Coach Saban continues to evolve with fast-paced progress
Playing the Ole Miss Rebels always reminds Alabama football coach Nick Saban just how much things have changed since he got into the profession.
“I’ve coached for a long time, and the first thing you did the first day of camp and the first day of installation was that you taught the players how to get in a huddle,” Saban said Monday in his weekly news conference. “That’s like gone with the Edsel. What defensive players have to practice with now in terms of pace of play is completely different.”
Spreading the field and speeding the tempo were adjustments for Saban before Hugh Freeze became the Ole Miss coach in 2012, with current Auburn coach Gus Malzahn having served as the offensive coordinator for the Tigers from 2009 to 2011. Malzahn returned to Auburn as head coach in 2013 and guided the Tigers that November to an upset of Saban’s top-ranked Crimson Tide, and Freeze’s Rebels have upset Alabama each of the past two years heading into Saturday afternoon’s showdown inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
There was even the unofficial tag-team partnership of Freeze and Malzahn against the old-school duo of Saban and Arkansas coach Bret Bielema a couple of years ago when debates broke out regarding safety concerns with fast-paced offenses, but Saban knew he had to evolve.
After all, too many up-tempo opponents were cropping up on the Crimson Tide schedule.
“It didn’t take them long to catch up,” Freeze said Monday in his news conference. “They have a great rotation that is predetermined a lot of times, so it is like they are matching you really well in the tempo stuff. The thing they probably do the best is win
“A lot of people do it now, and I think it’s important that we can do it and execute it.” —NICK SABAN
first down, because there are not a lot of people willing to go up-tempo again on second down.
“There is no doubt they have made the adjustments they have needed to make to keep up with it, and their offense now goes tempo, so they are seeing it in practice.”
That’s where Saban has traveled the greatest distance since 2012, when he won a third consecutive national title with the Tide behind a powerful offensive line and the tailback tandem of Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon. Alabama got to 11-0 in 2013, but the Tide closed that season with a 34-28 loss at Auburn and a 45-31 Sugar Bowl loss to Oklahoma, a team that also sped up the pace.
Several days after the loss to the Sooners, Saban hired Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator, and the Crimson Tide ditched the huddle early in their opening game of their 2014 season, a 33-23 win over West Virginia. Throughout that year, they also used plays that had run-pass options with quarterback Blake Sims, who signed with Alabama as a running back.
“That’s when we came around to it, because it was the right offense for him in terms of what he could do and how we did it,” Saban said. “A lot of people do it now, and I think it’s important that we can do it and execute it. As for our defense, we figured if we were going to have to play against this all the time, it makes it easier to practice what you play against if you do it as well.”
There is no better reflection of how much Saban has evolved than Tide true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts. Following a lengthy list of pro-style quarterbacks who signed and played at Alabama, Hurts enrolled in January as the nation’s No. 1 dual-threat talent.
Hurts ignited a 38-point outburst in the opening 52-6 win over Southern California and got his first career start in last Saturday’s 38-10 win over Western Kentucky. Saban has not announced a starter for this week between Hurts and redshirt freshman Blake Barnett, but Hurts already is receiving advice from teammates entering Saturday’s matchup of two offenses that now can quicken the pace.
“You’ve got to go out there with no nerves,” Tide senior tight end O.J. Howard said. “You don’t have to make the big plays. Just give it to the playmakers. Let everybody else do their job.”
Sims to return
Saban said junior receiver Cam Sims, who injured a shoulder in the opener against USC, should play this week.