Not much went wrong during Alabama’s 55-17 victory over LSU on Saturday. However, the Crimson Tide’s trip to Baton Rouge didn’t come without complications.
A week after playing without Nick Saban on the sideline, Alabama was missing four of its assistant coaches Saturday as Karl Scott (cornerbacks), Freddie Roach (defensive line), Sal Sunseri (outside linebackers) and Holmon Wiggins (receivers) didn’t travel with the team.
While the reason behind the coaches’ absence was not revealed, Saban stated that the team knew Thursday that its staff would be short-handed and made adaptations to compensate. Among the changes, defensive analysts Charlie Strong and Nick Perry were promoted to on-field roles.
“It was a big challenge,” Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses said, “but we have really great assistants.”
While Alabama’s makeshift staff performed adequately Saturday night, the Tide experienced some added adversity before arriving at Tiger Stadium. According to Saban, the team’s hotel suffered a power outage that forced players and staff to make their final preparations in the dark. The head coach said the outage occurred as the team was heading into its religious service and lasted through the pregame meal.
Although even that wasn’t enough to deter the Tide en route to a blowout victory later in the night.
“You know, stuff happens, and everybody just keeps on keeping on because a lot of things happen,” Saban said. “I mean, I was out last week, we had coaches out this week, but our players just stayed focused. I think when you have good culture on your team and you establish that culture with your team, they can adapt and adjust to things that don’t go exactly like they expect it to. We certainly had a lot of opportunity to learn how to do that this season.
Saturday’s setbacks paled in comparison to last week when the Tide was forced to make do without Saban after the head coach tested positive for COVID-19. After being cleared to return to his team late this week, Saban said it didn’t take him long to get back into the fold.
“It’s funny. It was a really tough adaptation to stay home and do everything from home, and then I felt actually sort of out of place going to work,” Saban said. “But it didn’t take long. I mean, it was about 15 minutes and I fit right back in. Miss Terry wasn’t on me anymore, and I was able to get on other people in the office. It was good, and it was great to be back with the players.
“I really appreciate the fact that several players were happy to see me back. It was good, it was all good.”
Alabama gets its revenge
Heading into its matchup against LSU, Alabama did its best to downplay any sense of revenge stemming from last year’s defeat to the Tigers. However, even before the first whistle blew, it was obvious this one meant a little bit more for the Tide.
