Alabama DC Kirby Smart said Alabama ‘did not respect’ Cardale Jones

In about a month, Alabama will open fall camp for the 2015 season, but it’s still working through the mistakes of 2014.

Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart told Atlanta radio station 680 The Fan that he performed “exit interviews” with three departing defensive players — Landon Collins, Jarrick Williams and Nick Perry — and asked each what they felt went wrong in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Ohio State.

All stated they didn’t feel prepared for the Buckeyes and specifically third-string quarterback Cardale Jones.

“All three of them said they did not respect the quarterback, and our job as the coaches was to make them respect the quarterback,” Smart said via a Sporting News transcription. “Well, they heard from the media, they heard from ESPN, they heard from everybody that [Jones] was a third-string quarterback. How can a third-string quarterback beat Alabama? We didn’t promote him enough and they didn’t value his talents enough.”

Smart said while the staff knew Jones was a capable passer, they had no idea he had the ability to run the ball so well. Jones rushed for 43 yards and most were in an effort to escape the Alabama defensive pressure. He had a long run of 27 yards.

Smart acknowledged that despite leading 21-6, he never felt like his defense was in control of the game.

“See, everybody’s talking about the score, we were leading, but we weren’t leading,” Smart said. “We had not slowed them down. We had two red area stops, which were six points, we could have been 14. We had a turnover, we stripped a ball. We had not slowed them down, and I’m thinking this could be 21 but it’s six, 21-6, could be 21-21. And then they scored right before the half, which we thought was deadly. They had a good two-minute drive and scored, and I knew that we were in trouble.”

Smart said the loss weighed heavily on the coaching staff, so coach Nick Saban invited Tom Herman, who was the Ohio State offensive coordinator and is now the head coach at Houston, to explain to the coaching staff how the Buckeyes were able to rack up 537 yards of offense.

“You know us better than anybody. You spent four weeks getting ready for us. What’s our tendencies? What do we do wrong? What do you think?’” Smart said. “And he was honest with us, he just told us what he thought. It was very valuable for us.”

The ability to acknowledge shortcomings and seek out answers to rectify them is what has made Saban and Alabama so successful, and it will only make the team better in the future.

For more Alabama news, visit TideSports.com.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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