Alabama's egregiously fake injury at Tennessee is sure to draw Nick Saban's ire

It was just a week ago that former Alabama coach Nick Saban was on ESPN complaining about flopping in college football, with the seven-time national champion saying, “This is the integrity of the game. And there’s no player that flops in a game that doesn’t get a signal from the coach to do it — to slow the game down.”

On Saturday, in a big rivalry game, it was Saban’s former team that was the most egregious offender of the flopping that he hates so much.

As Tennessee was driving against the Crimson Tide in the third quarter, Alabama needed an excuse to make a substitution. Instead of burning a timeout, an assistant coach seemed to tell a player to fall down, even giving him a slight friendly push, and then signaled for the ref to acknowledge him and blow the whistle – which the ref did.

I mean, look at this:

What’s going on here? pic.twitter.com/k2uDdF7puz

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 19, 2024

Come on. This is ridiculous.

And Saban isn’t the only one who thinks so. ESPN’s Sean McDonough said this after King Mack took a dive:

“College football needs to do something about this. The fake injury thing is an epidemic. There’s no rule against it. There’s language in the rulebook about it being unethical.”