Nick Saban Reveals One Thing His DBs are Never Allowed to Do
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — When it comes to playing defensive back at Alabama, there's one rule from head coach Nick Saban that all players are meant to abide by:
No hand-clapping after bad plays.
Speaking on the latest episode of Hey Coach, Saban revealed that he doesn't allow his defensive backs to clap their hands together in disappointment after a bad play.
"I won't let our guys hand clap," Saban said. "Everybody know what I mean by hand clap? Guy messes up and goes like that [slaps his hands together in disappointment]. Like, 'Oh man I messed up.' You're telling the other team you messed up, so how's that helping you play better? I will not let our defensive backs come out and hand clap.
"If you want to get your butt chewed out, that's a good way to do it. It's to hand clap like 'I messed up.'"
While the Crimson Tide's defensive backs are still being shuffled around due to injuries and other factors, the unit has still surrendered just 440 passing yards — good enough for eighth in the country — and no touchdowns through three games. That's an average of just 146.7 passing yards from opponents per game.
Saban said that when his defensive backs make bad plays, he's sure to tell them that making mistakes is just a part of the position.
"Well, I basically tell them all that 'Look guys, there's nobody that's ever played this position that hadn't gotten beat,'" Saban said. "Everybody gets beat playing in the secondary. The best guys just get beat lesser amounts.
"But the critical factor is how are you going to play the next play? You can't get affected at any position in any sport on what happened on the last play. You can't do anything about the last play. All you can do is learn what you did wrong and try to do it better on the next play."
Alabama gave up a pass of 46 yards and one of 42 yards against Texas. However, outside of those two completions no other pass has gone for further than 30 yards against the Crimson Tide this season.
Saban said that the ability to not let the previous play affect a player is a primary factor that he looks for in defensive backs.
"The number one thing that defensive backs [have] got to be able to do, they've got to have resiliency so they can play the next play," Saban said. "I don't care if they miss a tackle, I don't care if they get beat, I don't care if they give up a pass. [...] Multiples of bad plays are what make the good players and the bad players and how consistently can you play."
