Nine FBS teams have not done in their entire seasons to date what Alabama did last week against South Carolina: commit 10 or more penalties.
The 11 penalties for 92 yards were a sticking point for UA football coach Nick Saban in his Monday news conference. UA went the entire 2017 and 2018 seasons without an 11-penalty game; the last time the Crimson Tide was hit with 90 or more penalty yards was in the 2018 season opener against Louisville.
“We shot ourselves in the foot on both sides of the ball, which really hurt,” Saban said. “A lot of these penalties that we got in this game were unforced errors, jumping offsides, things like that, critical situations. Not substituting correctly on defense. We cannot put ourselves in those positions. Third-and-10 is a whole lot different from third-and-5, so you get an offsides or whatever and they hit a big play because you’re playing different types of coverages.”
Alabama’s first penalty was its most costly: an illegal substitution penalty on third-and-3 that both gave South Carolina a first down and negated a Patrick Surtain II interception on the play. All told, Alabama’s penalties included three false starts, two holdings and one each of illegal substitution, encroachment, facemark, roughing the passer, offsides and targeting against freshman defensive lineman Christian Barmore. He will miss the first half of Saturday’s game against Southern Miss for it.
Day off
UA did not have its usual Monday practice, thus no media viewing period on which to report. The team may have gone through a light walkthrough, but that would be the extent of Monday’s on-field activity, if any at all.
Reach Brett Hudson at 205-722-0196 or bhudson@tuscaloosanews.com or via Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
