Saban visited Tulane locker room after upset bid fell short
September 08, 2008
There’s certainly nothing wrong with Alabama correcting its mistakes, dissecting the Tulane game and kicking itself in the tail for breakdowns.
But sometimes you have to give the other guy credit, too. Nothing wrong with tipping your cap to an opponent who carried the fight to you, particularly when they came up short.
Tulane didn’t earn a victory Saturday night, but it did earn Alabama’s respect.
“They were physical, their backs were physical. They came out hitting hard,” Alabama linebacker Cory Reamer said. “We kind of expected it. They had a longer time to prepare for us, so you knew they were going come out and bring a great game. And they did. You gotta give ‘em credit. They were a good team. Luckily, we walked away with a win.”
Running back Glen Coffee and offensive lineman Mike Johnson said the Green Wave disguised the blitzes in a way the Crimson Tide hadn’t seen.
“I think it was No. 93 (Logan Kelley) they brought a lot, from all over the place, coming from the left, coming from the right,” Johnson said. “They brought a lot of corner blitzes when we were adjusting to the linebackers, just kept us off balance.”
“They were real good,” Coffee said. “Usually, I know they sent a corner one time and usually ever since I have been in college when a team sent a corner, their safeties would rotate. This game the safeties didn’t rotate and that was the first time I had seen that. So they were well prepared.”
Tulane’s defensive effort was enough to earn a postgame visit from Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
“We made one of our rooms in the stadium available to them and fed them after the game,” Saban said Monday. “They couldn’t get back to their dorms until early the next morning. First of all they went through a tremendous sacrifice to even come here and play the game. They are away from their fellow students, friends, family; out of school for a week worrying about a weather situation that could impact them dramatically one way or the other.
“To me they must have prepared well because they played really well in game. They played with a lot of intensity and toughness in the game and I respect that in all competitors. I told them that I appreciated them for making a sacrifice to play the game and to make the sacrifice and play as well as they did was something that did not go unnoticed by us and that we held what they did in high esteem.
“I wished them well on the rest of their season and told their coaches they did a fantastic job of keeping their team together through the adversity that they had to face in preparation for the game.”
