Tide Players Let Feelings Be Known After Game

TUSCALOOSA — It was a long walk from the sideline to the locker room for the Alabama Crimson Tide following Saturday’s 17-12 loss at Mississippi State.



The frustration level after falling to the Bulldogs for a second straight year — without crossing the goal line — didn’t subside in that distance. In fact, things reached a boiling point.



Several players vented their frustrations after the game.



Some felt it was constructive because it didn’t get personal. But it was the first hint of discord in the Alabama locker room this season.



Senior defensive end Wallace Gilberry said he was one of the frustrated players voicing his opinion. He called it “just guys blowing off steam.”



“That’s not something you can hold in,” Gilberry said. “If you do, I believe it will tear you down.”

Gilberry said he didn’t give a speech.



“There was nothing I stood up and said to anybody. That’s not something that I do,” the defensive lineman said. “A couple of outbursts, but it wasn’t nothing where it affected anybody beside me. I don’t condone that, not in the least.”



He said emphatically that what he said was not finger pointing.



“There’s definitely no need for that,” Gilberry said. “If you point one finger, there’s 2, 6, 7, 8 pointing right back at you. We’re all men and we all take full responsibility of our position and what we do. We uphold all standards on the offense and defense. We’re a team. We let the outsiders point the fingers and we just take the blame for it.”



He described the postgame rant session:



“You had guys probably sitting back thinking of something they could have done better than what they did. It wasn’t guys just sitting up giving sermons or anything like that. If it was, it was after I left.”



Quarterback John Parker Wilson, who threw an interception that was returned 100 yards for a touchdown and another that set up State’s second touchdown, understood the frustration.



“It was pretty tough,” he said of the locker room. “To play the way we did was not good. To play the way our defense played — they didn’t give up much at all — it was tough. ... There was a bunch of stuff said. We just have to bounce back and be ready for next week.”



Wilson said head coach Nick Saban wasn’t in the locker room when the players aired their frustration.



“Nobody gets up and talks after the game except for coach,” he said.



Linebacker Darren Mustin, who said his mistake on third-and-10 allowed the Bulldogs to convert a key first down late in the game, hesitated when asked about the locker room scene.

“It was pretty heated in the locker room. I’m not gonna repeat what was said,” Mustin said. “We gotta learn from what we did. But all the way back I just listened to my music. I turned my music as loud as I could so I couldn’t hear anybody talking and I just went to sleep.”



Saban said Alabama must play together in what he called a “two-game season.”



“You win or lose as a team, but every individual executing is what helps you win,” the coach said. “I think that is what we need to focus on. As a team, we need to move forward, we don’t need to look in the rear view mirror, we watched the film this morning and we learn and improve from our mistakes.”



Wilson’s terrible pick-six interception that turned momentum just before halftime was too huge to ignore.



“I think some things are obvious and to not acknowledge the obvious would be ridiculous,” Saban said. “There are some things that happened in the game that don’t need to happen and can’t continue to happen. This organization can’t tolerate bad judgments. ... We can’t give it away.”