Dallas Turner recalls getting in trouble with Nick Saban

Alabama EDGE Dallas Turner enters the 2023 season as one of the most menacing edge rushers not just in the SEC, but in all of college football. But he also plays for a pretty menacing coach in Nick Saban, whose known for his championship pedigree and stern leadership style.

Getting in trouble with Coach Saban sounds like far from a good time, and at SEC Media Days, Turner revealed one time he wasn’t on Saban’s good side that he’ll never forget.

“I mean I was never really a trouble guy, I never really got in trouble off the field and on the field,” Turner said. “But I would probably say my freshman year I got a flag one time for a face mask or something like that, and a coach has never chewed me out the way he chewed me out before.”

Penalties off of mental errors likely ranks high amongst the things that grind Saban’s gears, and being on the opposite side of getting chewed out by Saban does not sound like a full time. Which gave Turner an experience that he’s never had in his over a decade of playing the game of football.

“I’ve been playing football since I was five years old, I’ve never been chewed out like that before,” Turner said.

Turner still managed to earn Freshman All-America honors and make the All-SEC Freshman Team despite his one blunder that Saban was not a fan of, bursting onto the scene with 30 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, five quarterback hurries, and a fumble recovery as a freshman.

He followed that with another standout season as a sophomore with 37 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four sacks, nine QB hurries, and a recovered fumble for a touchdown.

Turner was a five-star recruit out of St. Thomas Aquinas high school, ranked the No. 2 EDGE in the nation and a top 10 player overall in the country in the 2021 class according to On3’s Industry Ranking. And so far he’s lived up to the hype, as the 6-foot-4, 245-pounder has the NFL Draft written all over him heading into his third season in Tuscaloosa.

More attention will be on Turner this upcoming season with two-time Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner Will Anderson not rushing off of the opposing edge. And it will definitely be interesting to see how he performs this upcoming season, as he looks to continue avoiding any more moments in Saban’s dog house in the process.