Nick Saban details the responsibility of his coordinators, shoulders overall blame

Alabama‘s latest overtime, upset loss to LSU is their second in three weeks, leaving Crimson Tide fans wondering what is going wrong in Tuscaloosa. Head coach Nick Saban was asked about the role of his coordinators in the team’s recent struggles, starting with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

“Look there’s things that we need to do better in every part of our organization, I’m not gonna analyze someone publicly good, bad, or indifferent. We’re all working hard together, we’re all responsible for what we do,” Saban said. “Do we need to play better on both sides of the ball? Absolutely.”

Saban was quick to deflect any blame on O’Brien or anyone else individually, and spoke on how the responsibility is shared between both the coaches and players.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“We’ve got to play better up front and we have to make less mistakes overall organizationally, and there’s not a coach or a player in this organization that can’t do things better to help our players have a better chance to be successful. And I think that players themselves also have to be accountable and go out there and do things they’re supposed to do especially in critical times in the game,” Saban said.

Saban even went as far to take a majority of the blame for the Crimson Tide’s struggles, pulling back the curtain on his responsibilities as a head coach regarding the coaching chain of command.

“I hear every play that’s called, I hear every defense that’s called, and I have the right to veto any one of those things. So do I think coordinators are in an important position of leadership and have a huge impact in preparation for a game?” Saban asked. “I don’t think there’s any question about that, I don’t think anybody would question that. But ultimately, the responsibility for what happens on the field comes down to me, because I have the right when we’re planning to say we need to do more of this or we need to do more of that.”

It sounds like Saban’s hands are on every decision made on Saturdays for Alabama, and despite their recent losing skid, those are good hands to be in, as he is still one of the winningest head coaches in college football history. Hopefully for Alabama, their assistants, players, and staff can pick up the slack under the leadership of Saban and finish their last three crucial games of the season strong.

“And also have the right to say we’re doing too much, we’re not doing enough, we’re not taking advantage of this, is this too complicated for the players, so that’s all on me,” Saban explained. “Now are we all responsible to some degree? I think anybody in a leadership role in the organization is responsible, and everybody has to be responsible and accountable for their role and I’ve kind of defined those roles, but the ultimate responsibility is with whoever’s in charge.”