Nick Saban has repeatedly stated that he’s against up-tempo play in football and that the NCAA should perhaps change its rules to force offenses to slow down. But until that happens, Saban realizes he may have to speed up the Crimson Tide offense to be successful.
Alabama’s offense to get faster, against Nick Saban’s wishes?
Saban may be forced to accept the winds of change.
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The Alabama head coach, who has won four national championships in his career, including three over the last four years with the Crimson Tide, has a strong defensive background and prefers his team to play physical ball-control football. It’s safe to say Saban would much rather win a 10-7 game than a 49-42 contest, like their recent matchup against Texas A&M.
But with so many programs moving to the up-tempo attack, and the need to constantly prepare for those opponents, Saban says he doesn’t have much of a choice but to follow the national trend.
“It’s something we’re going to look at. I think we’ll have to,” Saban told ESPN.com on Thursday. “I think we need to play faster and will have to do more of that going forward. The only reason we haven’t done more of it to this point is that our guys seem to play better when we don’t [go fast] just because it’s been our style and we’ve had reasonably good success moving the ball and running the ball.
“The thing I wonder about is that if you play offense like that, then that’s how you practice. You have to practice like that, so how do you really ever coach defensive players? If a guy doesn’t play the right technique, you’re going up and telling him and showing him how to play that block or whatever.”
Saban is renowned for his defensive scheming and ability to gain an advantage with substation packages, but against an offense that refuses to huddle, that advantage is nullified to some degree. What’s worse for the head coach is that he feels running an up-tempo offense at Alabama will take away from the Tide defense even more.
Basically, Saban believes coaching his offense to go fast compromises his ability to properly instruct his defense because those defensive players don’t have time to learn proper technique. And right now, Alabama needs to do something to get better on offense. The Crimson Tide currently rank 86th nationally, averaging 370.7 yards per game. They piled up 49 points and 568 yards in the win over the Aggies, but Texas A&M’s defense ranks 112th in yards per game (475.3) and 90th in points per game (30.3).
The Tide offense wasn’t nearly as potent against Virginia Tech and Colorado State. Against the Hokies, Alabama totaled just 206 yards and two offensive touchdowns, and a blocked punt and Colorado State turnover deep in Rams territory resulted in two TDs last week. Alabama only held a 17-6 lead going into the fourth quarter against Colorado State, a team that ranks 87th in scoring defense.
Alabama hosts Ole Miss Saturday, another up-tempo spread team. Considering the struggles Saban’s defense has had against good fast-pace schemes, the Crimson Tide can’t afford to sputter on offense against the Rebels.
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