Badgers.