ARKANSAS PLAYER COMFORTED BY SABAN OVER FATHER’S LOSS

Arkansas center Frank Ragnow lost his father last weekend to a heart attack after playing Alcorn State. His status against Alabama was questionable all week, according to Arkansas head coach Brett Bielema, but Ragnow did start and play against the Tide on Saturday.

When the clock hit 0:00, Saban found Bielema at midfield to shake hands, as he does with every head coach after each game. Then he did his network TV interview, also on schedule. After that, he usually heads to the locker room to talk to his team, but Saban broke his post-game routine to seek out No. 72 for the Razorbacks.

WVUA 23’s camera was the only one around when Saban jogged over to Ragnow to offer these words: ” I just wanted to give my condolences to you and your family. I lost my dad my first year out of college. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and God bless you and make sure you pass that along.”

In his post-game news conference, we asked Saban how important it was to seek out Ragnow and offer those words of encouragement.

Saban said: “I lost my father when I was in the first year of graduate school. He’s a fine young man and a great player. For him to have to go through that, our thoughts and prayers are with his family. I just wanted to tell him that, try to encourage him to some kind of way embrace the good memories and good times that he had with his father because that’ll be something that he can keep with him forever.”