Here's what Alabama football coach Nick Saban said breaks his heart
There was no lack of criticism for Alabama football and the direction of the program when the Crimson Tide lost its second game of the 2022 season.
After Alabama dropped a game to LSU in overtime in early November, all kinds of concerns filled airwaves and TV time with the Crimson Tide all but eliminated from the College Football Playoff. Former Alabama players were part of that.
Former quarterback Greg McElroy said he was concerned for the future of Crimson Tide football for the first time during Nick Saban's tenure. Others such as Bo Scarbrough and Marquis Maze have also been vocal about this year's team.
Saban addressed the subject Thursday during his radio show before No. 8 Alabama (8-2) faces Austin Peay (7-3) on Saturday (11 a.m., SEC Network+) at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
"When former players come back to me, it hurts my heart ― I told the players this, so I’m not speaking out of school ― that anybody who has ever played here in this culture and on this team would think anybody on this team is not playing to that culture and that standard, that really breaks my heart," Saban said. "Because I’m responsible for that. I want all the players to feel the responsibility that goes with that in terms of who we are at Alabama, how we play, what we do and how we do things. We’re working on it."
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Saban said that Thursday, Scarbrough visited the team and put his finger on the table and said when Scarbrough played for UA, the players were making sure the other team said it never wanted to play Alabama again after the game was over. Scarbrough played for the Crimson Tide from 2015 through 2017.
“That’s the kind of culture we want to try to recreate," Saban said. "That’s something that got started a little bit last week. But it’s something we’ve tried to build all year long. We started the season that way, we kind of lost it, hopefully we can regain it and start rebuilding it for the future and the way we play. I don’t care who we’re playing against."
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Here's what Alabama football coach Nick Saban said hurts his heart
