Report: Sark to be Named Falcons OC

BamaMoon said:

I've watched his recruiting tape and in HS he was throwing on time and accurately. While there is always the fear of a HS qb not translating into the college game, I think the main problem with Jalen last year was the speed of the game and just not having a redshirt year to get adjusted like most college qbs get.

If he does nothing but adjust to the speed of the game he'll probably get better this year without doing anything else. But if he works on film study and improves his technique and understanding of the offense, I expect he'll become a much better passer. If not, Tua or Mac better get ready.

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You don't learn to adjust to the speed of the game in practice. You have to play to adjust. And some QBs take a few years playing the game to figure it out while the game was never too fast for Hurts. Thing is, those few years mean that they have been in QB meetings for years and had more time to learn to read defenses, notice pre-snap movement and how it effects receivers and routes, etc. That is where he was weak last year. So weak that Saban wouldn't risk any passes over the middle.

Hurts has the arm and the heart for the game, and he is cool even when the game is on the line. Fix this thing and he could be one of the best.

B1GTide said:

You don't learn to adjust to the speed of the game in practice. You have to play to adjust. And some QBs take a few years playing the game to figure it out while the game was never too fast for Hurts. Thing is, those few years mean that they have been in QB meetings for years and had more time to learn to read defenses, notice pre-snap movement and how it effects receivers and routes, etc. That is where he was weak last year. So weak that Saban wouldn't risk any passes over the middle.

Hurts has the arm and the heart for the game, and he is cool even when the game is on the line. Fix this thing and he could be one of the best.

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Agree mostly with what you say, but I think there were times last year that it was obvious that Hurts played with hesitancy. In HS you might could get away with that, but on the college and pro level a split second hesitation and it's too late.

I think this is why he had so many drop backs to pass that ended up in him either running the ball for little to no gain or throwing the ball out of bounds. He didn't want to make the mistake after he hesitated. I think that'll get better with time, reps and reading the defense better (which is a huge area of improvement he'll need to make).

I was a basketball player, but I know how important it is to "not have to think" but simply react to what you see. I think Hurts had way too many "wait and see moments" last year that another year in the program will hopefully eliminate.

you know given what Hurts did this year, he had pretty good season for a freshman. If you look at the other freshmen who played this year at QB... Hurts would be in top 3 for the most part. He has no where to go but up with his progression. Redshirt year or not, I think he would've experienced same thing either way.

Bamabuzzard said:

Why was he the "most criticized assistant coach" under Gundy?

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There are fans in every fanbase that blame the play caller/OC if the offense doesn't score every time or the DC if the D gives up a score. This is only mitigated if the team wins, if they don't, add the HC to the mix for hiring the fools. All you have to do is monitor a TideFans game thread. The mods do a good job and things "seem" (I only check a couple a year, so I may be wrong), but it seems like things have improved. Maybe a few of the "realists" have grown up. There is also the occassional charlatan. But it can be a hoot. Don't know what they'd do if they were AU or Vandy fans.

In full disclosure I must admit I was once the same way and you can add weeping at a loss, but when I turned 8 I had a change of heart.

Bamabuzzard said:

I'm not really sure how much I buy into this statement. I know he said it. I remember him saying it. But to what degree he actually meant it? I'm not sure. When he's wanted to do something offensively bad enough (like run the ball more) he's interjected himself and directly changed the play calling during games. Hard for me to believe he truly wanted to "open it up" to the degree we did under Kiffin (with the previous OC's), yet just sat back as if his hands were tied.

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Kiffin also said that "people think that I had to drag Coach Saban to the dance, but he was the driving force behind our change". This very rough paraphrase was made by Kiffin in the last year or so. During both the JM and DN tenures I remember multiple times that CNS publicly urged his OCs to open it up and especially to go down field.

My impression from OCs themselves, e.g., Fisher, and comments from some "insiders", is that CNS actually allows them to do their job without the interference that many think occurs. Of course if he "identifies a problem" he addresses it immediately. Just from observing from a distance, that's my sense as well.

RTR91 said:

I'll say this - Coach Hurts feels pretty strong about the situation. I'll let you guess who he blames.

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Has he spoken or typed something publicly or is this something you know through the grapevine?

BamaInBham said:

Kiffin also said that "people think that I had to drag Coach Saban to the dance, but he was the driving force behind our change". This very rough paraphrase was made by Kiffin in the last year or so. During both the JM and DN tenures I remember multiple times that CNS publicly urged his OCs to open it up and especially to go down field.

My impression from OCs themselves, e.g., Fisher, and comments from some "insiders", is that CNS actually allows them to do their job without the interference that many think occurs. Of course if he "identifies a problem" he addresses it immediately. Just from observing from a distance, that's my sense as well.

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This makes a lot of sense to me, but I have to blend it with my other impression, which is that on the risk/reward scale when it comes to INT, CNS seems pretty risk averse to me. Obviously nobody wants turnovers but some potentially highly rewarding and hard to defend passes are also higher risk. I'm not sure an OC is going to call those and then receive the butt-chewing which will be forthcoming if there is an interception on a high risk call.

RTR91 said:

He wouldn't publicly say anything.


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That's what I thought, especially from a coach, but we have had some parents do it before.

B1GTide said:

To be fair, Kiffin did a fantastic job with Sims and Coker (and other QBs at other schools before he came to Alabama). A lot of people assume that the failure to further develop Hurts lies with Kiffin, and they may be right, but they might also be wrong. It is entirely possible that Kiffin did as much as was possible with Hurts last year.

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I absolutely agree. Jalen looked like a world beater, right up to the point when we hit the meat of the schedule. After that, he was underwhelming at best. That being said, I think the right thing to do is let him go into the spring as the presumptive starter, but force him at the same time to adapt and beat out his competition to keep the job.

RTR91 said:

Personally, I'm in favor of Daboll getting the job.

Much easier to just shout "RUN DABOLL" instead of "RUN THE BALL GODSEY (or any other possible OC hire)."

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Hopefully we don't need to say that and they just run the ball.


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LA4Bama said:

This makes a lot of sense to me, but I have to blend it with my other impression, which is that on the risk/reward scale when it comes to INT, CNS seems pretty risk averse to me. Obviously nobody wants turnovers but some potentially highly rewarding and hard to defend passes are also higher risk. I'm not sure an OC is going to call those and then receive the butt-chewing which will be forthcoming if there is an interception on a high risk call.

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I agree about the risk but he is aggressive in general. I wanted Bama to test the middle of the field more, but when I remember that Jalen started turning the ball over much more the last half of the season, though many of those were fumbles, I have more sympathy with his "careful" approach.

Mike Reiss from ESPN Boston talks about Daboll and Hightower.

https://soundcloud.com/wdgm-tuscaloosa-tide-99-1/the-game-021417-mike-reiss

How much interaction can Trickett have with his current role? Loophole, maybe?


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