The 2019-20 version of a Nick Saban led Alabama team has been a strange one to say the least. Not the fact that the team is number one in the country and is currently undefeated, blowing teams out left and right. But it is the issues the team faces which, in the past, have been the strengths of them.
For more than a decade Saban has built Alabama’s football program around a few key components.
Upperclassmen leadership, defense and discipline.
Recently these norms have been slowly fading away due to multiple players leaving for the draft and especially injury. Last season Alabama lost a total of 10 key pieces to their team to the NFL Draft and six of them left with extra years of eligibility left. In their own ways, this has poked some holes within this year’s team and with the injuries to Dylan Moses and Joshua McMillon the holes have expanded.
Even though the team has performed quite admirably in the light of the departures and injuries, the team’s discipline with penalties has been in question all season long. In fact, it has been a massive issue for the team and the numbers really show.
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On the year, Alabama averages 7.5 penalties per game which ranks 109 in the FBS and dead last in the SEC. They have been called for a grand total of 45 penalties on the season which ranks 105 in the FBS and second to last in the conference. In total the team has accumulated nearly 400 yards in penalties which is 102 in the FBS and yet again, last in the SEC.
“I think it’s a lack of discipline,” Saban said during his teleconference on Wednesday. “You can’t do what you feel like doing, you have to choose to do the right things and you gotta do it that way all the time, on and off the field.”
Particularly road games have not been kind to the Crimson Tide either. When traveling outside of Tuscaloosa their average jumps all the way up to an even 10 penalties per game which is nearly double the amount the 2018 team averaged on the road.
The team has also seen some uncharacteristic altercations as well. Landon Dickerson and DeVonta Smith have gotten into two notable scuffles this season. Although Dickerson’s was more on the opposing player than him, Smith’s retaliation to the punch against Texas A&M earned him an ejection and will also miss the first half of the team’s matchup with Tennessee.
It should also be noted that this will be Smith’s second suspension of the season for he missed the opening quarter of the Chick fil-A Kickoff against Duke along with Brian Robinson Jr, Najee Harris and Terrell Lewis for breaking team rules. To have to suspend a total of four high caliber players is not something that Saban is accustomed to doing here. Which has led to him drilling home a message about discipline all season long.
“Discipline is not something you get when you get on the field, you get it when you wake up in the morning,” Saban said. “Am I making the right choices and decisions, and you carry it on the field that way. Just like you don’t develop strength on the field, you develop it in the weight room, then you carry it to the field and it helps you be better. That’s something we need to do a better job of.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
