🏈 Jim McElwain's no guru; that's OK with Nick Saban

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Stats-loving self-promoters need not apply for a job with Tide's Saban.

Read More Here...

TUSCALOOSA -- Want an education? Listen to Nick Saban talk about offensive coordinators.

The Alabama head coach does more than try to figure out how to stop those guys. He’s also had to decide which ones to hire.

For future reference, gurus and self-promoters need not apply.

“A lot of offensive guys are big stat guys,” Saban said. “They want to see where they’re ranked and all that. They talk about how many yards they gained. They say, ‘We had over 400 yards. We should’ve won the game.’

“I say, ‘Well, if you hadn’t fumbled five times, you probably would’ve.”‘

A year ago, Saban got it right when he hired Jim McElwain. Mac’s not a self-promoter, is he?

“He’s a hard-working guy who kinda believes like I believe,” Saban said. “If you do it right and you work hard, good things will happen. You don’t have to do anything to bring attention to yourself.”

McElwain’s not a stat guy, either, is he?

“No,” Saban said.

And yet, with a new quarterback and a rebuilt offensive line, Alabama’s offensive numbers are up across the board as the Crimson Tide prepares for a potential shootout with another juggernaut in Arkansas. Through three games, the Alabama offense occupies lofty places in the national rankings that used to be reserved for the Alabama defense.

Rushing: 5th. Passing: 36th. Total offense: 9th. Scoring offense: Tied 11th, with Auburn. What in the name of Gene Stallings is going on?

Part of the reason for the increased production is competition. No one would mistake Florida International or North Texas for the Steel Curtain.

But the Alabama staff made a conscious decision in the off-season to do two things: expand the playbook — by adding things like the wildcat and pistol formations — and use more of the existing pages. Because Saban noticed something last year.

“As the season went on, we started doing less and less and less,” he said. “By the end of the year, we were so limited in what we did.”

It may sound like heresy coming from him, but Saban is smart enough to know that defense alone doesn’t win championships any more.

This ain’t 1992.

“There’s an old saying,” he said. “‘You win games on defense and with special teams. You play offense for the crowd.’

“I don’t believe that. Now that these people can light it up and score 40 and 50 points in a heartbeat, that’s not true at all.”

Saban thought Alabama played pretty good defense through three quarters in the last SEC Championship Game, and still Florida had 17 points.

“If you can’t score, it’s a problem,” he said. “Even if you are a pretty good defense, eventually you see something you don’t match up great against, and the other team’s going to score some points.”

See the 2008 SEC Championship Game and the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

Now see the 2009 Alabama offense, playing pinball.

McElwain doesn’t get the same pub as masterminds like Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino or Auburn OC Gus Malzahn. In part, it’s because Saban keeps his assistants mostly off-limits to the media, which he does, in part, to avoid the kind of spotlight that focused on Tony Franklin at Auburn last year.

But McElwain gets plenty of recognition within the profession. One of his fans: Former Auburn OC Al Borges, now the coordinator at San Diego State.

“Jim does a good job,” Borges said. “He really does. He’s developed a really nice, balanced attack.” So it should come as no surprise that Saban considered hiring Borges after Auburn fired him “if we’d had an opportunity.”


“Not as a coordinator, maybe, but just on the staff,” Saban said. “I always thought he was a really good coach, and a good play-caller. They made a huge leap offensively at Auburn when he got there.”


The Alabama offense has made a huge leap this year, in part, because McElwain’s back for a second season. “Mac’s a good guy, too,” Saban said. “He does a good job with the other coaches. He’s got a good sense of humor.”


If he keeps the playbook wide open and the numbers up, he could be laughing all the way to the BCS Championship Game.