Nick Saban jokes about texting Alabama players about gameday eclipse
Alabama football could be dealing with a fairly major distraction of the natural variety on Saturday. The Crimson Tide’s matchup with Arkansas is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
At approximately 12:05 p.m., a solar eclipse will take place. The sun will be obscured around 58% in Tuscaloosa according to a social media post by meteorologist James Spann.
On Wednesday, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked what he was doing to manage the distraction on Saturday. Saban made clear he was aware of the pending eclipse, but deflected with his answer.
“I think you have to prepare your team for every distraction,” Saban said. “I actually think we should — the best way to do that would be to text it to them, so they can read it on their phones. Sometimes they don’t listen, but if you text it to them, they’ll read it. That might be a new technique that we try. We’ll text them what they’re supposed to do on the field, they’ll probably get it then.”
Spann served as the media guest on Saban’s weekly radio show last week, where he first brought up the possibility of an eclipse. He noted in his social media posts that fans should not risk eye injury by looking directly at the sun during the event, unless wearing eclipse glasses.
Saturday’s game will be aired on ESPN.
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