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First-year South Carolina coach Will Muschamp was a recent guest on radio on Birmingham radio. With the station being in the Yellowhammer State, it’s no surprise that Muschamp’s former boss, Alabama coach Nick Saban, came up as a topic.
Muschamp has experience coaching under Saban at LSU as the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator (2001-04), and with the Miami Dolphins as assistant head coach (’05). Since 2011, Muschamp has been back in the SEC as either a headcoach (Florida, 2011-14) or defensive coordinator (Auburn, ’15). In summary, he’s plenty familiar with Saban’s coaching as both a colleague and an adversary.
On JOX 94.5, Muschamp spoke about Saban’s ability to adapt to trends in college football.
“Back when I was at LSU with Nick Saban, we wanted to be a big, fast, physical team. Nick would not (emphasize) a smaller defensive end-type rusher like he has Tim Williams now,” Muschamp said. “You’ve got to have more speed on the field. You’ve got to give and take a little bit, take away the size and girth to have more speed on the field, more pass rushers, more guys who can play in space.
“It’s a space game right now. If you can’t play in space — you’re going to give up some size to have more speed on the field, because you’re not facing the direct runs anymore. You look in the SEC, LSU and Arkansas are traditional two-back teams. That’s out of the norm now. You’re getting ready for one-back teams. Gus (Malzahn) will create some two-back runs, but it’s a one-back game, a tempo game. You have to play fast and get on the ball.”
Tim Williams is listed as 6-foot-4, 237 pounds, and was particularly effective rushing the quarterback, notching 10.5 sacks for the Crimson Tide last season.
[H/T: Bama Online]
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
