Saban Discusses Kiffin’s Claims
October 27th, 2009 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Tennessee
Nick Saban was asked by Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News what he thought about Lane Kiffin’s suggestion that teams like Alabama and Florida get all the calls from SEC officials.
(Once again, I point out that 3-4 Tennessee is the least penalized team in the SEC, which pretty much renders the idea of bad teams getting screwed moot.)
“To criticize somebody for their honesty and integrity in doing their job is really a pretty serious indictment, and if you’re going to do that, you need to have really pretty specific information,” Saban said. “I don’t see that (conspiracy) at all.”
Bama’s coach also pointed out that his team was flagged 10 times in both the South Carolina and Virginia Tech games.
“There’s been games where we’ve had 10 penalties called against us, and we didn’t say it was a conspiracy for somebody else. We didn’t play with discipline, and when we looked at the tape, most of the penalties were penalties. The ones that weren’t got corrected through proper channels with the league office. I think that’s the way we should try to do this.”
A few thoughts on this:
1) No coach or fanbase ever complains about cheating when their team is called for fewer penalties than their opponent. Tennessee has been flagged just 33 times through seven games, and not until Saturday were there any complaints about officiating from Kiffin.
2) For those wondering if the SEC will smack Saban around for talking about another coach, don’t hold your breath. Saban was asked about specific comments Kiffin had made and he addressed only those comments.
3) I find it interesting that Kiffin suggested in September that Urban Meyer had been whining — at least that’s how many Vol fans took it — when he bemoaned the sick players he had to use against Tennessee. Now, Kiffin is suggesting that the league is helping Alabama and Florida beat teams like his. I’m trying to figure out the difference in whines.
4) Mr. Scarbinsky believes the SEC should suspend Kiffin for his comments. I disagree. Kiffin had received a reprimand for talking about a fellow coach (and not knowing a rule) once before. He has now been reprimanded for talking about officials (and not knowing yet another rule). He has also been warned that future actions will bring stiffer penalties. With his “those letters don’t mean anything” comment (and yes, that’s a paraphrase), he was daring the SEC commissioner to do something. The commissioner surely will if Kiffin doesn’t stop violating league policies.
Even a Tennessee fan should realize that’s it not a smart move to challenge the authority of a commissioner who is regarded by many to be the most powerful man in sports.
5) It’s pretty clear at this point that letters of reprimand and public tsk-tsks aren’t doing the trick in terms of nixing public complaints about officials. If I were Slive and I believed the legitimacy of my league was being brought into question, I’d stop with the reprimands and start with the fines. It’s within his right to pop the next public cry baby with a hefty fine. $50,000 out of one’s pocket might start to get people’s attention.
And the one thing I’ve learned about millionaire coaches: You better believe they care about losing a single dime, much less thousands of dollars. There’s no one greedier than someone who’s already rich.
6) Finally, I’d like to send out a long distance dedication to all the SEC coaches this year. Bad officiating or not, I can’t remember a year with so much open moaning. So, coaches, this one’s for you.
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