Alabama football has to clean up its penalty struggles moving forward, and Nick Saban believes it starts at practice.
“I think you have to do it in practice,” Saban said Monday during his press conference. “I think you create all these habits in practice. I think we have to make players more accountable in practice for during things correctly, paying attention to details and during the little things right. We can not go hang them up for doing this. They are our players. We need to get them to understand what they need to do not to allow these things to happen and understand the consequences of what happen when you do it. If you continue to do it consistently, maybe we need to play somebody else. There is always a little fear that goes with respect. Respect and what it takes to win, you also should know my job could be in jeopardy if I do not respect the things I need to do to win.”
Alabama football set a record by committing 17 penalties for 156 yards against Tennessee. The Crimson Tide are the most penalized team in the FBS with 66 total penalties this season. Alabama is averaging 79.86 yards a game in penalties.
Saban stated he feels penalties like holding and pass interference are easier to live with then pre-snap penalties.
“Too many undisciplined pre-snap penalties, false starts on offense,” Saban said. “I think we had three in the game and two of them, where guys that, they are looking at the ball. They are not even thinking about the clap or the snap count. Jumping offsides on defense, had a couple of those. Those are the type of penalties that are undisciplined, not focused, not looking at what you suppose to look at, so that we do not have those issues. They all put you behind the eight ball.”
Alabama football will look to correct its penalty issues against Mississippi State Saturday.
