Nick Saban ‘shocked’ by Tua Tagovailoa’s postgame comments, ‘proud’ of his apology

Following Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers that dropped the team to 1-5, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa used his post-game press conference to send a message to teammates whom he felt weren’t stepping up.

Whatever his intention, the very public dressing down of unnamed teammates didn’t sit well with his head coach, Mike McDaniel, who later said it was “not the forum” for that.

Another head coach who was taken aback by the quarterback’s comments was his college one, Nick Saban.

Saban, who was Tagovailoa’s head coach at Alabama, discussed the drama during his usual Friday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. The College GameDay analyst said he was “shocked” with how Tagovailoa called out some of his teammates like that.

“I was really shocked that Tua did what he did when he threw some guys under the bus,” Saban said. “Maybe they’re not playing the way they should play. I’m not taking up for the guys, but you don’t say that about your teammate. But I really was proud of the way he came back and sort of took accountability for making a mistake.”

“I’m proud of the way Tua handled that situation but I was really shocked that he did what he did..

You don’t say that about your teammates but I was really proud of the way he took accountability for a mistake” ~ Coach Saban #PMSlive pic.twitter.com/zPpMSkyknw

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 17, 2025

A few days later, the Dolphins quarterback apologized for his comments, something that made Saban “proud” to see.

“I am proud of the way he handled it, but one of the things I always try to tell our players is you never criticize another player. My entire coaching career, you never saw me criticize one of our players,” Saban said. “I think everybody’s gotta take responsibility for what they can control. If you start worrying about things that you can’t control, that’s gonna start affecting things that you can control.”

It’s evident that there are numerous issues behind the scenes for the Dolphins right now, but whatever Tagovailoa was hoping to accomplish with his press conference clearly didn’t work. Now he’s got an even bigger mess to clean up if Miami wants to salvage their season (and McDaniel’s job).