ESPN Reporting Daboll is New OC

AlBamaWagg

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One obvious question mark is recruiting. The players he'll be recruiting were little children who probably hadn't thought about football when he was on the College level. OTOH, the lure of being coached by an NFL guy would probably be a big positive.
 

GrayTide

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My view is that this is a developmental hire for CNS. He chose someone with little experience in coaching college offenses. Conversely, he is someone that CNS has experience with, having had him as a grad assistant at Michigan State. Given his lack of experience, he is unlikely to be wooed away to another job anytime soon. And his lack of experience means he is unlikely to come with many preconceived notions that will clash with CNS's offensive proclivities. So look for fewer *** chewings on the sideline, something we saw a lot with Kiffen. I think if he is successful, I think he is likely to be around for a while. OTOH, he is pretty much an unknown quantity. No one can tell if he will succeed or not.
Better be careful expressing your opinion about this hire.
 

bamagradinATL

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I agree with you. And I think the "settling" comment is just a sign of the times in CFB. If it's not flashy or exciting then it must be a questionable hire. Well, guess what? We have elite talent, coaching, conditioning, and winning experience - an OC that develops our QB and offense, schemes intelligently, and puts our guys in position IS ALL WE NEED.
I agree with the notion that hires who aren't flashy are questionable. Since Saban has been here, which OC has been a flashy or exciting hire?
 

TiderJack

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I agree with the notion that hires who aren't flashy are questionable. Since Saban has been here, which OC has been a flashy or exciting hire?
Kiffin and Sark are the only two. I have not really weighed in on this subject. I'm sure Saban had a good long conversation with Billicheck and he was told he was a smart, talented, high energy, good football coach that he wanted as his OC when McDaniel left. In any job interview ever that would be about as good a reference as it gets. The GOAT coach of the NFL giving an endorsement to the GOAT coach of college football.

I think it will prove to be a very good hire and those doubting should know that CNS put a lot of research and time in this hire.
 

81usaf92

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I think some are putting far too much on the heir apparent thing to McDaniels. Take in account that Daboll has been a part of all 5 of BB's SB's in some capacity, so he knows expectations and how Brady takes criticism best. Bill Obrien and TB didn't get along ,and was BO basically was told to find somewhere else once McDaniels came available again. The Daboll situation was probably due to his familiarity with TB and BB, and less on that he was McDaniels's equal.
 

BamaInBham

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Feb 14, 2007
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Yeah, I'll be completely honest with y'all. If Gus had made this hire, I would not have been happy. Belichick and Saban's (earned) credibility, however, leads me to believe that there's something there I'm just not seeing.
I agree with you that the Saban/Belichick stamp of approval is the greatest comfort, but IMO, there's more than that. 3 different NFL franchises wanted him as their OC. And Brett Favre had one of his best seasons as an NFL QB - and this was late in his career, with the Jets. And though the team records were poor to bad, the HCs were bad and there was not 1 starting quality QB, in fact most of them were not even NFL backup worthy. I do think the "...a part of 5 SBs" is over stated, but he has been a part of a committed and smart staff. His rep is that he communicates well with the players and staff. The main personal trait is that he appears to be smart, coming from that staff.

I don't think Saban settled at all. In fact, by the last week before the hire was made, he was who I personally wanted because it was clear how badly Coach Saban wanted him. Bama was waiting on Daboll, not the other way around. I can think of very few college OCs I would rather have had. Only Dan Enos, Lincoln Riley or Kevin White might have interested me more and that's primarily because of a proven track record with a balanced college offense. I had no desire for Kelly, Helfrich, etc. IMO, he starts off in the SEC only behind Enos and maybe Canada.

This also seems to signal, not a full retreat, but a move toward the pre 2014 offense. It's hard to abandon the QB runs and RPOs because they give Os such an advantage; also, it's easy to overlook the 1 man advantage with the QB runs. It's good to be able to practice against such offenses on a regular basis. But Bama has the talent to run a NE type "pro spread", though they'll never have a QB to run it like Brady does. They are smart enough to adjust.

I agree with others that the idea of a "safe hire" was not a factor, in fact, he could be gone after next year, assuming he does a good job.
 
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rgw

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Saban hired two "who?" types and two "who's who" types at OC since Applewhite.

We've won more titles with the "who?" OCs than "who's who" OCs (3 v. 1).
 
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Nolan

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I agree with the notion that hires who aren't flashy are questionable. Since Saban has been here, which OC has been a flashy or exciting hire?
Do you? See, I don't. That's the point I was making. The media creates the "questionable hire because it's not so and so" story. CNS knows what he's doing. How there is anyone that still doesn't get that, I don't know. I guess he has to win the NC every single year and twice sometimes :conf2:
 

rgw

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Kiffin made me a firm believer in the "give a person a chance before condemning them" thought process on coordinators. I thought he would be a massive bust and be gone within 2 years if not by the end of 2014. Had a mostly successful run with 3 SEC titles, 3 playoff berths, 2 championship game appearances, and 1 national title.
 

Nolan

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Kiffin made me a firm believer in the "give a person a chance before condemning them" thought process on coordinators. I thought he would be a massive bust and be gone within 2 years if not by the end of 2014. Had a mostly successful run with 3 SEC titles, 3 playoff berths, 2 championship game appearances, and 1 national title.
It says a lot about the Alabama standard that it was a "mostly" successful run. :wink:
 

Harmost

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And Brett Favre had one of his best seasons as an NFL QB - and this was late in his career, with the Jets.
Not that I think we should put much stock in it either way, but that was one of Favre's worst seasons and it was sandwiched in between two very good seasons.

And I'm not sure I'd read much into the fact that he got 3 different OC jobs either. NFL hiring is pretty whacky stuff.

But again, Daboll might turn out to be good; in any case, he'd have to pretty bad to wreck our offense. Just hard to look at his history for a ton of hope -- easy to look at it and say "hard to say," sure, but not much better than that.
 

bamaslammer

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The press has to sell clicks and unfortunately for DaBoll Gus and Freeze haven't done anything to make themselves look stupid lately so.... Somebody's got to go under the bus.

Saban of course could care less what they think of his hire.

I heard someone on JOX say that this was "a move in the wrong direction" toward "something that didn't work". My jaw fell open at that point, I seem to have this memory of three national championships running the same pro spread that New England runs.

The Kiffin offense which we have run the last three seasons has produced some great numbers and spactacular plays but the downside is that it depends too much on the quarterback and has a feast or famine nature to it. Many plays are run with little expected success which serve only to tire out the defense or set them up for later. This inconsistency resulted in putting the defense out there for more snaps relative to what they might have gotten if the offense ran the pro spread. The weakness of the Kiffin offense showed mostly against the best competition. against weaker competition the mismatches resulted in blowout wins with eye popping stats. What we saw previously running the pro spread was sometimes frustratingly lower scores against teams we were going to beat anyway, but when we needed them to produce against the best competition the offense often came forward with their best games. By produce it wasn't always reflected on the score board, but it was always reflected in the time of posession. Time of posession is huge in football. At the half time of the Clemson loss when I looked at the time of posession I knew then we were in big trouble, the scorboard was irrelevant at that moment. Winning is about control.
 
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BamaInBham

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Not that I think we should put much stock in it either way, but that was one of Favre's worst seasons and it was sandwiched in between two very good seasons.

And I'm not sure I'd read much into the fact that he got 3 different OC jobs either. NFL hiring is pretty whacky stuff.

But again, Daboll might turn out to be good; in any case, he'd have to pretty bad to wreck our offense. Just hard to look at his history for a ton of hope -- easy to look at it and say "hard to say," sure, but not much better than that.
Sorry about that. I had read another post that said that - I should have checked it out. In all fairness, Favre was having a great season and had the previous 4-12 Jets at 8-3. But he tore his biceps tendon at some point and he fell apart the last 5 games. TD-Int ratio went from 20-14 to 2-8. The surrounding seasons were with 2 far superior franchises at the time: GB and Minn. Ultimately how much difference does an OC make to an established player like Favre anyway. So, I withdraw that point 😊.

I do think that 3 different teams wanting him does matter to some degree, though Mangini and Crennel were from the Belicheck tree - don't know about Sparano.

But as we all know, it's mostly about the players as you implied saying, "he'd have to be pretty bad to wreck our offense". Bill Walsh could have done little with Daboll's NFL OC surrounding cast: Crennel, Brady Quinn, Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace, et al. He was only in wretched, usually transitional, situations. It's hard to read anything into it other than that he was wanted and has some experience
 

TideEngineer08

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Yeah, I'll be completely honest with y'all. If Gus had made this hire, I would not have been happy. Belichick and Saban's (earned) credibility, however, leads me to believe that there's something there I'm just not seeing.
Well, full disclosure, I have not been impressed with any hire that Gus has made so there's that. And I'm not saying that as a retaliatory remark, just that the Belichick/Saban credibility is a very real and tangible thing that means a great deal here.
 

KrAzY3

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It is easy to forget that this is a short notice hire. While I think there has to be some sort of friction behind the scenes for Sark to abandon Alabama so quickly and try to make it in the NFL (it is odd because in many ways one would ague Sark is a better fit for Alabama and Daboll a better fit for Atlanta), this clearly caught Nick Saban off guard. He did not have the replacement waiting, he wasn't prepared, and the replacement hire was not immediate like we see in some situations.

I'm not going to lie and say I'm excited by Daboll. I'm not, I don't see how I can be. There's no success in his career to point to and get excited over. In some ways this reminds me of some of the hires away from Nick Saban's defense, guys getting promoted under the pretense that they're a part of a great defense.

Nick Saban knows the guy personally though. He knows his former employer personally also. So while I can say this guy has had no success as an OC, he has really no track record in college, or recruiting, Saban trusts him and that goes a long way to. Also, he's co-oc. There's a fall back built in. So, what is this hire? It's kind of a stopgap. He got someone he can trust in to fill a need.
 

JustNeedMe81

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I partially agree with krazy on several things he said. Daboll is likely to be here for 1-2 years... which is enough to show Patriots that he can handle it. Another thing is We're not really making a huge changes in our offense... we are just making pro style little more important than other aspect. I expect us to be able to run multiple offense. I just feel like we won't see Hurts playing a lot this spring... Giving Tua and Jones lot of reps to develop.
 

BamaMoon

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I don't think some are giving CNS the "benefit of the doubt" on this hire.

In a pretty dead time, with the exception of spring practice around the corner, CNS could have reached out to anybody he wanted in the profession. But we heard very little about others being targeted....which usually comes in the form of...Coach X at University O saying he's staying.

I understand his record as an OC isn't earth shattering, but I'd be shocked to learn that Daboll wasn't just the kind of OC CNS had decided he wanted. He took the time needed and it happened.
 
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bodiddle

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I partially agree with krazy on several things he said. Daboll is likely to be here for 1-2 years... which is enough to show Patriots that he can handle it. Another thing is We're not really making a huge changes in our offense... we are just making pro style little more important than other aspect. I expect us to be able to run multiple offense. I just feel like we won't see Hurts playing a lot this spring... Giving Tua and Jones lot of reps to develop.
Well, Hurts needs a lot reps to develop as well.
 

westide

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With all the NCs that CNS has won he seems to have a very good track record in picking OCs.
 
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