Question: If we had an "elite" QB would Saban "turn him loose"?

Not a chance, anybody remember "let the horses run"? That didn't last long!

Blake Sims had nearly 3,500 yards passing this season, I would call that turning him loose. He turned Blake loose, so I don't doubt that he would turn loose an elite QB.

I think the Kiffin hire is proof positive that Coach wants to put points on the board. So yes, if an elite QB can get the job done without turning the ball over I believe our OC would have carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to do.

I don't think he will ever turn our starting QB loose, the system that's in place, has produce NC's with QB's, I honestly don't think they would've won a NC had they played at any other school..The system will stay the same..The only thing that will change is that we will have a QB, that can actually go through reads & check-downs, and not lock in one one QB like Blake did, which is fine until you play a D like OSU's, that covered Coop like "White On Rice", and our offense sputtered cause of it..An "Elite" QB will never lock on one QB & will go through his reads & check-downs, and will find the open WR's, cause when Blake forced the ball to Coop, there was always another WR that was more open, and an "Elite" QB will get the ball to the open WR's & will spread the ball around to all our play-makers & not lock on one WR every play..

When Coker came in mop up duty, he was throwing the ball & getting the ball to WR's other than Cooper, and that's what a true "Elite" QB will do..I love Bake & am proud of what he did at Bama, he was the heart n soul of this years team, but, he forced the ball to Coop way to much..I know I will get flamed for saying that, it's just my opinion & I can respect those that disagree's with me..While it was amazing what Blake & Coop did this year, and I love them both as much as any Bama Player, but, they're not immune to criticism, I just think Blake forced the ball to Coop when there were other WR's open, I know there were open WR's other than Coop, cause Coker got the ball to other WR's when he came in on a rare occasion in a game..

To answer the question Buzzard asked..I don't think he will turn an "Elite" QB loose & the system will stay exactly like it is, cause it's proven that it can & will win NC's..I think there were open WR's Blake simply chose not to throw the ball to, and he did zone in on Coop no matter what, and was going to force the ball to Coop "Come Hell Or High-Water"..What will change is an "Elite" QB will play in the same system we have in place, but, will make the right reads & check-downs, and find the open WR's, instead of continually forcing the ball to one WR's all the time..And will be able to audible out of a certain play, when he see's the D in a coverage, that isn't right for the play that's been called in..And will have an "Elite" QB that can throw accurately over the middle & hit the long ball in stride..

I don't know. Coach Saban did surprise everybody and hire Coach CLK.
Allegedly... Lane knows what a Forward Pass is.
Allegedly... Lane favors a better Offense.

Good chance that Coach Saban may change with the times...
He may fuss about it, but history sez he's capable of making changes according to his personnel.

I think an "elite" QB can succeed in the system as it is. I honestly believe that Peyton Manning in his youth would have over 300yds a game with close to an 80% completion rate. We just haven't had that type of player.

I think some of you interpret "turn him loose" as throwing a hail mary every other play. You don't have to do that be successful. Saban has proven that ball control and limiting mistakes wins ball games. Even by controlling the ball, the QB can show his ability.

RTR91 said:

I say no for the simple reason our offenses have continued to get in the same funk in every big game. The 2014 offense didn't appear on October 4 and January 1. The rest of the season was pretty much the same offense except for those two days. It's not just this year, either. Seems like the offense goes away from the game plan and goes very vanilla in the bigger games no matter the OC.

Players and assistants can say Saban doesn't hold anything back, but the product on the field suggests otherwise.

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What about the AU game and the MIZZ game? I'd call those big games. In the Ole Miss game we lost our starting center, Blake Sims was playing his first ever road game, Arie was playing on a bad ankle, and we lost the guy that had more TD's than anyone on the team when Drake got. The same funk carried over into the Arkansas game. We did get Vanilla, but were facing a very good defense on the road and lost two major players on offense. I don't know if we had a choice.

The game against OSU game kinda contradicts the point you (and Bamabuzzard) are making. The biggest gripe most people have about the Sugar Bowl loss is that we didn't run Henry enough. I've heard a 1000 times how we would have if we had "JUST RAN THE BALL!!!" when we got the ball on OSU's 29 yard line. Instead, we threw the ball and it got intercepted. "Sabanball" would have been running the ball 3 three times in the past (which he would have been criticized for if we got stuffed - everybody would have said Blake Sims has been clutch all year and 'WE SHOULDA LET HIM THROW THE BALL!!!)

I agree with you that in the past I have seen our offense go into a shell, and I myself have pretty much credited Saban for that. This year seemed to me that he decided to allow Kiffin to be more aggressive than ever before since he's been here. If anything, playing more conservative and pounding the ball against OSU may have the team in Arlington today. I'm sure TJ's injury probably factored in that, but we didn't lose that game for failure to "turn him (Blake) loose", IMO. We won the UF, LSU, AU and really even the MIZZ game by being very aggressive on offense in key moments. The playcalling at the end and in OT of LSU was something unlike we've ever seen since CNS has been here. I'd call that a big game too.

It's going to help a lot when Coach Kiffin can get into the press box.
I hope that happens starting next season.
You can see so much more up there.
sip

Bamabuzzard said:

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Okay I'll go this direction for the sake discussion.

And I suggest that at the expense of winning some games we have put more emphasis on ball control, balance and diversity rather than simply letting our athletes play. Look no further than the Sugar Bowl. Derrick Henry was averaging 7.5 yards/carry and ended up running the ball 13 times all game. As great as CNS is and lord I wouldn't trade him for anyone else. One of his flaws seems to be that sometimes he tries to stick to the "system" and let his "system" win games (which it has done, don't get me wrong) rather than turning loose some of his thoroughbreds when they've had the hot hand.

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I agree with this in that he refused to put last years Auburn game in AJ's hands and it cost us the game. AJ was every bit as good a college QB as any of those you mentioned.

In the thread title question, I'd kinda like to replace the "QB" with "OC". Kiffin sure can get conservative at seemingly the worst times. And I think that's one thing that got us beat in the Sugar Bowl. Tell me again, how many times did BS throw it over ten yards?

Yup..we're all still scratching our heads as to why we quit running Henry on the left side of OSU's D, when he was eating the left side for lunch, each carry we called Henry running to the left side of the Buckeye's D Line..Especially on the funk punt from the EZ that bounced backwards behind the 20yrd line & we came out passing eventually throwing an INT..Oh Well..Hopefully Coach Kiffin learns from it cause it suxs that his worst play-calling in a game..Came in the last & most important game of the year..

p'colabamaman said:

In the thread title question, I'd kinda like to replace the "QB" with "OC". Kiffin sure can get conservative at seemingly the worst times. And I think that's one thing that got us beat in the Sugar Bowl. Tell me again, how many times did BS throw it over ten yards?

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Point well taken Earle & you're 100% correct..And yeah you're spot on as to our offense not being atypical, as compared to our offense for the 1st of the year & from the past few seasons, and you're correct about trying to dissect what happened against The Buckeye's..Our coaching staff had an obvious game-plan for The Buckeye's & they stuck to that game-plan..The plays were there & our players just didn't make them & all the credit goes to The Buckey's D, they played a helluva game & their player's made the plays that won the game for them..I thought The Buckeye's simply beat us in all phases of the game, from coaching on down the list, except for punting, JK Scott was the best player on the football field for either team & for that player to be a Punter, is a rare occasion in the game of football..

I don't ever recall Bama having a punter, that had the longest avg per punt, for a season with a 48.0 avg per punt according to ESPN's stats for the season..Do you think it's possible JK Scott would be a 1st round pick or at least a high round pick when he heads to the NFL..Should his avg stays around 48.0 or even higher, during his career at Bama, punting the ball that well or even better than this year????..

TIDE-HSV said:

I'll say this and then "good night." The definition of "big game" has been shifting. Sure the AU and SECCG this year were "big games." We played our normal offense. However, the playoff was the biggest game of all and our offense became atypical. There's no point in dissecting it again, but, for whatever reasons, we were not the same team we'd been. Yes, TJ was injured, but we'd been playing around that for weeks...

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