Sylve
Love to see him get a shot at returner. I think it'll be him or Cyrus and Christion on Kickoffs and either Sylve or Hart on punt returns. Christion scares the hell out of me on punt returns.
If you remember in the not to distant past, our kick and punt coverage sucked... So during one presser, a reporter asked Saban why he thought the coverage was so bad, was in instruction, the fact he uses "rookies" or what. Then he said other schools have their "stars" on those teams too. Why didn't he do that.
Saban was PO'd... He asked if those teams that did that won as often as Alabama did? Then he said that a lot of people get hurt on returns and kick offs and it was his belief that you didn't risk your "stars" on something that somebody else should be able to do just as well.
He did a little coach speak about breakdowns in players not staying in their lanes and it was something they were working on, but finished by saying something like "You want to keep the players who aren't starting or getting significant time in rotation engaged. You want to make them feel they are part of the success you are striving for. They want to play, get their jerseys dirty and be on the field just as much as anyone else. Do they make more mistakes? Yes they do. But do they learn from it and become better for it? Yes they do. Do they feel like they're more a part of the team and "one of the boys"? Of course. Plus, if you keep them engaged and focused on the game and something does happen to a player in front of them, they're more ready, loose, focused and stretched out to go out have a chance to be successful filling in." (not exact quotes, just working from memory)
He also said that on special teams, speed is king and if you have a lot of fast linebackers, receivers and defensive backs that aren't doing much it's silly not to use that speed in this role.
Just saying this so you understand the mindset of Nick Saban as far as special teams go. He goes crazy over any shortcoming, but he'd rather let "rookies" play and make an occasional mistake than let them grow stale and sour on the bench. Next time, just for fun, write down the players numbers on those teams and see how many are starters and how many are "rookies"....
Larry
