How would you grade Kiffin thus far?

Chukker Veteran · Sep 14, 2014

I remember a lot of preseason excitement and talk about how talented we are at wide receiver, and how deep the bench is at that position.

It seems out of character for a Saban team to put all it's eggs in one basket, so to speak. It's great seeing Cooper catch so many balls, but I've always thought Saban preferred to spread things around more.

In a tight game, with a few frustrating basic things going wrong, I can image Saban getting in Kiffin's face and letting it rip. Let's hope if that happens, Kiffin doesn't react badly and yell and scream right back at Saban.

Go Bama · Sep 14, 2014

I had an extreme dislike for CLK before he was hired. I'm being supportive because he's our guy now. We'll eventually see a good defense that stacks the line and limits the number of balls Coop gets. OJ, Vogler, and Chris Black should be involved unless there's something going on off field we don't know. The schedule in front of us looks really tough at this point. This isn't a year when we have to beat LSU and the Barn and everything else is on cruise control; LSU, Barn, Florida, Ole Sis, aTm are all games to worry about. I wish there weren't so many unanswered questions.

Personally, I'd like to get CLK off the sidelines and off camera.

TideFan in AU · Sep 14, 2014

Chukker Veteran said:
I remember a lot of preseason excitement and talk about how talented we are at wide receiver, and how deep the bench is at that position.

It seems out of character for a Saban team to put all it's eggs in one basket, so to speak. It's great seeing Cooper catch so many balls, but I've always thought Saban preferred to spread things around more.

In a tight game, with a few frustrating basic things going wrong, I can image Saban getting in Kiffin's face and letting it rip. Let's hope if that happens, Kiffin doesn't react badly and yell and scream right back at Saban.

When DeAndrew White went down in the WVU game, he had 6 catches, and Amari had 7. Blake was distributing the ball pretty evenly at that point. He also seems comfortable throwing to CJ. However, since White went out, he has locked Amari first, and CJ second. White is expected to be back this week, so hopefully he will spread it around a little bit. I expect Hargreaves to blanket Amari, so we are probably going to have to throw it to Amari less against UF.

oldtimetider · Sep 14, 2014

I've been very pleased with the offense to this point under CLK. Personalities aside, I think the level of respect that CNS has for Kiffin's knowledge base is very high...and with good reason. Looking back as far as memories allow (1970's), I'm not sure there's another Bama offensive coordinator I can recall who I'd rather have working with this group. (all time favorite Bama OC....that might make good thread...) Anyway...I'd give him an A to this point....Numbers are good, even against "air"....
Different note....Does Sims play remind anyone of Walter Lewis?

bigjue24 · Sep 14, 2014

I think he has done well. I would like to see him get the plays in quicker. I think it is a complicated system with a lot of terminology. This is everyone's first year dealing with it. Does anyone know how much terminology has changed?

jcabama · Sep 14, 2014

TIDE-HSV said:
I hope that's right. I've developed some concern about the chemistry between Kiffin and Saban...

Body language on the sidelines and the facial expressions after some of their interactions could certainly lean to supporting this concern. Not sure what's going to happen in a truly stressful situation since to now, game stress has been under control. I'm also seeing what appears to be some negative body language in some of the receivers not named Cooper that I think CNS is picking up on far quicker than LK.

JDCrimson · Sep 14, 2014

bigjue24 said:
I think he has done well. I would like to see him get the plays in quicker. I think it is a complicated system with a lot of terminology. This is everyone's first year dealing with it. Does anyone know how much terminology has changed?

Maybe Kiffin is having trouble adjusting to the terminology and is saying the wrong thing during the game, idk. But will tell that bootleg plays were not a feature in any of our recent playbooks. So the offense has changed somewhat just due to the players skill set.

I think what you are seeing is just a difference in philosophy. Kiffin knows we have play makers on the level of what they had at USC a few years ago. They were dynamic on offense because of the creative play calling. I think we are seeing just a different approach to the offensive game BTW Kiffin and CNS with imo Kiffin's approach taking out less impact of a bad play. There is more diversity here than what we are used to.

Think about it we saw the zone read, I formation, bootlegs, toss sweeps (I could have a sworn the last time I saw one of those Humphrey was carrying the ball).

The only thing I will say is that either Cooper is flat out uncoverable or we are mounting a Heisman campaign for him. But I know this that White and Jones were banking on getting enough touches this year to impress the scouts. But I think that will even itself out as the season goes along.

A lot of what we are seeing maybe too reinforce team concepts. 3-4 regular RB means no one guy is going to be the man. That in itself forces team play. All i know is we have played a lot of guys so far and it appears we are play with more depth this year. Of course this theory is torpedoed by the featuring of Cooper. So who knows.

Elefantman · Sep 14, 2014

At times it looked like we were in a no huddle/no hurry offense when BS was QB. There was a lot of time spent with everyone lined up waiting for BS to get the call, run around and relay the message to the rest of the team. If we can't get the call, line up and snap the ball quickly, why not just get in a huddle make the necessary communications and run the play. If we were in a hostile environment, I believe we would be burning time outs because we can't make the call and run the plays with out a conventional huddle. Maybe this is LK can change to improve the offense.

bamanix · Sep 14, 2014

I think lane is a excellent off cord. he has been everywhere. he is just too laid back for head coaching. I remember when he went to tenn, and won his first year. he actually made a qb out of john Compton. to this day Compton has praised lane for what did for him. Compton is still on a nfl roster I believe. he learned how to mix and throw deep, in stead of just throwing deep. my concern, which will probably be answered starting the sec is his use of the tight end. at his other schools, they were used a lot. I think presently, he is concentrating on the qb situation, and hopefully, next week we will spread it around to black, white, jones, howard, and of course cooper. we will have to because I believe teams will start double teaming, or helping out on Amari regularly. we will know a lot against fla. the play book will open widely.

seebell · Sep 14, 2014

I give him an A

CRMSNtide · Sep 14, 2014

Looking at some numbers-

Last season we averaged 38.2 points and 454 yards a game.

This year 42 points and 568 yards a game and have only punted a few times in 3 games.
And more points and yards would have happened in the FUA game, but it got called early.

Cooper is looking like he'll have a Marqise Lee/Sammy Watkins type year, with over 100 receptions and 1500 yards from scrimmage.

Defending Cooper, a strong running game and a mobile QB is not easy.

Kiffin has been impressive even with some kinks and hiccups to work through.

rolltide_21 · Sep 14, 2014

CajunCrimson said:
Game 1 - establish the run
Game 2 - establish the screens and hitches
Game 3 - establish the short to medium game

We threw zero screens tonight. That wasn't an accident.

Florida has a lot to prepare for....

Great point. It's been systematic really.

AgentAntiOrange · Sep 14, 2014

I have concerns about the offense in general and I think that my concerns bleed over into the Blake/Coker situation as well as the CNS/CLK situation.

Blake/Coker-Blake has some things to work on but IMHO he is 'The Guy' in the teams mind. That's just an observation....but I feel like when Coker comes in I see a slight regression as opposed to a burst of success. IMHO, it's time for the staff to make a call and go with one guy. Based on playing time and performance, I think that guy is Blake. It almost seems to me that they've let this question linger because they were almost hoping Coker would come around and win the job but that just doesn't seem to be happening.

As for CNS/CLK, I love seeing AC with the ball in his hands and I agree with the idea of doing something until they stop it but I have real concerns about what's going to happen when we face a decent defense that brackets AC and takes him out of the game. I know the backs are still getting good numbers but we just feel more pass oriented to me this year than I'd like. I wish CLK and the offense focused on the run more early on.

3-0 is good. The numbers AC is putting up are great...great for him, great for the QB's, great for recruiting. Maybe I'm just a victim of resisting change and things are more stable than they feel to my naked, untrained eye. I hope that's the case. But right now, I feel like a good def coordinator could take away our 1st 2 or 3 options fairly easily and I fear where we'll be when that happens. Ole Miss might be a good indicator of that in 3 weeks.

IMALOYAL1 · Sep 14, 2014

Does Sims play remind anyone of Walter Lewis?

Walter had a heck of an arm. Always did from the time he won the punt, pass and kick compitition as a kid at Legion Field, most knew who he was.

So far I like Lane.

CajunCrimson · Sep 14, 2014

Outside of one bad pass - Blake has done nothing scary -- he's been in control (I give CLK credit for that). He makes good, quick, decisions.....I think we destroy Florida -- and I think it gets ugly....early

Bama 38
Florida 10

Roll Tide!

I find it funny -- after the first game -- we complained about the defense. After the second game -- we complained about TOO many screens. After this game -- we complained that there weren't any passes to other receivers.....even though several were 15-20 yards upfield....

Sometimes I wonder how we ever get anyone to play/coach for us -- we are so incredibly hard to please.....

Tide1986 · Sep 14, 2014

CajunCrimson said:
We threw zero screens tonight. That wasn't an accident.

Did we attempt a screen on first down of our last possession before the half? I was in the car listening to Eli, and I seem to recall them saying we attempted a screen, and then we dialed it back to end the half since the screen wasn't successful.

TideFan in AU · Sep 14, 2014

AgentAntiOrange said:
I have concerns about the offense in general and I think that my concerns bleed over into the Blake/Coker situation as well as the CNS/CLK situation.

Blake/Coker-Blake has some things to work on but IMHO he is 'The Guy' in the teams mind. That's just an observation....but I feel like when Coker comes in I see a slight regression as opposed to a burst of success. IMHO, it's time for the staff to make a call and go with one guy. Based on playing time and performance, I think that guy is Blake. It almost seems to me that they've let this question linger because they were almost hoping Coker would come around and win the job but that just doesn't seem to be happening.

As for CNS/CLK, I love seeing AC with the ball in his hands and I agree with the idea of doing something until they stop it but I have real concerns about what's going to happen when we face a decent defense that brackets AC and takes him out of the game. I know the backs are still getting good numbers but we just feel more pass oriented to me this year than I'd like. I wish CLK and the offense focused on the run more early on.

3-0 is good. The numbers AC is putting up are great...great for him, great for the QB's, great for recruiting. Maybe I'm just a victim of resisting change and things are more stable than they feel to my naked, untrained eye. I hope that's the case. But right now, I feel like a good def coordinator could take away our 1st 2 or 3 options fairly easily and I fear where we'll be when that happens. Ole Miss might be a good indicator of that in 3 weeks.

We've ran the ball 145 times and passed 83 times this year, so we are still very run oriented. I think we as fans have paid so much attention to what the QB's are doing that it just seems that way. It does seem that we come out the gate throwing more this year, but I'm a huge fan of that. So many times over the last few years we come out and get stuffed by a motivated team because we want to pound the ball immediately. Our quick passing game is only going to help our running game, IMO.

BamaJama17 · Sep 14, 2014

I have NO problem with Blake targeting Cooper as much he has. The simple fact is that Cooper is by far the best player on the offensive side of the ball. He gets open fairly easy so Sims throws it to him. He is a DB's worst nightmare.

RTR91 · Sep 14, 2014

Tide1986 said:
Did we attempt a screen on first down of our last possession before the half? I was in the car listening to Eli, and I seem to recall them saying we attempted a screen, and then we dialed it back to end the half since the screen wasn't successful.

Appeared to be a RB screen. Other than that, I don't recall a screen.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Al A Bama · Sep 14, 2014

RTR91 said:
I don't make much of Saban and Kiffin's sideline interactions. I think we're just seeing the headset conversations with Applewhite, Mac and Nuss become face to face.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree. However, can anyone on here read lips?

How would you grade Kiffin thus far?

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