What Saban said about Alabama coordinators
Alabama football has reached the midway point of the regular season, and that means offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele have coached six games in their new roles.
Nick Saban was asked to evaluate their performance Monday to this point in the season as No. 10 Alabama (5-1, 3-0 SEC) gets ready to face Arkansas (2-4, 0-3) on Saturday (11 a.m., ESPN).
"I'm not going to publicly comment," Saban said. "We're happy with the coaches we have. We're always trying to get better. We're all working hard together to try to get better, try to figure out what's the best solution to help our team grow and develop, whether it's style of play, doing more things they're capable of doing, trying to minimize the negative plays. I'm pleased with the effort everyone is giving in trying to give input to fix those things. Everybody is responsible for a better way. If we have deficiencies as a team, that's kind of on me."
Rees and Steele joined the Crimson Tide coaching staff during the offseason. Steele is in his third stint working for Saban at Alabama. Steele had been Saban's first defensive coordinator when Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa. Rees took the offensive coordinator job this offseason after serving in the same role at Notre Dame, his alma mater.
Alabama has the No. 54 scoring offense in the country, averaging 31.2 points per game. Meanwhile, the defense is ranked No. 14 in scoring, allowing 15.17 points per game. Georgia is the only SEC defense ranked higher, surrendering 13 points per game.
The Crimson Tide defense is fresh off a fairly dominant performance vs. Texas A&M, limiting the Aggies to 20 points. On the offensive side, the running game couldn't get going against the Aggies, but Jalen Milroe had the best passing game of his collegiate career, throwing for 321 yards as he completed 21 of 33 passes for 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.