Alabama struggled in much the same way last year. The only difference - you didn't lose to Auburn, a game that you easily could have won this year. When you got to the playoffs, you killed Washington and almost beat Clemson. That alone should give Alabama fans hope.
He was winning 11 games every year at USCe when he said that, so.
I know you know that QB is a totally different kind of position, especially when it comes to starting, benching, etc. It's conceivable that AJ was not the better choice in '09, and remember a decent NC winning QB was returning in '10. How many coaches would have benched him? Saban was still afraid to "let AJ loose" in '11 til the title game (IMO, possibly one of the few QB mistakes of Saban's tenure.) But you ignore all of the other correct choices he's made. So, "he can make mistakes" is far more accurate than saying "he has a huge blind spot". IMO, he's actually good at choosing QBs and handling them, imperfect, but good. Yea, I think Saban is good, but I would think that would add to my credibility
The problem with comparing the situation with GMac and AJ in 2010 is that AJ, as a redshirt freshman, didn't offer a different skill set in the passing game/game management department that was employed at that time. In other words, they were the same kind of qb.
Spurrier never lost a chance to take a jab at another coach. Before Coach Saban came on the scene it was widely considered Spurrier was a genius coach. He under achieved year after year at Florida. Nebraska took him to the wood shed in a game for a Natty when he had the better team talent wise. Coach Saban's Michigan State Team coached by B. Williams in the Citrus Bowl beat Spurrier's far more talented Florida team. Coach Saban coaching Florida back then and he would have won at least 5 NC not the one Spurrier lucked in to.
Sure - he was and is a character that I would not want running my program, but was he wrong here?
Well honestly I don't think anyone knows or is quite sure what the game plan is going to be. To be fair, I don't think anyone predicted the game plan we saw at Auburn either. I think we assumed the players would be ready to go then as well. Of course that could serve as a wake-up call in the playoffs but it points out a bigger area of players being frustrated thus the discussion of the qb situation in this thread. It's only natural to compare what you've seen in the last game to what you may or may not see in the next.
Excellent point. I have seen the contradiction between the players recruited as receivers and having a running back playing QB. Obviously if a coach was fully committed to running the ball with the QB he would have excellent blockers at TE and WR. CNS was likely looking for a Deshaun Watson type QB and it just hasn't turned out up to now. He has to be enormously frustrated. At the same time he has a QB on the bench who could literally "light it up" with this great WR talent. CNS patience and commitment in something Spurrier never had. He would have had Tua playing in series the entire season or until he began to make mistakes.
I see this differently. See, Spurrier is an offensive guy while Saban is a defensive guy. They both want balance, but they each want to win in a different way. Saban wants to take as few risks as possible and win on the strength of his defense. Spurrier wants to take chances on offense and needs his defense to be good enough to bail them out, but not good enough to win the games, because he expects his offense to win the games for him. The results with respect "patience" for players is pretty predictable:
I'd agree that we shouldn't be "counted out". However, here's a few differences from last year. First, we had a dominant defense last year - and even in the opening game this year it was apparent that we don't have the same level of play (especially on the DL). We're having to create more QB pressure via the blitz and that opens up passing holes (which MSU/AU took advantage of; Ettling didn't have the skills to do so). Also, losing SDH was the worst blow possible to our defense - even more critical to this year's unit than losing Eddie Jackson off last year's unit. Thus, we go into the game this year with a much less dominant defense... so scoring is more critical in this game.
I don't disagree, but Clemson had the same blueprint last year and you scored 31 points in the game. 31 points wins the game this year.
This is a misleading statement because though true, it's only partially true. Every year in fall camp, the staff identify the guys they believe will contribute during the year - it's like the NFL mentality of going into the season with a "set roster" of 40-45 guys. Among that group, there may well be competition from week to week, but by and large we've seen players who came out of fall camp in the rotation remain there - though some shuffling on a week to week basis would usually occur (usually because of the matchups). Take the case of some of our DB's for instance. After getting torched the week before, they usually trot out again as starters. In the case of one of our DB's against AU, he constantly missed open field tackles... yet I'll guarantee you that he'll be in the exact same spot in our rotation against Clemson. If the performance is "off the charts terrible", then he makes the move... but his tendency is to say "we're going to coach this guy up between this game and the one upcoming."
The issue is there's a gap between Saban and Meyer. There's a bigger gap though when you get to Georgia and Miami for example, which are also perpetually loaded with talent and littered with future NFL players. So it easy to go well anyone could win with that talent, and if by win you mean 10 games, sure. But 4 titles? Nope... and that's the big difference. Jimbo over at FSU has about the same level of talent, look at what happened. Does anyone here think a Saban led Alabama team would have that sort of a meltdown? Saban maintains a consistency that none of his peers have been able to maintain, even with a comparable level of talent.
There has been a lot of justifiable concerns voiced about Jalen Hurts in this thread. There are very real issues, and if they are not properly addressed (I'd argue they should have been addressed sooner) there will be major consequences. Having said that, come on. Jalen Hurts is the 12th rated passer (that's purely as a passer, his QBR is top 10) in all of college football! He's done that without heavily relying on short stuff like last year, in fact I believe he's 10th in the NCAA in yards per attempt! Now, we can nitpick his reads and what not, and he has areas he can improve in and areas in which Tua is better.
That's not what I'm saying... Clemson DIDN'T have the proven blueprint last year that they have this year and on top of that they're stronger on defense this year. We can't run the ball on them the way we did last year until BS was hurt. Will agree that 31 will win this year though.
You think that Clemson is going to have a different defensive game plan this year vs last year? I get that they are marginally better on the d-line (they were almost as good last year), but I just don't see them playing this game any differently.
Go watch JH's 30 yard td run near the end of the game last year. You think Clemson will play him that way this year and totally vacate the middle of the field?
I am talking about their total game plan, not a single breakdown. They put everyone at the LOS, played man defense on the back end with one safety to help. They tried to stop your run game and force Jalen to beat them in the air. Your naked screens really hurt them, but they took away the bubble screens (something they won't have to worry about as much this year).
I actually think they did have the blueprint, they just look at it differently. Yes, we did score 31 points, but I think their plan was more holistic than that. They knew we would break some big plays; that has been a big part of our scoring recently. Their plan was to know that would happen and try to limit as much as possible but that they would not allow any/many long sustained drives by playing back to limit deep passes and forcing jalens hand. it worked, we had TON of 3 and outs forcing our defense onto the field more than it should have been, and they wore us out. That's why Dabo know EXACTLY how many plays his offense had run at halftime and was so confident they were in good shape.
Two thing. First, JH's stats are padded because he's feasted upon weak teams. One thing you keep mentioning throughout this thread is the stats in "passing efficiency" (or passer rating)... and you draw the conclusion that if he's rated 12th in the nation in passer rating that automatically means he's among the top dozen QB's in the nation. Go and look at the "passer efficiency ratings" and look at the guys below JH. Here's a few of them...
