Sark will be fine

huskylawyer

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Congrats on a great season Bama fans.

Regarding Sark, he'll be fine. You put up 30+ on a Clemson's defense (and only 17 on offense against us when Kiffin was calling plays).

As I told you before the game, Sark loves the screens, WR quick outs (ran it two plays in the row!), and you should expect a heavy dose of hitting the RB on a pass outside the backfield. Sark called a game that we fully expected last night.

If you really want to understand what Sark will do for you guys, check out the two years of tape during the Jake Locker years. Locker and Hurts are incredibly similar. Both big guys will incredible athleticism, but so so passing ability. Sark is not stubborn. He quickly learned that Locker couldn't hit a barn if he was next to it, and Sark correctly focused on the run game and easy passes during the latter part of Jake's sr year, and we ran off a number of wins at the end of the season (including a win versus NEbraska in a bowl where Locker complete four passes).

Regarding recruiting, IMHO Sark will focus more on dual threat QBs as he did at Washington. He just likes QBs who can move IMHO.

Hang in there guys. YOu upgraded at o-coordinator IMHO. As long as Sark stays off the bottle and leaves the coeds alone, he should be fine.
 

KrAzY3

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I think anyone who blames Hurts or Sark for the loss really didn't grasp the situation.

Sark might have had an easier transition, but he still had one week to go establish himself as a playcaller. He didn't have a chance to really introduce his own offense. So, his first game calling plays is against a top ten defense (that made Ohio State look like crap) and he was basically calling Kiffin's plays. Add to that, Hurts is a true freshman... that's a stacked deck. I'd have liked to see a few more sustained drives, but if not for a couple drops and penalties that would have happened. I am excited about the potential in the future as Sark and Hurts both have time to settle in.
 

81usaf92

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Sark called as good of a game as he could with the circumstances. The two drives that made me scratch my head was when we had it on our 10 via Watson pooch punt, and the run-pass-pass-pass drive. Other than that it was a better called game than what we got since the aTm game. Jalen is going to get better next year, and sark will be a terror on the SEC.
 

Bamabuzzard

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The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I'll keep my fingers crossed.


Congrats on a great season Bama fans.

Regarding Sark, he'll be fine. You put up 30+ on a Clemson's defense (and only 17 on offense against us when Kiffin was calling plays).

As I told you before the game, Sark loves the screens, WR quick outs (ran it two plays in the row!), and you should expect a heavy dose of hitting the RB on a pass outside the backfield. Sark called a game that we fully expected last night.

If you really want to understand what Sark will do for you guys, check out the two years of tape during the Jake Locker years. Locker and Hurts are incredibly similar. Both big guys will incredible athleticism, but so so passing ability. Sark is not stubborn. He quickly learned that Locker couldn't hit a barn if he was next to it, and Sark correctly focused on the run game and easy passes during the latter part of Jake's sr year, and we ran off a number of wins at the end of the season (including a win versus NEbraska in a bowl where Locker complete four passes).

Regarding recruiting, IMHO Sark will focus more on dual threat QBs as he did at Washington. He just likes QBs who can move IMHO.

Hang in there guys. YOu upgraded at o-coordinator IMHO. As long as Sark stays off the bottle and leaves the coeds alone, he should be fine.
 

Tideflyer

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Sark will be fine....We will be fine. Closing in on the 24 hour rule. Time to move on. Personally and for me, time for the next season ( completing recruiting ). Roll Tide !!
 

KrAzY3

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Frankly, I would have liked it if we could have transitioned to him sooner.
In hindsight, I think Saban would have preferred that as well. But, Kiffin was just so good in the playoffs last year and making a transition was never going to be perfect, not at that point in the season. So I understand why Sark calling Kiffin's offense was plan B. If only Kiffin could have just stayed focused... but while I lament that, I credit him with Alabama being able to beat Clemson in a shootout. Last year if anything it was Smart that let the team down.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Oh, I hope Sark goes to Clemson and borrow few plays from them. there were some plays I saw last night that I liked and would love to see it incorporated into the offense. Sark did pretty good job for what he had to work with in one week. If he had taken over few weeks ago, There would be no doubt we'll be celebrating the trophy by now.
 

TideMom2Boys

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I don't think we score in the 30's with Kiffin. He may be a fantastic play caller, but his head wasn't in the game. Sark will be fine. He now has all off season to mold the offense.
 

LA4Bama

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I think anyone who blames Hurts or Sark for the loss really didn't grasp the situation.

Sark might have had an easier transition, but he still had one week to go establish himself as a playcaller. He didn't have a chance to really introduce his own offense. So, his first game calling plays is against a top ten defense (that made Ohio State look like crap) and he was basically calling Kiffin's plays. Add to that, Hurts is a true freshman... that's a stacked deck. I'd have liked to see a few more sustained drives, but if not for a couple drops and penalties that would have happened. I am excited about the potential in the future as Sark and Hurts both have time to settle in.
I certainly do not blame Sark, but I feel you are using circumstances to let him off a bit too easily. We ran about 50/50-pass/run last night, which is already a questionable decision given what has worked for us over the last 6 games. And, in the second half we stuck with the pass more than made sense given the game situation and the earlier ineffectiveness of the passing game (e.g. the 10 yard run by Harris followed by three passes). The main thing that bugged people about Kiffin's game was his stubbornness with things that didn't work. Sark did show a bit of stubbornness at times calling what clearly had not been working. I hope the issue works itself out in that we become a balanced offense, but if we remain unbalanced, we have to be willing to own our real identity and not the one the OC wishes we had.
 

KrAzY3

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I certainly do not blame Sark, but I feel you are using circumstances to let him off a bit too easily.
There's a pretty strong counter argument though. The Clemson defense was coming off a shutout of Ohio State, in which they made a veteran, well respected, and for part of the season Heisman candidate look terrible. This scenario was never going to be easy. Add to that the fact that Sark wasn't even running his own offense, and Bo got hurt? I agree there were some mistakes in execution, but he drew up some big plays on a stingy defense. There were some failures of execution though that really cloud what could have occurred vs. what really happened. It's hard to judge an OC without understanding what he's trying to set up and what went wrong.

What I was worried about going in was the potential for a train wreck on offense. First time calling plays, true freshman QB, top ten defense, things could have been ugly.
 
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LA4Bama

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There's a pretty strong counter argument though. The Clemson defense was coming off a shutout of Ohio State, in which they made a veteran, well respected, and for part of the season Heisman candidate look terrible. This scenario was never going to be easy. Add to that the fact that Sark wasn't even running his own offense, and Bo got hurt? I agree there were some mistakes in execution, but he drew up some big plays on a stingy defense. There were some failures of execution though that really cloud what could have occurred vs. what really happened.

What I was worried about going in was the potential for a train wreck on offense. First time calling plays, true freshman QB, top ten defense, things could have been ugly.
Is this a counter argument to the point that the play calling showed a moderate disconnect between who we really are and what we wish we were?

Just because an opponent is a good fastball hitting team does not mean you ask Nolan Ryan to throw a bunch of change ups and curve balls. Sometimes you have to play to your own strength even though that may be strength on strength.

We had a very good running attack this year, and we did not have a superior passing attack, so the fact that we tried to pass as much as run, the fact that we stuck with it when it didn't work great, and the fact that we did it even despite a game situation that might suggest otherwise, these points seem to stand up despite the valid points you are making.
 

81usaf92

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Is this a counter argument to the point that the play calling showed a moderate disconnect between who we really are and what we wish we were?

Just because an opponent is a good fastball hitting team does not mean you ask Nolan Ryan to throw a bunch of change ups and curve balls. Sometimes you have to play to your own strength even though that may be strength on strength.

We had a very good running attack this year, and we did not have a superior passing attack, so the fact that we tried to pass as much as run, the fact that we stuck with it when it didn't work great, and the fact that we did it even despite a game situation that might suggest otherwise, these points seem to stand up despite the valid points you are making.
There was 8 in the box all night and aside from two incredible runs by bo they were stopping us more times than we were gaining. The big reason is they were slanting and just whipping our linemen. So we had to appear balanced. You can't fault him for that. Jalen didn't hit his receivers and his receivers weren't catching, so really what can you say.

Aside from the two drives I've mentioned earlier there isn't really anything negative I can say about Sark's play calling. I would blame o line execution and Jalen's freshmen ceiling more of the cause to our offensive problems. Next year we will open it up a lot better because Sark and Jalen will have more time to progress.
 

LA4Bama

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There was 8 in the box all night and aside from two incredible runs by bo they were stopping us more times than we were gaining. The big reason is they were slanting and just whipping our linemen. So we had to appear balanced. You can't fault him for that. Jalen didn't hit his receivers and his receivers weren't catching, so really what can you say.

Aside from the two drives I've mentioned earlier there isn't really anything negative I can say about Sark's play calling. I would blame o line execution and Jalen's freshmen ceiling more of the cause to our offensive problems. Next year we will open it up a lot better because Sark and Jalen will have more time to progress.
That's simply not accurate. Harris averaged 4.8 ypc, and Jacobs averaged 8 ypc! Jalen averaged 6.3 ypc. The team averaged 6.5. Of course if you take out Bo's two best runs then the team average drops, but even then the running game was effective. But why would you arbitrarily take out the two best runs and then ask how effective we were? Harris and Jacobs are both capable of breaking one, so it could have happened again.

We had 34 runs and 32 passes. However, Jalen had 10 of the runs; let's assume for the sake of argument that half of those were scrambles and half designed runs (which is being generous), then on that assumption we had 29 run plays called and 37 pass called. That's 60% passes called. Why called 60% of our plays for the side of the offense that is less effective? I do not get that! We played the entire game with a lead, so we didn't have to pass to come back. There's no sense to it.

Also, I do not advocate taking away the big play and then calculating average, because the big plays are real and significant. But let's say we do take away Bo's big runs, then we should do that also for the passing game. Jalen was 13/31 for 131 yards, or an average of 4.2 ypa. Take away the 68 yard play to OJ (which was due to a busted coverage that while awesome to watch was not exactly going to happen regularly) and you get 12/30 for 63 yards, or an average of 2.1 ypa. Granted some dropped passes, but all things considered this was quite ineffective.

Like many people, I'm not trying to bash Jalen when I point out the issues. He did what he was asked to do as well as he could do it. The fact is, this thread is about Sark and presumably his play calling. I for one thought we passed too often when it was clearly not working as well as the run game, and that while it is only one game, and admittedly played under odd circumstances, that this seems like stubbornness similar to that shown by Kiffin, (except last year Kiffin wasn't stubborn and we won the game).

Speaking of last year, to make the point even clearer, I'll add that last year, if we assume that every Coker run was really a sack or scramble, then we called passes 33 times and runs 38 times. See, there, how we ran a lot more by percentage last year. And Henry carried 36 times for an average of 4.4 ypc; which includes his 50 yard run. This year the entire team ran only 34 times (including 10 from Jalen) for an average of 6.5 ypc. We had a weapon in our running backs and another in Jalen's legs that we did not have last year in Coker's, but for some reason we tried to make Jalen pass a higher percentage of the time than we asked Coker to do that; even though our running game was more effective this year! We did not play to our identity. That is my point.
 

B1GTide

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Is this a counter argument to the point that the play calling showed a moderate disconnect between who we really are and what we wish we were?.
That about sums up what went down the last few games for Alabama.

For myour wife and I - spent the day at Disney with people who we love. It made getting past the loss a lot easier for my wife, who is now talking about next season. She even started congratulating Clemson fans in the park.
 

Al A Bama

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Oh, I hope Sark goes to Clemson and borrow few plays from them. there were some plays I saw last night that I liked and would love to see it incorporated into the offense. Sark did pretty good job for what he had to work with in one week. If he had taken over few weeks ago, There would be no doubt we'll be celebrating the trophy by now.
My suggestion is to look at those pick plays. My suggestion would then be to have several hostile, mobile, eligible, and agile 300+ lb. linemen serve as TE's and WR's and sort of build a wall keeping the opponents DB's from being able to prevent them from accessing a RB in motion moving to the end zone to catch a TD pass on the far left or right. Runtheoption, could that work?

This comes from someone who's not an OC.
 

81usaf92

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That's simply not accurate. Harris averaged 4.8 ypc, and Jacobs averaged 8 ypc! Jalen averaged 6.3 ypc. The team averaged 6.5. Of course if you take out Bo's two best runs then the team average drops, but even then the running game was effective. But why would you arbitrarily take out the two best runs and then ask how effective we were? Harris and Jacobs are both capable of breaking one, so it could have happened again.

We had 34 runs and 32 passes. However, Jalen had 10 of the runs; let's assume for the sake of argument that half of those were scrambles and half designed runs (which is being generous), then on that assumption we had 29 run plays called and 37 pass called. That's 60% passes called. Why called 60% of our plays for the side of the offense that is less effective? I do not get that! We played the entire game with a lead, so we didn't have to pass to come back. There's no sense to it.

Also, I do not advocate taking away the big play and then calculating average, because the big plays are real and significant. But let's say we do take away Bo's big runs, then we should do that also for the passing game. Jalen was 13/31 for 131 yards, or an average of 4.2 ypa. Take away the 68 yard play to OJ (which was due to a busted coverage that while awesome to watch was not exactly going to happen regularly) and you get 12/30 for 63 yards, or an average of 2.1 ypa. Granted some dropped passes, but all things considered this was quite ineffective.

Like many people, I'm not trying to bash Jalen when I point out the issues. He did what he was asked to do as well as he could do it. The fact is, this thread is about Sark and presumably his play calling. I for one thought we passed too often when it was clearly not working as well as the run game, and that while it is only one game, and admittedly played under odd circumstances, that this seems like stubbornness similar to that shown by Kiffin, (except last year Kiffin wasn't stubborn and we won the game).

Speaking of last year, to make the point even clearer, I'll add that last year, if we assume that every Coker run was really a sack or scramble, then we called passes 33 times and runs 38 times. See, there, how we ran a lot more by percentage last year. And Henry carried 36 times for an average of 4.4 ypc; which includes his 50 yard run. This year the entire team ran only 34 times (including 10 from Jalen) for an average of 6.5 ypc. We had a weapon in our running backs and another in Jalen's legs that we did not have last year in Coker's, but for some reason we tried to make Jalen pass a higher percentage of the time than we asked Coker to do that; even though our running game was more effective this year! We did not play to our identity. That is my point.
Take away Jalen's 30 yard run and he is averaging 3 yards a carry, and take away Damien's 13 yard run and he is averaging 3, and Jacobs had 2 runs for 16 with a long of 13. Not exactly earth shattering as you seem to believe. Clemson's line was pretty darn good and they controlled our line for most of the game. Their second level was their weakness, so we had to get there.
 
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LA4Bama

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That about sums up what went down the last few games for Alabama.

For myour wife and I - spent the day at Disney with people who we love. It made getting past the loss a lot easier for my wife, who is now talking about next season. She even started congratulating Clemson fans in the park.
I'm glad you had a nice day and are feeling better.

I'm fairly cerebral and get over things by trying to understand. I enjoy the analysis and it helps me feel better, even if it's not what I want to see. :)
 

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