Brent Key is interior OL coach; Cristobal to T/TE; Williams to off-field position

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

TiderJ said:

I agree. Some think our OL should be 2012 every year. We struggled at times against certain opponents but in the end they were a SEC and NC group.

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Of course. We are Alabama fans. :wink:

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

crimsonaudio said:

TFL and Jake scrambling for his life (all season) gives us reason. And I'm not being overly harsh here, but I'm happy we'll have a new RT this fall.

Yes, the OL was good, and yes, they could have been better. They don't have to be Bama's 2012 OL to be consistently effective, but when your QB has to scramble / take shots as much as Coker did and you are one of the worst teams in the country in TFL, the OL isn't what it should be.

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It may be Coach Saban felt the same way.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach



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Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

Well now we have our answer. Ten back to nine.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach





https://alabama.n.rivals.com/news/bobby-williams-moving-to-off-the-field-position


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Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

Travis Reier ‏@travisreier 9m9 minutes ago
Would be awesome if Saban kept the new STs a secret. Some of ya'll would freak out not knowing who to fire every week. #TrollTide

LOL

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

CrimsonForce said:

I don't get the criticism of the o-line. They paved the way for the greatest single rushing season in SEC history and won the inaugural award for the best offensive line in the country. Henry didn't exactly juke his way to all of those yards either. Most of the long touchdown runs he was untouched. It's almost impossible to have a dominant run blocking AND pass blocking line. The best scenario is to be dominant in either run/pass blocking and just try to hold up in the other. I will admit that the TFL, sacks and pass blocking need to be improved - although some of those plays are on the coaching staff and the scheme. I'm not against the coaching change but lets not act like the entire o-line play was terrible..

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It really was sketchy at times. DH made a lot of big runs but there were many more where he got hit behind the LOS and never got going. It was mind numbing how often we'd have a busted coverage and he'd get tackled for a loss and then we'd turn around a couple of plays later and open a massive hole.

And pass blocking was below average quite often too. Jake was more nimble than many thought and got out of trouble a lot but he also took a lot of sacks.

Bottom line, there is lots of room for improvement and with a new, young qb it'll only help!

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

Can't fire the special teams coach if he doesn't exist...dang it Saban, you're smarter than all of us.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

CraigD said:

I confess that I scratched my head a bit when we won that award.

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I agree. Our OL was the weak link on the team. I am no Coker fan, but they made it harder for him than anyone we played.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

I think STs coordinator is Coach Saban, and he won't coach the players to turn their heads when the ball is near......oh wait. Lol

Blue font don't work on my phone.

Maybe he is hiring Coach Frank Beamer as a GA and he can handle STs. The oldest GA ever!

Blue font still not working.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

CNS wouldn't have brought him on staff if he didn't provide something we need. T'aint worried about who goes where here, I trust CNS and it ain't my job to coach...

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

With Bobby being an assistant to Saban of some sort, I suppose Saban keeps access to his knowledge and Bobby gets yelled at a little less.

The special teams thing, it does seem more apparent than ever it will be by committee. Though for what it's worth Key was officially a special teams coach for one year.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

There was no doubt we were better with Stoutland coaching but there are some "*" with that. Stoutland did not recruit well and left us with less talent to work with in his absence. Stoutland also had the advantage of having Fluker at right tackle who was a rare talent.

Coach Cristobal did not do a bad job in my opinion and some of his struggles are due to the lack of top talent we had. Cristobal has recruited well and amazingly won a national championship and had a 2000 yard rusher with basically one true game ready tackle. (Dominick was a guard in my opinion). I don't see this as a negative for Cristobal because our struggles were more at the tackle and he's still involved with them. What I do see is that we have failed to develop talent at tight end. Howard had a great playoff run but prior to that he under performed relative to his physical gifts. Plus no other tight end has played well in recent years. In fact the last guy who was a difference maker was Colon Peek way back in 2009. I believe Cristobal was moved to fix this problem. Since the blocking for tight ends and tackles are very similar he will work with both.

Where I think we need a change is run blocking. Under Stoutland we were more physical moving people off the ball. We had an "ok" line last season that was made better by a once in a generation talent (Henry). Though I am high on Bo I don't expect him to be Henry and his previous knee injury means I don't want him taking hits in the backfield as often as Henry did. Henry proved to be almost inhuman in his ability to stay healthy. No other back we have had under Saban has shown the ability to take such a load without slowing down. I would be surprised if Bo were able to equal that feat and to bet on that would be stupid so I'd like to see our line do a better job at run blocking.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

CrimsonForce said:

I don't get the criticism of the o-line. They paved the way for the greatest single rushing season in SEC history and won the inaugural award for the best offensive line in the country. Henry didn't exactly juke his way to all of those yards either. Most of the long touchdown runs he was untouched. It's almost impossible to have a dominant run blocking AND pass blocking line. The best scenario is to be dominant in either run/pass blocking and just try to hold up in the other. I will admit that the TFL, sacks and pass blocking need to be improved - although some of those plays are on the coaching staff and the scheme. I'm not against the coaching change but lets not act like the entire o-line play was terrible..

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This is not an idea that just came from this season... but the entire time since CMC has been here. No one expects a repeat of 2012 every year... and I agree an OL group WILL generally have a strength/weakness. However, if you couldn't see the issues with pass blocking/whifs/penalties last year, you're letting a championship cloud your vision.

Any OL coach will tell you that it's easiest to teach a kid run blocking - the thing that's difficult is to teach pass pro skills. As such, we should always expect an OL group to be strong in run blocking. Coaching and player development for most kids with size/ability is going to be measured by their progress in pass protection.

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

BAMARICH said:

This is not an idea that just came from this season... but the entire time since CMC has been here. No one expects a repeat of 2012 every year... and I agree an OL group WILL generally have a strength/weakness. However, if you couldn't see the issues with pass blocking/whifs/penalties last year, you're letting a championship cloud your vision.

Any OL coach will tell you that it's easiest to teach a kid run blocking - the thing that's difficult is to teach pass pro skills. As such, we should always expect an OL group to be strong in run blocking. Coaching and player development for most kids with size/ability is going to be measured by their progress in pass protection.

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Pretty sure I mentioned that in my post that you quoted. - I will admit that the TFL, sacks and pass blocking need to be improved

Re: Brent Key to be Alabama OL coach

CrimsonForce said:

Pretty sure I mentioned that in my post that you quoted. - I will admit that the TFL, sacks and pass blocking need to be improved

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Yet you open that post with "I don't get the criticism of the offensive line"... ???