Saban on final play: ‘The fact that it didn’t work made it a really bad call’

Alabama’s overtime loss to Michigan on Sunday night ended on a 4th and goal stop from the three yard line on which the play call was one which fans have debated since the moment it happened.

With Roydell Williams in the backfield to Jalen Milroe’s right and slight rear, Milroe motioned him left, took the low snap and tried to barrel up the middle where he was met by a Michigan brick wall.

Questions have been asked as to whether or not it was a run pass option, or if Milroe was supposed to follow the pulling right guard and cut back to the left — both of which are possibilities that could have been thrown off by the low snap by center Seth McLaughlin.

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Regardless of what the intention was, the play didn’t work, and of course Saban after the game was asked about the decision to call that play after timeouts were called by both teams:

"The fact that it didn't work made it a really bad call." – Nick Saban on the Jalen Milroe QB draw on the final play of Alabama's Rose Bowl loss to Michigan. #CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/UnNYJHiBrT

— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) January 2, 2024

“We called three plays. One they called timeout, one we called timeout, and the last one that didn’t work. So, the fact that it didn’t work made it a really bad call. You know what I mean?” Saban said, referring to the idea that, had it been executed properly, and worked, it would’ve been lauded as a top-notch call.

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“We called timeout because we had a bad look, we had a good look on the first one. They must have known that. But Tommy [Rees] just felt like the best thing we could do was have a quarterback run…but we didn’t get a block so it didn’t work. We didn’t execute it very well and it didn’t work. We thought we could gap them and block them and make it work, but it didn’t.”