Saban’s bold move pays off with latest ’Bama title
They tried to play it off as just another halftime adjustment. Nick Saban called his quarterbacks together and told them he was going with Tua Tagovailoa in the third quarter.
“We needed a spark on offense,” Saban said, which was at once correct and also a complete understatement.
Likewise, when Alabama’s 26-23 overtime victory against Georgia was complete, it fell to a former disciple to distill the essence of his former coach’s gamble.
In a corridor outside the Alabama locker room, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher – Saban’s offensive coordinator all those years ago, back at LSU – smiled and shook his head in appreciation of the decision: Benching Jalen Hurts for a true freshman in the season’s most critical moment.
“It was a risk,” Fisher said. “But it wasn’t a risk. He had to do it to win the game.”
Well, yeah. It takes just a little deciphering, but exactly that. Saban had to do it to win the game. Which is why pulling Hurts for Tagovailoa takes its place alongside all of the other huge gambles that have sustained a dynasty. OK, alongside the other huge gamble. The list of dramatic, high-stakes decisions by Saban during this run of five national titles in nine seasons is short, mostly because his Alabama teams have rarely needed them. They’ve been better than everybody else.
But that wasn’t the case two years ago, when an onside kick changed the game against Clemson. Or Monday night, when Georgia looked the superior team until Saban, down by two touchdowns at halftime, changed quarterbacks.
Both decisions led directly to national championships – winning games in which Alabama might not have been the better team.
“I think coach Saban just realized he really had nothing to lose,” Alabama cornerback Anthony Averett said.
Or everything, given the standard. This was not a vintage Alabama team. Don’t misunderstand. The Crimson Tide hoisted the national championship trophy again, and it’s well-earned. But this team was not a juggernaut like some of its predecessors.
Especially offensively, it was limited, as seen during a difficult November stretch to finish the regular season. And when Georgia smothered the Crimson Tide in the first half, holding Bama to 94 total yards and four first downs on 24 plays, the inadequacies seemed to have been exposed.
Hurts was 3-for-8 passing for 21 yards. The score was only 13-0, but the margin felt much larger. Saban made the switch.
“It was an executive decision,” Hurts said afterward, “and it was a good one. National champions. You can’t say anything about that. National champions.” But if it hadn’t worked? “If you do it and you’re successful, you’re a hero,” said Alabama center Bradley Bozeman, a fifth-year senior. “But if you do it and you’re wrong, then shame on you.”
Consider: Hurts was 26-2 as a starter. He’s a wonderful running threat who won the job early last season, when he was a true freshman. And even though he had not progressed as a passer, he seemed destined to hold the job for a very long time.
Meanwhile, for all his evident talent, Tagovailoa had not encountered any critical moments. He had played in four SEC games. The smallest lead when he entered was 28 points.
Several players said they had confidence in the freshman because of what they’d seen in practices. More than that, though, they had confidence in Saban.
“We knew coach, he knows how to use us,” linebacker Terrell Lewis said. “He does stuff perfectly. He times stuff perfect. Just like two years ago, when we had that onside kick… He’s been in this game a long time. He knows what he’s doing. And we trust that.”
And while it was a personnel change rather than a play call, it resembled nothing so much as that onside kick, early in the fourth quarter of a tied game with Clemson two years ago. Saban understood that night the Tide was not going to stop Deshaun Watson.
“I felt like if we didn’t do something or take a chance to change the momentum of the game, that we wouldn’t have a chance to win,” Saban said that night.
It took longer to tell if pulling Hurts and playing Tagovailoa was a good move. It came along with a radical revision of the game plan. Alabama morphed from run-first, and Tagovailoa began flinging the football downfield – sometimes with abandon, but always with excitement. It was apparent he brought a completely different dimension the Tide had lacked. And if Alabama had fallen short Monday, if Tagovailoa’s lack of seasoning had been the deciding factor, you’d have wondered why he hadn’t played earlier, in other critical moments.
Instead, it was a perfect gamble. The freshman’s performance was uneven, but occasionally spectacular. The last two plays of the game encapsulated the risk of handing the season to a freshman – and then the incredible reward.
First, Tagovailoa took a terrible sack, losing 16 yards on first down, all the way back to the 41. But before the roar from Georgia fans sensing victory had faded, Tagovailoa was back at it, dropping back, looking downfield. He correctly diagnosed a safety shading too much toward the middle of the field and dropped a perfect pass to freshman receiver DeVonta Smith, streaking down the sidelines. Touchdown. Cue the confetti. Hoist the trophy. “That’s why he’s the G.O.A.T.,” Averett said of Saban. And outside the locker room, Fisher had essentially the same message:
“That’s the one thing about Nick,” the former assistant said. “People think of him as a defensive guy and conservative. He’s not. It’s whatever he has to do to win the game… He has a feel for the game and the momentum of things. He’s able to see things in a very wide view. He’s able to make those calls, and he’s not scared to make those calls.”
After that successful onside kick two years ago, the TV cameras caught Saban smiling on the sidelines. He couldn’t help himself. And Monday night, in the moments after Tagovailoa’s touchdown pass in overtime, he said: “I’ve never been happier in my life.” Perhaps there is a correlation.