Nick Saban not looking for suggestions on what kind of offense to run at Alabama
Alabama coach Nick Saban recently picked another fight with the media. Obviously, he knows the state of his offense better than reporters do.
With the departure of Lane Kiffin — followed by Steve Sarkisian — at offensive coordinator and the arrival of Brian Daboll, it was written repeatedly that the Crimson Tide might revert back to more of a traditional scheme.
Unlike former LSU coach Les Miles, who failed to evolve and seemingly let the game pass him by, Saban has been a master chameleon over the years. Even though he won a fistful of rings operating a throwback system offensively, he let Kiffin implement a 21st century approach to scoring points.
For the most part, the plan worked. At times last season, the offense was as explosive as the defense was airtight.
However, ‘Bama came up short — by just a few seconds, but short nonetheless — in the national championship game. Offensive misfirings were partially to blame for the defense being on the field for 99 snaps against Clemson.
Additionally, Saban and Kiffin was an oil-and-water situation. While they’ve done their best to say all the right things when asked about each other, it’s clear that their sideline spats were beyond heat-of-the-moment stuff. Daboll, on the other hand, was a graduate assistant under Saban back in his Michigan State days.
Daboll also spent the last 17 years in the NFL, which just chewed up and spit out a supposed spread-option mastermind like Chip Kelly.
As a result, it wasn’t much of a leap — I certainly made it — to suggest that Saban might get away from the spread and go back to the pro style. After all, Daboll (below) has worked with more pocket passers than dual threats.
Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
That being said, rising sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts is anything but a pocket passer. In that national title game, the limitations he has with his right arm (13-of-31 for 131 yards) were on display for everyone to see. When he was at his best, he was scrambling (10 carries for 63 yards) with reckless abandon.
Don’t forget, Hurts almost won it with an improvised 30-yard touchdown gallop at the 2:07 mark of the fourth quarter.
But it’s a championship-or-bust philosophy for the Tide. Coming out on the wrong end of a 35-31 final — even when a dominant undefeated run preceded it — meant a re-examination of the premier program in America.
Maybe it was time to dial it back a notch offensively. Perhaps slowing it down a bit would better protect the straw that stirs the drink in Tuscaloosa, which is Saban’s defense. Even if Hurts is the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year, he made his fair share of freshman mistakes with errant throws and fumbled exchanges.
Plus, Saban has always been an innovator. Adopting the spread felt less like innovation and more like desperation.
Nobody is going to tell Saban how to cook in his own kitchen, though. Certainly not the print, radio and television personalities he’s forced to put up with — his contempt for people in this line of work is palpable — on a daily basis.
No, as a matter of fact, he’s not going to play ball-control offense in 2017. “That’s not what we do,” Saban said last week, according to AL.com, before pointing out that the New England Patriots throw it more often than Alabama does. “Where does that assumption come from?” he asked, although it was a rhetorical question.
Apparently, all the media does is “create some $#!+ and throw it on the wall and see what sticks,” even if that’s never been in my job description.
Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Aside from the Daboll addition — again, he has few ties to the spread becoming borderline ubiquitous at the collegiate level — there is indeed evidence that Saban is doubling down on the no-huddle, hurry-up craze.
Saban added former Ole Miss offensive coordinator Dan Werner (above) to his staff as an offensive analyst, which is the same seemingly made-up title he gave Sarkisian. There isn’t a team in the SEC that has been less concerned with ball control than the Rebels, who have consistently eschewed the ground game in favor of aerial fireworks.
Mississippi has averaged 337.7 yards passing in its last three outings against ‘Bama, two of them upset victories. Don’t think Saban didn’t notice:
“Do I need to tell our fans or anybody on our staff the issues that we’ve had with their offense the last couple of years? I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for what they do, how they coach it. I think it’ll help us on offense and defense to have a guy around here that can add some knowledge and experience to the way they do RPOs, some of the things they did in the passing game. So I’ve always had a lot of respect for Dan, and we’re glad to have them here to help.”
On the other hand, Saban has also brought on former Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke as another offensive analyst. He was most recently quarterbacks coach of the Los Angeles Rams and used to train QBs for the NFL Draft at IMG Academy.
“We’ve always had a lot of respect for Chris Weinke. The guy was a great player. He played a long time in the league. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s very smart. He was a great high school coach at IMG. He went to the NFL and got a couple good years of experience in the NFL. So we thought he’d bring some knowledge and experience and certainty be helpful to us off the field and helping us with game plan.”
While the Werner hire implies more spread-style theatrics, the Weinke hire hints at more pro-style concepts. Ideally, they’ll bring the best of both worlds when it comes to getting the most out of Hurts as a field general. Yes, he needs to be more effective from the pocket. But to do so at the expense of his running would be foolish.
In the end, nobody knows what Saban will do on offense more than Saban himself. He’s not looking to the press box for suggestions, that’s for sure.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
