Angry with small crowd, Nick Saban says Alabama students not 'entitled to anything'
There were noticeable gaps in the student section in Saturday's game with Louisiana-Lafayette and Nick Saban noticed.
Speaking at his regular Wednesday news conference in response to fans' reaction to Tua Tagovailoa, Saban took an opportunity to address the empty seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Saban said he was disappointed in what he saw and they were looking into ways to address that.
"I don't think they're entitled to anything either," Saban said. "Me personally, I think it ought to be first come, first served. And if they don't want to come to the game, they don't have to come but I'm sure there's enough people out here who would like to come to the games and we'd like for them to come too because they support the players. So, I've never said anything about that before."
A few players posted their disappointment in the crowd on Twitter this week. Running back retweeted a photo of the empty student section saying it "makes me sad." Long snapper Thomas Fletcher retweeted a video of Penn State's wild student section Saturday night against Ohio State saying "Must be nice to have people come to your home games."
Saban didn't say how it was going to be addressed but was clearly unhappy with it.
"When I first came here, they used to play that Tradition thing (video) up there and everybody was cheering and excited and happy and there was great spirit," Saban said. "Now, they don't even cheer. They introduce our players and nobody even cheers. So, I don't know. Maybe there's something else somebody should talk about and maybe I shouldn't talk about it and maybe I already talked about more than I should. So, you can beat me up for that if you want."
The Louisiana-Lafayette game kicked off at 11 a.m. CT Saturday on Parents Weekend for students.
The official attendance was listed at just below capacity at 101,471, but that figure counts tickets sold and not the number of people who walk through the turnstiles.
"Look, our players work too hard and they deserve to have everything and people supporting them in every way and have tremendous spirit for what they've done," Saban said. "And they might not be able to continue to do it and we're going to work hard to continue that but there's a part of it that other people need to support them too. And there has to be a sprit that makes it special to play here because that's what makes it special to be here. And it that's not here, does it continue to be special to be here or not? That's the question everybody has to ask and I'm asking it right now."
"We've always had great people travel on the road with us and had great spirit on the road and we've got great fans, so I appreciate that. But to see half the student section not full, I've never seen that since I've been here before."
There were noticeable gaps in the student section in Saturday's game with Louisiana-Lafayette and Nick Saban noticed.
Speaking at his regular Wednesday news conference in response to fans' reaction to Tua Tagovailoa, Saban took an opportunity to address the empty seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Saban said he was disappointed in what he saw and they were looking into ways to address that.
"I don't think they're entitled to anything either," Saban said. "Me personally, I think it ought to be first come, first served. And if they don't want to come to the game, they don't have to come but I'm sure there's enough people out here who would like to come to the games and we'd like for them to come too because they support the players. So, I've never said anything about that before."
A few players posted their disappointment in the crowd on Twitter this week. Running back retweeted a photo of the empty student section saying it "makes me sad." Long snapper Thomas Fletcher retweeted a video of Penn State's wild student section Saturday night against Ohio State saying "Must be nice to have people come to your home games."
Saban didn't say how it was going to be addressed but was clearly unhappy with it.
"When I first came here, they used to play that Tradition thing (video) up there and everybody was cheering and excited and happy and there was great spirit," Saban said. "Now, they don't even cheer. They introduce our players and nobody even cheers. So, I don't know. Maybe there's something else somebody should talk about and maybe I shouldn't talk about it and maybe I already talked about more than I should. So, you can beat me up for that if you want."
The Louisiana-Lafayette game kicked off at 11 a.m. CT Saturday on Parents Weekend for students.
The official attendance was listed at just below capacity at 101,471, but that figure counts tickets sold and not the number of people who walk through the turnstiles.
"Look, our players work too hard and they deserve to have everything and people supporting them in every way and have tremendous spirit for what they've done," Saban said. "And they might not be able to continue to do it and we're going to work hard to continue that but there's a part of it that other people need to support them too. And there has to be a sprit that makes it special to play here because that's what makes it special to be here. And it that's not here, does it continue to be special to be here or not? That's the question everybody has to ask and I'm asking it right now."
"We've always had great people travel on the road with us and had great spirit on the road and we've got great fans, so I appreciate that. But to see half the student section not full, I've never seen that since I've been here before."
