Ryan Grubb wasn’t interested in joining the officiating debate after Alabama’s loss to Georgia.
That topic dominated conversations around the state and beyond after No. 6 Alabama’s 20-17 defeat to No. 1 Georgia on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, but the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator made it clear Monday he wasn’t going there.
“I know people want to talk about the refs and stuff, and I’m not here to talk about that,” Grubb said. “We had plenty of chances to win the game.”
Speaking publicly for the first time since Saturday, Grubb focused instead on what Alabama could have done better. He pointed to one sequence in particular: a missed pass interference call on a deep ball to Rico Scott, followed by a sack on Keelon Russell that knocked Alabama out of field-goal range.
From there, the Crimson Tide punted and never got the ball back.
“Pressure situation and it just, obviously can’t take a sack right there,” Grubb said. “There was a little bit of protection issue on the right side that should have been picked up a little bit better.
But sacks are a quarterback stat, Keelon knew where the hot read was at. He just needed to get the football out of his hand and he would tell you the same thing.
And for us, just, in that situation, there’s no way that that can happen. We gotta stop learning lessons on game day.”
Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer had offered a similar message Saturday night when asked about the no-call on the pass to Scott. He said officials “didn’t feel, I guess, it was pass interference.”
“We can’t put the game in that situation where the officials come into play,” DeBoer said. “And so, we just got to control the things we can control.”
Now Alabama turns the page quickly. The sixth-ranked Crimson Tide travels to face No.
14 Tennessee on Saturday at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
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The challenge is that Tennessee does not offer a gentle place to introduce unfamiliar pieces. Any increased workload for Rogers, Waldrep, Simmons or O'Neal would come in a difficult environment, where execution tends to matter as much as experience. Alabama does not need every backup to become a headline, but it may need one or two of these players to settle the game in ways that are not always obvious until the matchup starts to unfold. [Read more 🡒]