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Midseason form? Nick Saban bristles at question about linebacker depth chart
By Keith Farner
Published:
Alabama coach Nick Saban has a blue print for how he wants to manage spring practice versus fall camp and the regular season.
So when a reporter asked him how the Crimson Tide would manage their linebackers, and if Christian Harris may make a shift, similar to one that Dylan Moses made, from Will to Mike linebacker, Saban went on one of his patented rants.
“We’ll do both, he’ll play some Mike and some Will,” Saban said. “He’ll play some Mike and some money and some nickel. (Jaylen) Moody can play both. Shane Lee played the whole year here of Mike, he’s healthy now, he was not healthy last year. Coming off that sports hernia thing, he struggled all year long. So he’s done a lot better.”
This is when Saban explains how Alabama uses the spring to experiment with different players at different positions, and to cross-train them so they’re prepared for the season.
“So we’re going to go through the whole spring,” Saban said. “We do things differently in the spring. I know you guys want answers to all the questions. We play right and left safety, we play right and left outside backer, we play right and left inside backer. They got to be Mike, and Will. We’re trying to create diversity in players, not trying to give you an answer so you can write about who the starter is everywhere. We’ll figure out in the spring and next fall when we go into fall camp, OK, this is the best way for us to play. But if we don’t experiment and move all these guys around, but then the other good thing about that is, next year, you can get the next best guy in the game because he can play Mike or Will.”
Finally, Saban complimented the reporter, and gave a clear explanation.
“It’s a really good question,” he said, “but it’s not one that’s going to have an answer for a long time.”
Nick Saban won his 7th national championship just 66 days ago.
It only took one spring press conference to get him somewhat irritated at a roster question.
What a legend #GOAT pic.twitter.com/fOYgyxx4XL
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) March 19, 2021
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.