Nick Saban openly wonders if Ole Miss knew his team's defensive signals
Did Ole Miss know what defensive plays Alabama was going to run on Saturday night?
Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban raised that possibility after Alabama’s 63-48 win. He praised Ole Miss’ offensive execution on a night where the teams combined to set an SEC record for most yards in a game and wondered if former assistant Lane Kiffin’s team had an idea of what Alabama was going to do on defense.
“It seems like everything we did they had an answer for,” Saban said. “I don’t know if they had our signals or what. But that’s not anything unusual. But it seemed like every time we called something they had the best play they could have against it and they had a really good plan. Lane is a really good coach. They have a good offensive team.”
As Saban notes, it’s not unusual for a team to have the others’ signals. That’s why teams change their signals up often. They know that opposing teams can pick them up from watching film. He’s not exactly choosing Ole Miss of cheating.
Kiffin tweeted Sunday that Ole Miss didn’t have Alabama’s signals either. And then he told his old boss and former employer to go win the national title.
FYI when u go as fast as we do we call our play first. Stealing signals wouldn’t help us at all because we are snapping the ball why they were still trying to just line up. #facts #ComeToTheSip @AlabamaFTBL go win the natty @OleMissFB https://t.co/6EvFe8PX4R
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) October 11, 2020
The win against Ole Miss ran Saban’s record against former assistants coaching opposing teams to 21-0. And if that record is going to get to 22-0, Alabama needs to be a lot better defensively. The No. 2 Crimson Tide play No. 3 Georgia on Saturday night in matchup of the only two unbeaten teams left in the SEC.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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