re: Alabama Football Stuff (injury updates, quotes, etc.) - October 20th

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SABAN ON TARGETING CALL ON SDH

Sophomore linebacker Shaun Hamilton was flagged and disqualified from Saturday’s game at Texas A&M for targeting in the second quarter. Hamilton earned the penalty on an Alabama punt return and was forced to spend the remainder of the contest in the locker room. He will, however, be available to play against Tennessee this weekend.

On Monday, Saban provided his thoughts on the penalty and Hamilton’s demeanor on the play.

“You’ve got to see what you hit,” Saban said. “I don’t think he intentionally hit the guy helmet to helmet. He was playing with toughness and being aggressive, but I think especially an unprotected player in a situation like that, what we tell players, ‘You’ve got to see what you hit, and you have to lower your target.’ And all you can do is learn from it.

“It was not intentional. He’s not that kind of person. The guy has played well for us on special teams and he’s played well for us when he’s had to play and he’s a good person and I think that’s the lesson to be learned.”

Later in his noon CT press conference, Saban gave his opinion on the newly-added rule in college football.

“I think we should continue to have increased emphasis on player safety, and anything that we do that enhances player safety – which I think the new targeting rules have done,” Saban said. “They’re probably not perfect and I know there’s a lot of good people working on trying to improve them and will continue to do that.

“Look, I don’t want to see any of our players get hit in the head and I don’t want any of our players to hit somebody else’s player in the head. I think these are good rules and I think it makes us coach better in terms of trying to make guys aware of how they should block and how they should tackle for player safety.”

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