Tony Mitchell was suspended from Alabama football after being arrested on a drug charge, for which he was sentenced to two years of probation. He reportedly tried to evade law enforcement by driving 141 miles per hour.

It could have been the end of the young defensive back’s career with the Crimson Tide. Instead, Nick Saban has given him a chance to return, a choice he explained from the podium at SEC Media Days on Wednesday.

“There’s a process that we try to go through when we can give players a second chance,” Saban said. “If players continue to make mistakes over and over and over and don’t seem to learn or make progress, they’ll lose the respect of their teammates and I think that when that occurs, then maybe it would be better if a guy was not involved in the program… That hasn’t happened with Tony Mitchell.”

Saban also explained why giving players second chances is important to him.

“Most of us in this room, including myself, did something in my life that probably wasn’t a great choice and a great decision,” he said. “We always want to try to create a path for players who have made a mistake to get a second chance but also to help educate on what they can learn from the poor decision or judgment that they actually made.

“And hopefully those things don’t affect other people. I think it’s much more serious when those things affect other people and so hopefully the penalties and the time missed and the education received are all going to be beneficial to the learning experience of this young man.”