Highly impressed with Coach Doug Nussmeier's playcalling.

TIDE-HSV said:

There was more to it. Before spring training, Major went into Saban's office and demanded that he be named sole - rather than co - OC. That made it easy for Saban...

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TIDE-HSV said:

There was more to it. Before spring training, Major went into Saban's office and demanded that he be named sole - rather than co - OC. That made it easy for Saban...

Click to expand...

TIDE-HSV said:

After a little more thought, I think that we possibly may see, if AJ goes down, exactly what we saw on Saturday - a split QB package. Although he's not done it here, he's played a two-QB system before and he's commented on how Ely and Sims are neck and neck.

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rgw said:

To go back to the discussion about the use of Sims...

I don't know if we're preparing to make use of him as a zone read QB in big games or not but I kind of doubt it. I could be wrong but here is my logic: the zone read offense is a lot like the wishbone triple option. In the triple option offense, you will call a dozen interior handoffs and QB follows to setup the one big lateral to pop off the perimeter. Running an effective wishbone offense required dedication and commitment to the offense's series of plays and their setup. Similarly, the zone read requires commitment - a large number of plays - to become a factor for big plays.

On one hand we did show some interesting wrinkles already with Sims at quarterback. It appears that early in Sims time at quarterback against Arkansas we attempted the modified triple option look that Meyer/Mullens/RichRod popularized where the slot receiver becomes the third pitchman option. The play was either poorly blocked or Arkansas was simply on top of the play before it happened, but it certainly appeared that we were setting up an opportunity for Sims to pitch it off to a receiver for a big gain. This shows that we have installed some plays in the event we actually do use the zone read in the regular offense. With this in mind, we've probably installed some other triple option shotgun looks where we use wide receiver motion to create a counter option play.

On the other hand, to setup all these big plays in the zone read it would mean letting Sims take the reins of the offense for a series or more. When we have a quarterback with 4 years of experience in the offense ahead of Sims, it is hard to argue that we couldn't just make the same big plays with McCarron handing it off and complementing it with his slick play action fake. I think the extensive use of Sims has been more about a fallback plan in the event McCarron gets injured. They may feel Ely is still a work in progress and Sims' additional constraints on the defense defending the handoff may be better for the offensive flow than what Ely can provide today as a play action passer. They've probably just spent more time preparing a package for Sims because McCarron is already very experienced in the offense and doesn't need all the practice snaps which gives a better insurance policy if the experienced guy goes down.

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BamaMan09 said:

I look at in the way LSU used Ryan Perrilloux in 2007 every few series to throw different stuff at defenses other than just losing Matt Flynn the whole game (who is in the NFL right now). Not sure Sims is as good as Perrilloux but he brings some of the option and scrambling ability that McCarron dosen't possess. If it limits the number of hits McCarron takes while also adding an extra dimension to the offense I'm happy.

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JIB said:

Too many pass plays called. On 2nd and 3 you don't call two pass plays when the Oline is doing so well. CDN is a good coach, but he should have called more run plays, AJ could always Audi or out of them.

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