Nick Saban had a chance to comment for the first time Friday about his former player Malachi Moore’s outburst late against Vanderbilt.

Saban joined “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday for an appearance from Eugene, Oregon, and was asked about Moore’s actions late in the game against the Commodores; Saban coached Moore for four seasons.

“Malachi Moore is a great young man,” Saban said. “He’s going to be very successful in life. This was totally uncharacteristic for him. I think this is an example of when you get frustrated and you get emotional, you make bad choices and decisions and do things you normally wouldn’t do from a character standpoint. I think that was obviously what happened. I know he was very sorry for the way he represented himself, his family, his team, the university and all that. The thing about it is, you can’t take those things back.”

Moore has since apologized for his actions publicly as well as reaching out to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. In the final minutes of the game, Moore shoved Pavia after a hit. In other moments, Moore also chucked his mouth piece, kicked the football and appeared to refuse to leave the game when the coaching staff tried to sub in Bray Hubbard for him.

“I just want to apologize again to my family and teammates,” Moore said after practice Tuesday. “The way I acted out of frustration, we put in some much work throughout the summer time. I look at my teammates. I see D-Law and I think about all the times we’ve been outside running gassers. I look at Que Robinson and (Jah-Marien Latham), Tim Smith, guys who’ve been here five years and put in all that work. For us to go out there and not play up to our standard frustrated me, but I take full accountability for that. Letting my actions get the best of me. It won’t happen again.”

Next, No. 7 Alabama faces South Carolina on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Moore will not be suspended for the game, per coach Kalen DeBoer.

“He has had my and our back since day 1,” DeBoer said. “There comes a point too where sometimes as things play out, you’ve got to have your guy’s back as well and understand we all make mistakes and we all have just got to own up to it.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.