Nick Saban was surprisingly pleased on Saturday even though his Alabama Crimson Tide barely pulled out a win at Florida.
The Tide led 21-3 in the first quarter and 28-16 in the third quarter, but they allowed Florida back into the game and barely won 31-29. They had some issues with the play clock late in the game, and Saban says those moments played with his emotions.
When asked after the win by CBS’ Jamie Erdahl about those moments, Saban says quarterback Bryce Young nearly gave him a heart attack.
“Well, [Young] did a good job. But I also about had a heart attack a couple times when the shot clock was down to one,” Saban said. “He did do a great job. He managed the game well. One of the things that was an issue for us is we like to go and clap, and the center couldn’t hear the clap. So we had to go on silent. And when we went on silent, we got a couple penalties because we all weren’t on the same page. But for the most part, the guys did a pretty good job.”
Even though Saban’s blood pressure jumped during those tense moments, he was happy the team finished off the win. A stop on a two-point conversion attempt by Florida helped them hold the lead. Then their offense converted a key third down to allow them to kill the clock and essentially seal the win.
Even though they blew sizable leads, Saban is probably content to come away with a win at the Swamp. That’s not an easy place to play.
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