What started as a typical Wednesday Nick Saban news conference took a turn a few moments in.

Just not how you’d expect.

With No. 3 Alabama set to host 11th-ranked Texas, there wasn’t a reporter-directed rant — rather the complete opposite. Saban turned and mentioned Bama Central reporter Austin Hannon by name and walked back a snippy response from Saturday’s postgame news conference.

Though not technically or legally an apology, Saban admitted his mistake.

“And Austin, look, you didn’t ask a bad question the other night,” Saban said after Wednesday’s practice. “I just didn’t answer it very well.”

The question came in the aftermath of Alabama’s 56-7 win over Middle Tennessee State in which quarterback Jalen Milroe shined. Hannon asked if the five-touchdown performance could help him moving forward as the Tide welcomes the Longhorns to town Saturday.

“So you asking me to speculate and answer a hypothetical question about how some guy’s going to perform in the future?” Saban responded Saturday night. “I don’t really know. I mean I love him. I think he’s doing well. I know he’s working hard trying to improve.”

He then reached for a prop.

“This is a Coke bottle, it’s not a crystal ball,” Saban said. “How do you think he’ll play? Do you have any idea?”

The terse response came the same week as a few commentators criticized Saban for “bullying” reporters doing their job. There was no mention of these critiques in Wednesday’s comments.

And it’s not the first time he’s used the football complex podium to reference heated postgame moments. Back in 2018, Saban apologized to ESPN’s Maria Taylor for his now viral “quit asking” rant after a season-opening win over Louisville.

“I need to learn a better way to respond to that and I pray every Sunday that I never get angry, Saban said the following Monday when asked about the tense moment. “But it was a time and circumstance thing for me. I was a little bit upset by the way we finished the game. The penalties that we had. The mental errors that we had. So it was totally my responsibility and we apologized for it.”

On Wednesday, Saban opted to answer the Saturday question the way he said he should have in the moment.

“When a guy plays well in the game,” Saban said, “at any position, it should help his confidence and it should help him perform better in the future. But I do think that every player has to understand that just because I played well, I still want to try to improve the few things that I could have done better.

“And I think if a person keeps that mindset, then they’re always improving, aight, because you’re never satisfied and you’re always trying to do better and you don’t let complacency creep into your game. And that certainly hasn’t happened with Jalen, so hopefully, the confidence that he gained in this game will certainly help him to continue to play better and better in the future. That’s what we hope for as coaches. That’s what we try to encourage him to do. And that should have been my answer the other night.”

Alabama and Texas kick off at 6 p.m. CT Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.