Nick Saban sends message to Alabama ahead of Tennessee

Nick Saban appeared to have sent a message to Kalen DeBoer and Alabama ahead of the Crimson Tide taking on Tennessee.

The Tide is 5-1 after falling to Georgia last week. Alabama is now set to take on Tennessee Saturday in Knoxville, and Saban feels the way the Tide has responded since losing to the Bulldogs is going to play a role in the 2026 edition of the Third Saturday in October.

“I think the biggest thing is how do you respond to a loss,” Saban said on ESPN’s College GameDay. “We had seven championships. Only two teams went undefeated. Five of those teams lost a game. But I could say this, they all responded the right way. And I think it’s important that coaches, when you have a negative consequence in your organization and there’s no teaching involved, you kill morale. So you have to be technical on how you teach and fix things so you get it right, so the players respond, have a sense of purpose in terms of how they want to finish the season. And I think a lot of these teams are going to be challenged with that, as well as the coaches.”

Alabama and Tennessee is set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on ABC.