During Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s final press conference of the week ahead of the team’s matchup with South Carolina, coach Saban took the opportunity to give an update of freshman defensive lineman Antonio Alfano.
Alfano has not participated all week at practice and in his press conference following the New Mexico State game, Saban planted the seed of what the reason might be.
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“He’s going through some discipline things with me,” said Saban. “If he does what he’s supposed to do– I’m not going to tell you what. But whether it’s academic, which that has something to do with it, and being responsible and accountable to do what he’s supposed to do like every other player on our team. So, we want to get him right, we want to help him, we want to help him do the right things. But he’s got to make those choices and decisions too.”
The freshman had also previously missed time during training camp earlier this fall for “personal reasons.”
Earlier in Saban’s press conference, he was asked for another update on Alfano and his response was less than encouraging.
“Not really. You know he’s kind of disappeared a little bit,” said Saban. “I talked to our team today about the fact that people make mistakes — we all make mistakes, I make mistakes, probably everybody in this room makes mistakes — we make mistakes as parents, we make mistakes as coaches, we make mistakes in just about everything we do.
“But I think you compound the problem when don’t confront those mistakes that you make and create greater consequences for yourself because of the choices and decisions that you make after you make this mistake. So hopefully this will be a learning experience for all the guys on our team.”
Alfano was a five-star recruit from the 2019 recruiting class according to Touchdown Alabama.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
