Via Saturday Down South:

“Any angst or any question that is directed negatively at Coach Saban, that is unfair at best,” Smith said on Wednesday’s “Marty and McGee,” “because, I can tell you, it’s okay to wonder ‘should Tua have been in the game?’ it’s not okay to persecute someone because Tua was in the game. This is gutting Saban. It’s gutting him. I’ve personally never seen him like this.”

That was probably the last time an Alabama player will successfully lobby to stay in a game under Nick Saban.

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