Alabama aims for another fast start
Alabama has reached the point at which it begins every college football season under Nick Saban with a roughly 50-50 chance to win the national championship.
As for the Crimson Tide in neutral-site openers under Saban? That has been 100 percent perfection, with never a lingering doubt.
Alabama will play its ninth neutral-site opener of the Saban era when the No. 1 Crimson Tide face Bobby Petrino’s unranked Louisville Cardinals on Saturday night at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The Crimson Tide are 8-0 in such games under Saban, winning each by double digits and an average score of 36-14.
Why such dominance out of the gate?
“It’s just part of our mentality and our preparation,” senior tight end Hale Hentges said this week in a news conference. “Coach Saban is always preaching about the importance of coming out fast and strong and continuing throughout the whole game. That’s just part of the culture that’s preached here.
“He does a phenomenal job of getting us in that mindset from the very beginning.”
Alabama has been so dominant in openers it leaves opponents struggling to recover during their remaining 11 games of the regular season.
Southern California endured a 52-6 massacre two years ago at the hands of the Crimson Tide in Arlington, Texas, and was 1-3 before regrouping to win its final nine games, including a thrilling 52-49 topping of Penn State in the Rose Bowl. Michigan entered Arlington in 2012 coming off an 11-win season that included a Sugar Bowl triumph, but the Tide applied a 41-14 beatdown that wounded the Wolverines in an eventual 8-5 season that culminated with an Outback Bowl loss to South Carolina.
Florida State entered last year’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at sparkling Mercedes Benz-Stadium in Atlanta ranked No. 3, but the Seminoles lost their quarterback against Alabama and proceeded to lose control of their season, going 6-6 in the regular season before making a journey to the Independence Bowl.
Saban begins every preseason camp focusing within, and that doesn’t change when
the opener kicks off.
“Most of the time, it’s about what you’re doing or not doing,” Saban said. “You have to adjust technically to what the other team is doing, especially if they’re doing something you didn’t prepare your players for. Most of the time, it’s about what you’re doing out there and how you’re doing it that really has an impact on that particular play.”
Alabama won last season’s national championship — its fifth title in 11 seasons under Saban — after losing nine players to the first three rounds of the
2017 NFL draft. The Crimson Tide had a program-record
12 players selected this year, including five from their secondary, and Saban has six new assistant coaches on his staff.
Only one assistant, offensive line coach Brent Key, has the exact same role as a year ago.
“We’ve had a lot more changes, and I think we have a lot more new players than what we’ve typically had in the past, especially on defense,” Saban said. “There is a little more transition than normal, and it’s a challenge for me to continue to try to help the people do things the way we would like for them to do them. It’s a work in progress, and we look forward to the challenge.”
The Crimson Tide will open a season with two new coordinators for the first time in a decade, with former receivers coach Mike Locksley coordinating from the press box and new quarterbacks coach Dan Enos assisting from the field. Veteran players such as Hentges, center Ross Pierschbacher and tailback Damien Harris are working with their fourth coordinator, having previously learned under Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and Brian Daboll.
Hentges doesn’t believe much will differ from last season, when the Crimson Tide averaged 444.1 yards and 37.1 points per game despite milking the clock in half their contests.
“We’re still going to do a lot of the same stuff we did,” Hentges said. “Locksley brought in some good wrinkles from his previous places of work. He’s got a really great offensive mind, and I don’t think he wants to change too much.”
Only defensive linemen Isaiah Buggs and Raekwon Davis and outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings return as starters from last season’s defense, but the talent is abundant as long as the starters stay healthy. Tosh Lupoi has been promoted to coordinator and will coach from the field, with new inside linebackers coach Pete Golding assisting from the press box.
“It’s a new team with new players and new roles,” Jennings said. “Everybody just wants to learn and improve and do what they can to help this team win. If everybody does their job, we have nothing to worry about.”
“There is a little more transition than normal, and it’s a challenge for me to continue to try to help the people do things the way we would like for them to do them.”
– ALABAMA COACH NICK SABAN