Yep - all this. Most of CFB runs a 4-2 variant now. Saban ran it over 80% of the time. You're 100% right in that it's how he leverages the players within the 4-2 that is the real issue.It’s not the d scheme as in 4-2-5 it’s how he implements it and runs it. He does not do the best job so far (was going to say poor job but willing to give time) and often is out adjusted during games. The fact he lets his d get out leveraged/flanked pre snap is a sign of poor coaching at any level. Add in his actual position coaching has been poor then it gets worse. His play calling and tendencies were so limited and predictable last year teams knew exactly what was coming and even opponents said so. Has that been better this year, yes so far. He did well with running more zone against uga vs cover 1 and it worked but again he let his guys get out leveraged pre snap and more often than he should does not put the players in the best position to succeed. His pressures definitely leave a lot more to be desired.
With that said, Sabb has not helped himself either year as far as reading and reacting and made d look bad at times and other d last year as well and that seems mostly better this year so far. D line coaching is not helping either along with just not recruiting well there for years. The edge rushers on paper should be better but hard to judge other than they haven’t produced under him. Injuries stacking up this year don’t help. He is not a bad DC but is avg to decent but he is not the level that Bama has mostly had in a lifetime. Under CKD we might have to just adjust as a base mentally and know we might not have an elite DC here under CKD. Would I like a different DC yes, will he be decent enough to win a championship? I don’t think so unless it’s a 2020 type of offense.
that said, he spend a lot of time in a hybrid 3-3 look with the wolf off ball, with a very shallow drop lined up inside the DLs, who then still seem to line up somewhat narrow. This one totally befuddles me as we're very, very easily outleveraged, and the wolf isn't far enough off ball to be able to react and get into gaps other than where he's already aligned. he typically will get easily caught in the wash no matter what player we have in at that spot. It's not 100%, but pretty close that we give up big plays out of this alignment.