Nick Saban explodes at press conference over criticism of Alabama's staff size

Not a shocker that Nick Saban fired back at the critics.

It doesn't appear that Nick Saban is happy about the criticism of his staff at Alabama.

Saban has faced some recent criticism over the size of the Crimson Tide football staff, as Alabama's staff includes a number of interns and analysts in various roles. The most recent criticism came indirectly from Big 12 commissioner Todd Bowlsby, who had this to say when addressing the size of coaching staffs:

When asked about the rule change that will allow college football teams to have another official assistant coaching position, Saban went off on the idea that having more people on staff was somehow a bad idea.

"We have the fewest number of coaches relative to the number of players of any sport in college," Saban said. "To have a tenth coach really balances the staff better, so you can have a special teams coach and not have a position coach double up and do that."

"All these people that complain about staff sizes... I mean, we pay interns really, really little money," Saban said. "Very small amount of money. You would be shocked at how cheap the labor really is, it's almost criminal. And why we have administrators complaining about how many cheap labor people you have, trying to promote the profession, trying to do something to develop our game and the coaches in the game, because how else do you develop guys?"

Even Saban eventually acknowledged that he was in rant mode, mostly questioning why other coaches didn't take advantage of the rules already in place.

"I hate to go off on something, but I really don't get it, I don't," said Saban. "I guess it's the paranoia that we all have that somebody else is doing something that I am allowed to do and everyone else is allowed to do it but you choose not to do it."

As the top program for the past decade, Alabama and Saban are obviously going to be the target of criticism from people who have disagreements over the team's practices.

Of course, Saban has proven time and time again that he's not afraid to fire back at those criticizing him while he's acting within the confines of the rules, so it's not a surprise he did in this situation.

[H/T Saturday Down South]