Both Kirby and Pruitt were in Saban's system for a few years before becoming the DC so when they moved up to DC they were already familiar with Saban's system. As you recall, Pruitt became a DC at FSU not Bama. I though Pruitt was making a mistake by moving up too quickly when he become the DC at FSU but he proved very quickly that he was more than capable of running a top-notch defense. I think a lot of coaches out there have knowledge but it's the better coaches who can use that knowledge the right way to coach whatever position and/or group they are coaching. Perhaps Golding does have a very good defensive mind but it does not seem like he has been able to adapt to a higher level of football than he saw at UTSA. If he had 4-5 years in Saban's system as a position coach (is DB his specialty?) before moving up to DC then he may have been more prepared.
JessN: Auburn wrap-up: A loss of systemic proportions
- Thread starter JessN
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Okay. I like to keep things simple.
Major injuries to the absolute most critical component of our defense killed us. I watched 2 Freshman LBs struggle for the whole year. Someone said Lee needs to move to the Line next year. I absolutely agree. He can bulk up even more than he is and be a force on the line. Later in the season I spent most of my time watching as he ran in circles and trailed every running back out into a pass play. Bottom Line - inexperience killed us at ILB.
We lost our MVP due to his stubbornness to not throwing the ball away.
We had no real depth at DL and against talented teams we struggled to control the line of scrimmage. When we did the ILBs were out of position to do their job. Inexperience strikes again. You can bet LSU and Auburn targeted those areas as points where they knew they could extend the drive on third downs.
You can't control injuries. You can't magically create experience.
We lost both games this year because of turnovers and missed opportunities by our offense. In the past we had the experience to overcome that on defense.
It's really that simple. I have great confidence that Coach Saban knows exactly what he needs to do with his coaches, his recruiting, his schemes and philosophy going into the future.
Roll Tide!
Major injuries to the absolute most critical component of our defense killed us. I watched 2 Freshman LBs struggle for the whole year. Someone said Lee needs to move to the Line next year. I absolutely agree. He can bulk up even more than he is and be a force on the line. Later in the season I spent most of my time watching as he ran in circles and trailed every running back out into a pass play. Bottom Line - inexperience killed us at ILB.
We lost our MVP due to his stubbornness to not throwing the ball away.
We had no real depth at DL and against talented teams we struggled to control the line of scrimmage. When we did the ILBs were out of position to do their job. Inexperience strikes again. You can bet LSU and Auburn targeted those areas as points where they knew they could extend the drive on third downs.
You can't control injuries. You can't magically create experience.
We lost both games this year because of turnovers and missed opportunities by our offense. In the past we had the experience to overcome that on defense.
It's really that simple. I have great confidence that Coach Saban knows exactly what he needs to do with his coaches, his recruiting, his schemes and philosophy going into the future.
Roll Tide!
I haven't read this thread in its entirety, but maybe one area/ coach we should look at replacing is the mental strength/ development coach, Ben Newman. This position is a critical position IMO, especially when dealing with this age range. I'm not sure if Dr. Elko is still involved with the team, but our performance and discipline seemed to be much better when he was working with the team. I know that it's up to the coaches to drill in the discipline, but mental toughness has seemed to be lacking the last few years. Just my observation.
It is not just defense, the whole program is infected with some kind of virus. I am myself am wondering the same thing Jess alluded to: Can our HC find the humility to look into the mirror?
1966 was a great year for the Tide. I started teaching at Alabama in 1967. First game Florida State. 37-37 tie. I had just received my Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (BS and MS from Wake Forest). I thought surely I must have brought a terrible heritage to Tuscaloosa. If my memory is correct Alabama went on to a 6-5 record (please correct me if my memory is not that good). So, for a couple of years things weren't that great. Then, Coach Bryant made some sort of public statement that he realized he had fallen down on the job and pledged to the team and fans that he would do better. He did. You know what happened after that.
Perhaps, that is what Coach Saban is facing. This topsy turvy turnover of coaches and having virtually no seniors (gone pro) has to have finally taken its toll.
We have had a great run. And Coach Saban remains undisputedly the best coach in college football. We still have some great players and more on the way. Look for Coach Saban to stabilize the coaching situation very soon. The Tide will be back on top and probably sooner than we have any reason to expect.
Admittedly we, as fans, are spoiled. But we are resilient fans. We can take these few setbacks, knowing full well that the tide always rises from a low. I predict that we will look somewhat better next year and much better the following year.
Roll Tide.
Perhaps, that is what Coach Saban is facing. This topsy turvy turnover of coaches and having virtually no seniors (gone pro) has to have finally taken its toll.
We have had a great run. And Coach Saban remains undisputedly the best coach in college football. We still have some great players and more on the way. Look for Coach Saban to stabilize the coaching situation very soon. The Tide will be back on top and probably sooner than we have any reason to expect.
Admittedly we, as fans, are spoiled. But we are resilient fans. We can take these few setbacks, knowing full well that the tide always rises from a low. I predict that we will look somewhat better next year and much better the following year.
Roll Tide.
Well said, and I agree completely.
I cannot speak to the discipline issues that are being alluded to in this thread by people who would know a lot more about it than I do. If that is indeed a problem, of course it's one that needs to be urgently addressed. It's hard for me to fathom that discipline could ever be a problem on a Nick Saban-led team, but people do change and tend to mellow with age.
I'll add one more thing: I think we should wait to see the outcome of the conference championship games and the playoff games before we proclaim that Nick's defense is defunct and no longer effective......for several of the teams that are in consideration that supposedly have "elite" defenses, the conference title games and playoff games will be the first time this season that they'll face offenses with any kind of significant and consistent firepower. I think this will certainly be the case for Ohio State and Clemson. I'd not be shocked to see LSU hang 500 yards and 35+ points on either of those teams, and I strongly suspect LSU will do the same to Georgia this weekend. My point is this: offensive football has changed radically in the last decade and has made defending offenses with elite talent inherently more difficult. I think for the foreseeable future, the days of completely stonewalling a high-powered offense with elite talent are behind us and a more realistic goal will be to hold those types of teams under 30 and hope to outscore them. I know purists absolutely hate that football is devolving into this type of play, but it's here whether we like it or not and it will take a massive overhaul in (a) rule enforcement and (b) development at the high school level to change this significantly.
I'll agree that surrendering the kind of points and yardage that we did to Auburn, who had been fairly mediocre in offensive output for most of the year (though not without high-level talent), is the result of defensive problems but I'm not sure that I agree that these are systemic problems that cannot be fixed without a massive overhaul of the defensive philosophy. I think with a healthier and more experienced defense on the field Saturday, we beat Auburn by 2-3 scores even running Nick's same old 3-4 over/under.
Lastly, I'll say that I agree with other posters in the assertion that Auburn always seems to be more prepared and more "juiced" for this game than we are. Honestly, to me that predates the Saban era. The last coach we had that seemed to have us visibly better prepared for an Auburn team of roughly equal talent and ability was Dennis Franchione in 2001. I'm not sure why this is the case, other than I think it's obvious Auburn takes this game more seriously than we do as a program and they probably spend half their season or better each year working in preparations for it. I think Nick logically understand the importance of the game, but for whatever reason we always look a bit flat against these guys, particularly if they are ranked and the game is in Jordan-Hare. He's been in Tuscaloosa long enough that nothing suggests that it will change anytime soon, and it's quite frustrating in an era where we've rattled off 7 consecutive wins against LSU and 13 consecutive against Tennessee. I suppose even the greatest coaches have their Kryptonite and for whatever reason Auburn just that for Nick, unfortunately.
If there's a bright spot in all of this, I think it's likely AU will sign another contract extension with Malzahn, who will promptly go 7-6 or 8-5 the next two seasons based on sheer precedence.
There were myriad of reasons why the team struggled on defense. You score 45 and lose, it is not the offense, period. Losing Tua hurt and I think we win with him under center.
1st and foremost the defense did not have a dominant nose tackle. Argue all you want, but the 3-4 begins and ends with a 2 gap NT and none of the guys this year were getting double teamed. The last 4 or 5 years we've had either a dominant NT or a guy on the D-line who was so good he created mismatches constantly. Quinnen Williams, Jason Allen, etc. While our young LB's did not play well( Honestly, I've never seen a kid as lost as Christian Harris, I watched him time and again running around pre-snap trying to figure out his responsibility) , but they are also having to take on a blocker almost every down.
The 2nd major issue is recruiting. We've had good recruiting classes, but had some misses that were costly at critical positions like LB and nose tackle. We've also had a few kids who were head cases from day 1. See Enoma, and Alfano. Think if we had those kids lining up this year. Enoma looked to be a budding star, but apparently going to class is too difficult for him. We' don't have kids taking directed reading classes in Stats either. The recruiting pool has been thinned out by Kirby Smart, and Pruitt as well other coaches . We had our way in Georgia while Richt was there. Now we get maybe 1 in 3 or 4 we recruit there.
Then there is the early exodus of juniors. We may lose as many as 10 or 11 juniors this year and replacing them with players who are at their talent level has dropped off. Experience is now at a premium as we had 6 freshman starting on the defense by the end of the year.
The 3rd point I'll make is we have just gotten away from Alabama Football. By that, I mean we simply aren't always the toughest dog in the yard any more. We used to run the ball, play good sound defense, and solid special teams. We just made them quit. Coach Saban said it himself that we needed to get the "Bama Factor" back and we failed miserably. There is no doubt Tua is a special talent, but we got so far way from running the ball that if he didn't have a good or great game, we were doomed. I believe if we had established the run more, Tua would not have gotten hit much less and he might have been there to play in the Auburn game. I don't think we had to run the ball every down, but we were so one sided, that if we had a kid drop a ball, we lost a possession in a game where every possession needed to produce points.
I will add that I am not a Sark fan. I saw no consistency in the system and saw no effort to establish anything other than Tua slinging the ball. The west coast offense is fine in the big 12, but in the SEC it is a different matter altogether. I'd like to see us be more like UGA this year. We had the guys to do it in the backfield and the O-line, but I never saw us run the ball except as a change of pace for the most part. If we want to make them quit, we'll have to start with running the ball more.
I have complete confidence Coach Saban will make whatever changes that are necessary. We'll be back.
1st and foremost the defense did not have a dominant nose tackle. Argue all you want, but the 3-4 begins and ends with a 2 gap NT and none of the guys this year were getting double teamed. The last 4 or 5 years we've had either a dominant NT or a guy on the D-line who was so good he created mismatches constantly. Quinnen Williams, Jason Allen, etc. While our young LB's did not play well( Honestly, I've never seen a kid as lost as Christian Harris, I watched him time and again running around pre-snap trying to figure out his responsibility) , but they are also having to take on a blocker almost every down.
The 2nd major issue is recruiting. We've had good recruiting classes, but had some misses that were costly at critical positions like LB and nose tackle. We've also had a few kids who were head cases from day 1. See Enoma, and Alfano. Think if we had those kids lining up this year. Enoma looked to be a budding star, but apparently going to class is too difficult for him. We' don't have kids taking directed reading classes in Stats either. The recruiting pool has been thinned out by Kirby Smart, and Pruitt as well other coaches . We had our way in Georgia while Richt was there. Now we get maybe 1 in 3 or 4 we recruit there.
Then there is the early exodus of juniors. We may lose as many as 10 or 11 juniors this year and replacing them with players who are at their talent level has dropped off. Experience is now at a premium as we had 6 freshman starting on the defense by the end of the year.
The 3rd point I'll make is we have just gotten away from Alabama Football. By that, I mean we simply aren't always the toughest dog in the yard any more. We used to run the ball, play good sound defense, and solid special teams. We just made them quit. Coach Saban said it himself that we needed to get the "Bama Factor" back and we failed miserably. There is no doubt Tua is a special talent, but we got so far way from running the ball that if he didn't have a good or great game, we were doomed. I believe if we had established the run more, Tua would not have gotten hit much less and he might have been there to play in the Auburn game. I don't think we had to run the ball every down, but we were so one sided, that if we had a kid drop a ball, we lost a possession in a game where every possession needed to produce points.
I will add that I am not a Sark fan. I saw no consistency in the system and saw no effort to establish anything other than Tua slinging the ball. The west coast offense is fine in the big 12, but in the SEC it is a different matter altogether. I'd like to see us be more like UGA this year. We had the guys to do it in the backfield and the O-line, but I never saw us run the ball except as a change of pace for the most part. If we want to make them quit, we'll have to start with running the ball more.
I have complete confidence Coach Saban will make whatever changes that are necessary. We'll be back.
Doomed? We lost three games in two seasons, and almost every loss was predicated upon defensive failures.
By the way, I get blaming the defense for the recent losses, but Auburn's offense did not score 48 points.
In reality, the defense held them to 31. That's still bad, but 45 beats that last time I checked. So we can't say "if you score 45 and lose, that's on the defense." Not this time.
In reality, the defense held them to 31. That's still bad, but 45 beats that last time I checked. So we can't say "if you score 45 and lose, that's on the defense." Not this time.
Yeah, giving up 31 to that AU team is pretty pathetic. The only power 5 teams they scored more than 28 on - Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Alabama.
I think when it comes down to it we made mistakes that cost us the game, we could have won this game if not for the turnovers and untimely penalties, by a score of 55-24.
You do realize we rushed for 180 yards against one of the best defenses in the country in Auburn? Not to mention throwing for 335 yards and 4 dimes with a backup quarterback.
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I only blame Sark for the pick six in the first half. He hadn't let Mac Jones toss a ball past the LOS since the first series which was roughly an hour in real time. I thought that was a perfect time for a UGA inexplicable 3rd and long draw or tailback screen. You're at the 10 yard line. You haven't let your QB throw a difficult pass in an hour. It is 3rd and long. And sure enough, Mac just threw a ball with a megaton of adrenaline to a wide-open WR that ended up landing in a DB's hands who was in no position to make a play otherwise.
The other pick six was just bad luck where a lineman missed a block and Mac Jones threw a bad ball with pressure in his face on a roll out. Maybe could've ran it there but 1st and goal at the 2 is a perfect spot for play action roll out like that play. It is an easy TD if the blockers got the job done.
The other pick six was just bad luck where a lineman missed a block and Mac Jones threw a bad ball with pressure in his face on a roll out. Maybe could've ran it there but 1st and goal at the 2 is a perfect spot for play action roll out like that play. It is an easy TD if the blockers got the job done.
I thought Sark was one of the few bright spots on the assistant staff this year.
Last year's offense was the one that just wanted to let Tua sling the ball down the field. And oh by the way, take a look at how Maryland fared this season.
Last year's offense was the one that just wanted to let Tua sling the ball down the field. And oh by the way, take a look at how Maryland fared this season.
I think we're in very good position with our OC and OLC situation by what I've seen this year. Flood demonstrably improved that unit over the course of the season. We got significantly more physical in the run game. Haven't had that kind of power at OL since Stoutland days earlier in the decade. Charles Huff did great work with Harris who became an alpha dog down the stretch. He never really materialized a turnaround with Brian Robinson who faltered as a reliable spellback option late in the season. Some of that may be on the player. Holoman Wiggins is a tough evaluation simply because he was given 4 NFL WRs and they continued to be 4 NFL WRs. Next year will be a great metric for him. Overall, the offensive staff was either invisible or demonstrated an ability to develop their players during the season.
Defense is less peachy. I don't think the corners played up to their amount of experience. OLBs seemingly lost years of football IQ during the season. ILBs were still playing like true freshmen with no game experience in game 12. DL was mostly invisible and that is a bad thing.
Defense is less peachy. I don't think the corners played up to their amount of experience. OLBs seemingly lost years of football IQ during the season. ILBs were still playing like true freshmen with no game experience in game 12. DL was mostly invisible and that is a bad thing.
My point is we are not and have not been balanced between the run game and passing game in at least 2 years. Balance makes the defense have to guess how to defend where when you pass most of the time, they just rush the QB and cover. This was also a statement on the season as much as Saturdays game.. We struggled to run early in the year and while 180 yards against Auburn was good, but it wasn't great which is where we have been up until the last few years. I noticed that formationally we are predictable. If we are in tight, we are not likely to throw and vice versa when we are in the wide set. LSU used a tight formation to throw out of and it worked very well. While I don't think you can go back to 3 yards and a cloud of dust either, I do think we can add in more runs. I realize Tua is a great player, but we could have protected him more with a more of a commitment to the running game. If we had done that ,who knows, maybe Tua is still playing on Saturday. Again, we have the ball Saturday at the 2 and we throw the ball and it is a pick six which is at least a 10 point swing even if we run it 3 times and don't score a TD. Yes we threw for 335 years but if we had run the ball more during the game, I think Najee could have had over 200 yards rushing and perhaps Auburn never gets the opportunity to score and go up on us.
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