BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
A college football coach makes more decisions than the guy who discovered Pi could count. It's not always easy to identify which ones make the biggest difference in contending for a championship and being reduced to a spoiler's role, but Nick Saban made two decisions this year that have made all the difference for Alabama.
He put Lane Kiffin on the staff, and then he put Kiffin on the sideline on game day.
It's hard to imagine the Crimson Tide would be walking into the Iron Bowl as the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings otherwise.
If Kiffin isn't at least a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach this season, there should be an investigation. His work with Blake Sims alone would qualify him, but look at what his side of the ball has overcome and what it's achieved.
Despite breaking in a new quarterback and a new left tackle, despite losing the team's most versatile playmaker in Kenyan Drake on the first Saturday in October, despite battling injuries to running backs T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry and center Ryan Kelly, this Alabama offense has done something through 11 games that no Alabama offense has done before.
The Crimson Tide has rolled up a school-record 5,333 total yards through its 10-1 start. The old record at this stage of the season was 5,288 yards piled up by the 1973 wishbone machine.
Alabama has eclipsed 500 total yards six times this season and gone over 600 yards four times. A year after finishing sixth in the SEC and 33rd in the nation in total offense, the Tide is second in the league and 20th in the country at 484.8 yards a game.
This offensive explosion isn't happening in the defense-optional Big 12. It's happening in the best defensive conference in college football because Kiffin was the right man at the right time to take over for Doug Nussmeier.
Sims couldn't have asked for a better mentor in game preparation and game management. Amari Cooper couldn't have found a playcaller more skilled in feeding the ball to his best playmaker. Saban couldn't have hired an offensive coordinator better suited to adapting the system to take advantage of the skills of the personnel.
This isn't your typical Saban offense. He's always wanted balance, but the hallmark of his best teams has been the ability of his offensive line to look you in the eye and then knock you into the dirt while fast and physical tailbacks stepped on you on their way past.
That's not this offense. This group is more capable of bleeding you out with a thousand paper cuts, and when Kiffin falls too much in love with the cute stuff, Saban's right there to suggest a little between-the-tackles course correction.
Putting Kiffin on the sideline on game day may have seemed like a chemistry experiment destined to blow up the lab, but give him and Saban credit. They've made this odd coupling work. They've helped Sims become one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, and they've turned the Alabama offense into one of the most productive in school history.
A lot of coaches or their bosses wouldn't touch Kiffin a year ago. There were people at Alabama that wanted to stay away from him, too. The Crimson Tide's fortunate that Saban was smart enough to see the upside of hiring him and strong enough to get it done.
Continue reading...
He put Lane Kiffin on the staff, and then he put Kiffin on the sideline on game day.
It's hard to imagine the Crimson Tide would be walking into the Iron Bowl as the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings otherwise.
If Kiffin isn't at least a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach this season, there should be an investigation. His work with Blake Sims alone would qualify him, but look at what his side of the ball has overcome and what it's achieved.
Despite breaking in a new quarterback and a new left tackle, despite losing the team's most versatile playmaker in Kenyan Drake on the first Saturday in October, despite battling injuries to running backs T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry and center Ryan Kelly, this Alabama offense has done something through 11 games that no Alabama offense has done before.
The Crimson Tide has rolled up a school-record 5,333 total yards through its 10-1 start. The old record at this stage of the season was 5,288 yards piled up by the 1973 wishbone machine.
Alabama has eclipsed 500 total yards six times this season and gone over 600 yards four times. A year after finishing sixth in the SEC and 33rd in the nation in total offense, the Tide is second in the league and 20th in the country at 484.8 yards a game.
This offensive explosion isn't happening in the defense-optional Big 12. It's happening in the best defensive conference in college football because Kiffin was the right man at the right time to take over for Doug Nussmeier.
Sims couldn't have asked for a better mentor in game preparation and game management. Amari Cooper couldn't have found a playcaller more skilled in feeding the ball to his best playmaker. Saban couldn't have hired an offensive coordinator better suited to adapting the system to take advantage of the skills of the personnel.
This isn't your typical Saban offense. He's always wanted balance, but the hallmark of his best teams has been the ability of his offensive line to look you in the eye and then knock you into the dirt while fast and physical tailbacks stepped on you on their way past.
That's not this offense. This group is more capable of bleeding you out with a thousand paper cuts, and when Kiffin falls too much in love with the cute stuff, Saban's right there to suggest a little between-the-tackles course correction.
Putting Kiffin on the sideline on game day may have seemed like a chemistry experiment destined to blow up the lab, but give him and Saban credit. They've made this odd coupling work. They've helped Sims become one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, and they've turned the Alabama offense into one of the most productive in school history.
A lot of coaches or their bosses wouldn't touch Kiffin a year ago. There were people at Alabama that wanted to stay away from him, too. The Crimson Tide's fortunate that Saban was smart enough to see the upside of hiring him and strong enough to get it done.
Continue reading...
