News Article: Nick Saban needs to evaluate staff after bad play-calling dooms Tide in blowout loss

JustNeedMe81

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https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/...-play-calling-dooms-tide-in-blowout-loss.html

It served as a reminder of how difficult it is to replace your offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator seemingly every year. Saban has been so good at replacing departing assistants it’s easy to assume there will never been a discernible drop off in coaching but the constant turnover caught up to him in Santa Clara.
There were curious play calls -- moving away from the run on Alabama’s first drive of the second quarter when Josh Jacobs was dominating was a head scratcher -- and an inability to keep the Tide’s offense in rhythm. Alabama’s disastrous fake field goal attempt that featured kicker Joseph Bulovas as the lead blocker won’t soon be forgotten but throwing the ball three consecutive times on Clemson’s 26-yard line -- after the Tide already had three runs of nine-yards or more on that drive -- wasn’t much better. Alabama racked up plenty of offensive yards against Clemson but it felt like Locksley, Tagovailoa and the rest of the offense forgot what worked all season once they entered the red zone. After falling behind Clemson, Alabama became desperately aggressive on offense which didn’t work.
Saban admitted after the game he was worried Clemson could capitalize on a depleted and overmatched Alabama secondary.
“(I) never really ever got comfortable with what we needed to do to win this game, especially on defense, especially the match-ups we had in our secondary versus their receivers,” Saban said. “That was something that was kind of bothering me going into the game, and as the game unfolded, it worked out that those match-ups were a big difference in the game.”
 

AlexanderFan

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Jul 23, 2004
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If he felt that way we should've mitigated our disadvantage by holding the ball with the running game.

He is the boss after all.


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RollTide_HTTR

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Feb 22, 2017
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I doubt I'll ever rewatch this game so my memory will probably always be a little fuzzy when it comes to specifics but there seemed to be about as many "What in the world?" calls in this game as the rest of Saban's career here combined.
 

JustNeedMe81

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If you listen to his postgame interview after the game last night, It sounded like he was confused to what was going on with the offense.. and he felt like we got away from what was working for us in the game.

Also, he mentioned copycat stuff Clemson took from other's team and used it against them. (MSU, Georgia).... and they didn't practice against that. Sounds like lack of preparations all around.
 

JustNeedMe81

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If he felt that way we should've mitigated our disadvantage by holding the ball with the running game.

He is the boss after all.


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I think we all thought we should've stayed with running game until they can't stop it anymore. Locksley got too impatient.
 

Evil Crimson Dragon

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If you listen to his postgame interview after the game last night, It sounded like he was confused to what was going on with the offense.. and he felt like we got away from what was working for us in the game.

Also, he mentioned copycat stuff Clemson took from other's team and used it against them. (MSU, Georgia).... and they didn't practice against that. Sounds like lack of preparations all around.
This week is probably the “come
to Jesus” time with the staff..........
 

Chukker Veteran

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Feb 6, 2001
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If you listen to his postgame interview after the game last night, It sounded like he was confused to what was going on with the offense.. and he felt like we got away from what was working for us in the game.

Also, he mentioned copycat stuff Clemson took from other's team and used it against them. (MSU, Georgia).... and they didn't practice against that. Sounds like lack of preparations all around.
I thought the reference to "copycat" stuff was as close as I've ever heard Saban come to saying something that could be interpreted as a shot at the other team or coaches. I took it as a sign of his frustration with how the game was going.
 

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
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First, I didn't take the copycat stuff anyway at all. He was just plainly saying "they looked at the tape and took a bunch of the plays we struggled with over the season." He does the same thing, he means no ill by it. I think he was surprised that Clemson was doing it because they usually just run "their offense." He got caught with his pants down. He won't underrate Dabo's prep again I suppose.


Second, we won't have to worry about getting this staff raided after a 28 point smackdown I reckon. Maybe we should lose more so we can have more staff continuity.
 

Bluegrasstide

1st Team
Oct 31, 2010
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I think that one of the biggest obstacles we have sometimes is staff continuity. It is hard on all coaches involved as you seem to constantly be adjusting to new personalities and styles. When you are both in the film room and in the trenches familiarity with the people around is a plus. With that said, we also have to consider the strain that it creates for the players. Not only are assistants who recruits have the closest relationships with, but that also are who they bank on being "their coach" during their college career. At this point, I would take a coordinator staying to see the kids he recruited through. And, yes, I do realize I am complaining about continuity in a program that has 5 Nattys since 2009... I read some posts last night wishing for a Mickey Andrews or something to that effect. I think that there is a lot validity to those sentiments. I just wonder if the Venables and Bud Fosters are just remnants of era that has passed? I hope not.
 

davefrat

Hall of Fame
Jun 4, 2002
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on the radio they said that we have had 13 assistants leave and that the only assistants we have in main positions since the first Clemson game are Lupoi and Cochran.

over that same span, Clemson has lost 2.

there's no doubt that played a role, but there's no getting around that we were just taken to the woodshed last night...the coaches and the players.

they were better prepared, better motivated and made better adjustments.

i've never seen any of our teams under Saban ever look so overwhelmed as they did last night.

Clemson did to us what we normally do to our opponents...confuse us, beat us up, and make us quit.

it was just an all-around horrible performance on our side and an absolutely masterful performance by Clemson.

give them their do...they were far and away the best team in the country last night and it wasn't even close.

time to lick our wounds, regroup and see where we go from here.
 

CrimsonForce

Hall of Fame
Dec 20, 2012
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This was maddening:

"throwing the ball three consecutive times on Clemson’s 26-yard line -- after the Tide already had three runs of nine-yards or more on that drive -- wasn’t much better."

We'd run between the 20s at will and then start throwing or playing cute in the red zone. I firmly believe if we just run the ball every play in the second half we might have won. Definitely would not have lost by 28..
 

bamamc1

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Oct 24, 2011
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I think Clemson spent the majority of the 4 off weeks getting ready for us. They knew they would smoke ND and we stressed OU. My opinion.
 

EnterBama

Scout Team
Oct 24, 2018
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I don't know if it's coaching changes or we need better recruiting but our LB play was bad last year and got even worse this year. Linebacker's playing well is essential to Saban's defensive schemes. Without it we're not as good at stopping the run or the pass no matter how good or bad our secondary is.
 

twofbyc

Hall of Fame
Oct 14, 2009
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My question is:
Did anyone on defense have even a decent game?
If I’m a pro scout, I wanna see what juniors thinking of turning pro do against equal talent.
I know you can’t base it off of one game, but I don’t think any junior playing defense last night improved his draft stock at all.


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Evil Crimson Dragon

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This was maddening:

"throwing the ball three consecutive times on Clemson’s 26-yard line -- after the Tide already had three runs of nine-yards or more on that drive -- wasn’t much better."

We'd run between the 20s at will and then start throwing or playing cute in the red zone. I firmly believe if we just run the ball every play in the second half we might have won. Definitely would not have lost by 28..
I was wondering what Locksley was thinking when those plays were called........ we get something going and they stop doing it


Also agree that the position of LB needs attention......
 

BamaMoon

Hall of Fame
Apr 1, 2004
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This was maddening:

"throwing the ball three consecutive times on Clemson’s 26-yard line -- after the Tide already had three runs of nine-yards or more on that drive -- wasn’t much better."

We'd run between the 20s at will and then start throwing or playing cute in the red zone. I firmly believe if we just run the ball every play in the second half we might have won. Definitely would not have lost by 28..
They had the perfect plan: Don't let Tua get going and don't let us beat them over the top (they gave up one big play for our first TD like that) AND they decided they'd let his get chunk plays on the ground, but when we got into close to scoring, they were able to trick us into trying to run and they were able to stop it. Defense wins championships.

Credit where credit is due.
 

Al A Bama

Hall of Fame
Jun 24, 2011
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First, I didn't take the copycat stuff anyway at all. He was just plainly saying "they looked at the tape and took a bunch of the plays we struggled with over the season." He does the same thing, he means no ill by it. I think he was surprised that Clemson was doing it because they usually just run "their offense." He got caught with his pants down. He won't underrate Dabo's prep again I suppose.


Second, we won't have to worry about getting this staff raided after a 28 point smackdown I reckon. Maybe we should lose more so we can have more staff continuity.
Maybe we need to ADVERTISE to all university teams that the Clemson has some GREAT assistant coaches. Raid that staff and leave Dabo hunting for 10 NEW assistant coaches.
 

Bluegrasstide

1st Team
Oct 31, 2010
508
83
47
Pikeville KY
This was maddening:

"throwing the ball three consecutive times on Clemson’s 26-yard line -- after the Tide already had three runs of nine-yards or more on that drive -- wasn’t much better."

We'd run between the 20s at will and then start throwing or playing cute in the red zone. I firmly believe if we just run the ball every play in the second half we might have won. Definitely would not have lost by 28..
Absolutely... Whatever happened to staying on schedule and in front of the chains... What is wrong with 2nd & 6 or 7?
 

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