Is Tough Love Still Love?
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

Alabama head coach Nick Saban may be 71 years old but no one can say that he has lost that fire for coaching and it was shown last week as a young Alabama player made a minor mistake that set him off!

Terrion Arnold was walking off of the field like nothing was happening when he saw that he was being approached by the National Championship winning coach and the next thing he knew he was being bombarded with a slew of cuss words!

Many times after a tongue lashing like this, people tend to get more upset at the words you use yet they don’t tend to want to pay attention to what was actually said and I really appreciate this young man for seeing deeper!

Alabama football: Terrion Arnold explains how to survive a Nick Saban butt-chewing

Terrion Arnold saw Alabama football head coach Nick Saban coming. It was the second quarter of the Crimson Tide’s win at Mississippi State Saturday and the Bulldogs had just scored to pull within one touchdown.

“Dang boy, he looks mad,” Arnold said he thought to himself as he jogged off the field. “He’s gonna give it to somebody.”

As it turned out, Arnold was about to be the unlucky recipient of a Saban butt chewing. As he got closer to the sideline, he made the unfortunate realization.

“I was like ‘Oh, oh, oh, it’s me,” Arnold said.

Saban had been hot on the sideline throughout the game. He gave an earful to multiple Alabama players and coaches throughout the game, which ended in a 40-17 win for the Tide.

The sideline behavior is nothing new for Saban. He’s been animated when yelling at players from the start of his head coaching career.

On Tuesday, running back Jase McClellan recalled his most memorable chewing-out by Saban. As a freshman, he misjudged a kickoff and dropped it while on the return team.

“He told me to, ‘Kiss his… something,’” McClellan said. “That’s one of my favorite things he’s said.”

In Arnold’s case, Saban was mad that Arnold hadn’t properly timed his blitz on the motion, resulting in the touchdown.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Arnold recalled Saban saying.

The redshirt sophomore was on the wrong end of a berating until his coach stepped away to deal with other issues. On Tuesday, he explained the key to making it through moments where Saban gets smoking mad on the sideline.

According to Arnold, players have to ask questions and learn, even when Saban is at his loudest and most blustery.

“You just have to not hear how he’s saying it, but you have to hear what he’s saying,” Arnold said. “It’s another thing when you look at it as far as never knowing when the camera’s on you and being coachable. And I feel like the relationship that I have with him, he knows that I can take coaching like that, and it’s hard coaching. And when you choose to come here, you never know when he could chew you out. Like people always say, you should be worried when he’s not saying something.”