Over the last handful of years, Alabama has transformed its offense, and really its program, into more of a high-powered scoring team. Essentially, Nick Saban has brought the Crimson Tide into the 21st century with a more modernized passing attack.

CBS Sports football analyst Gary Danielson said on WJOX’s The Roundtable on Wednesday morning that he thinks Saban began believing in the idea of modernizing his offense when he saw how difficult a time his defense was having against more pass-oriented teams.

Danielson even pinpointed the exactly play — in the 2013 Iron Bowl — in which Saban may have began believing he needed to open things up on offense.

“I think the world changed with a Nick Marshall-Sammie Coates pass,” Danielson said. “When he (Marshall) came out there, is running the ball, looked like he was going to run through everybody, and he throws the pass to make that a football game at the end. I think right then, Nick Saban said, ‘If that’s the new rules, and that’s how we have to play defense, we’re going to have to put our guys in space as well.’

“At that point, he (Saban) said ‘The way of controlling the ball by short passing, playing power football, that will always be part of our program, but we’re going to have to get wider and faster and make the other defenses stress the way we’re stressing.'”

Leave it to Danielson to not only try to say the game in which one of the greatest football minds changed his philosophy, but the exact moment.

At least with Tua Tagovailoa behind center, Alabama has opened up its offense. The Crimson Tide has averaged 333.6 passing yards per game since the start of the 2018 season.