Glimpse at strategy? Will Muschamp says former Nick Saban assistants must be aggressive to beat Alabama
The stat that gets repeated every time Nick Saban faces a former assistant is that he’s currently 16-0 against those head coaches at their new schools. South Carolina’s Will Muschamp gets his third chance on Saturday before a spirited Williams-Brice Stadium crowd and a nationally-televised audience on CBS.
Muschamp said it’s not just that Alabama typically has better players, it’s that they don’t often make mistakes.
“You have to go beat Alabama,” Muschamp said. “They are not going to beat themselves. They’re well coached, they’ve got good players. But you’ve got to go beat Alabama. You got to have to have an aggressive mindset when you go into the ball game. You’ve got to do the simple things really well in the game and you can’t start trying to play out of what you normally do. At the end of the game, there’s going to be 4 to 6 plays that determine the outcome of the game.”
Since the summer, Muschamp has consistently said that the game is a “great opportunity for our football team,” and he reiterated that stance again on Tuesday.
Muschamp first faced Saban and Alabama as Florida’s coach in 2011, a 38-10 Crimson Tide victory in Gainesville when Florida QB John Brantley went down with an injury. Muschamp and the Gators lost again in 2014, 42-21.