SABAN’S BEST?
Tagovailoa leads Alabama’s offensive metamorphosis
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As he left the room, laughing, he called over his shoulder, “I’m going to take your job!” Tua Tagovailoa was only kidding, we think (and hope) — but after his brief stint conducting an interview instead of sitting for one, it was hard to say for sure.
After finishing an interview last week, the Alabama quarterback began posing questions of his own to an inhouse video crew. Within minutes he was behind the camera, shooting video of teammate Jonah Williams, Alabama’s standout left tackle. Then he was asking Williams questions.
“He’s good,” said Williams, who seemed slightly bemused by the entire experience. “He’s just throwing together buzzwords, but his questions were honestly good, so you know, maybe after football?”
File that away, because Tagovailoa has famously already taken one job. And since then, he has taken Alabama’s offense to a whole ’nother level.
This is by far the best, most explosive attack produced by Alabama during college football’s current dynasty. Which is why even with a huge test looming Saturday night — LSU awaits in Baton Rouge — an often-repeated, very serious question before a matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 3 in the College Football Playoff ’s initial Top 25 has been: Will Tua finally play in a fourth quarter?
Just in being asked, it diminishes the magnitude of the showdown, sure. But Alabama is heavily favored, and the Crimson Tide’s offense is the heavy reason. Which is why this next question is not unexpected: Is this Alabama’s best team?
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” sophomore nose guard Quinnen Williams said.
This is the correct answer, and probably the only one allowed to be spoken aloud. But eight games into the season, Nick Saban reminds everyone: “I said at the beginning of the year, we’re gonna have a different kind of team.”
Suddenly and radically, the formula has changed. No more grinding away at opponents while relying on a defense to asphyxiate them. Now it’s an offensive avalanche, right from the kickoff, with opponents buried before halftime.
We are used to seeing Alabama ranked No. 1 in the polls, but not in offensive categories. But the Tide rank No. 1 nationally in scoring, averaging 54.1 points, a full 15 points higher than any previous team during Saban’s tenure. Alabama ranks No. 2 in total offense, averaging 564.3 yards, and No. 2 in yards per play, averaging an astounding 8.3.
And all of this despite shutting things down in second halves.
“If there’s no need for me to be in there in the fourth quarter, then there’s no need,” Tagovailoa said, adding, “I do believe it would be good for our team to have to go through a full, 60-minute game.”
Tagovailoa has completed 70 percent of his passes, including 25 touchdowns without an interception. In 61 possessions he has led, Alabama has scored 46 times (41 TDs, 5 field goals). Saban says Tagovailoa has “it,” that intangible quality that defines the best quarterbacks.
But the coach is completely unwilling, at this point, to say Alabama has “it,” the quality that has defined so many of his teams during this run of five national championships in the last 10 seasons.
Saban, ever cautious, always concerned, knows we see this football team like a sleek sports car, pretty girl driving with the top down, cruising through perfect autumn Saturdays without a care in the world.
“Nobody sees the oil leaking,” he said. “Or the bald tires.”
Opponents’ defenses have not presented so much as a speed bump. Using yards per play, which in this era of varied offensive tempo is probably a better gauge than total defense, the best defense Alabama has faced was Missouri’s, which ranked 90th.
The road might be about to get rougher. LSU ranks 24th in yards per play and is especially good against the pass, ranking first nationally with 12 interceptions. And unlike most of Alabama’s opponents, the Tigers also annually feature athletes with the measurables to match up.
Meanwhile, some of Alabama’s defensive lapses might simply have been what happens late in games, during mop-up time after opponents have been pulverized: 95 of opponents’ 127 points came while Alabama led by at least three touchdowns. But instead of allowing that excuse, Saban sounds an alarm, saying he recently warned his players of potential danger.
“I think we let our guard down some,” he said, “and we don’t play to the same level throughout a game. And we get slapped around a little bit when we do that. If we do that against better competition, we’re gonna get knocked out.”
LSU isn’t only a huge test. It’s the Crimson Tide’s first real test, the first time we see if the video game dominance of the first two-thirds of the season continues when the difficulty mode is ratcheted beyond “easy.” But there’s reason to suspect it might.
This Alabama offense is perhaps the logical evolution of Saban’s adaptation to the changing environment. Gone are the long-ago days of 2011, when the Tide and Tigers hooked up for a 9-6 slugfest. Suddenly, ’Bama is all up-tempo, passing to set up the run — looking a lot like so many other offenses in college football, only with better players. Which leads to this: Is it Tagovailoa? Or the scheme?
“I think it’s a combination of both,” Saban said. “Through the years, being on the defensive side of the ball, you see how difficult some of these things are to defend.”
The entire combination — scheme, quarterback, complementary parts — has led to unprecedented production and, at least for now, a sense of invulnerability.
It’s still not clear if Saban is comfortable with Alabama’s metamorphosis to an offensive-first approach.
“I know people love to play this way,” he said. “I understand. It’s entertaining. But so many factors contribute to how. Injuries — injuries to the wrong players. There’s so many factors, and if people could maintain intensity … I don’t care what you’re doing, everyone struggles to do that.”
He paused, then added a final thought that might be apropos considering Saturday’s matchup:
“There’s still the old fundamental,” he said, “good pitching beats good hitting. You’ve got to be able to keep from getting beat sometimes before you win.”
“If be quarter, in there’s there then no in need the there’s fourth for no me to need. I do believe it would be good for our team to have to go through a full, 60-minute game.” Tua Alabama’s Tagovailoa starting quarterback