The problem with the entire league imitating Nick Saban's style is that it is hard to replicate what Saban does. Saban is an epic recruiter. The characterization of him in The Blind Side turned out to be accurate. Programs that try to imitate his method will typically find themselves doing so with less talent. Additionally, Saban is an outstanding defensive coach, so his teams don't need an offense to put up big numbers. In sum, Saban's style of conservative risk minimization works with a talent advantage and a dominant defense. Without those two factors, the other programs in the SEC won't be able to do what Saban's team can. Thus, even though a well-coached pro-style offense can work (and Loeffler is as good a candidate as anyone to run that offense well), the rest of the SEC looking up to Alabama could still stand to use the basic premise of the run-based spread, which is to use the quarterback as a runner to create either a numerical advantage in the box of favorable throwing conditions down the field. If you want a succinct scenario for the end of SEC dominance, it's the possibility of the rest of the conference taking the wrong lessons from Alabama's success.
From an excellent SBN Atlanta piece about the SEC's Sabanization. It really is amazing to watch sometimes. Instead of figuring out how to beat the top dog, coaches spend a lot of time trying to resemble the top dog. Like the only thing more important than winning is convincing people you're trying to win.
4 months ago
Bill C.
6 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
i'm not sure he's got the cause of this trend correct
since it seems many teams are less emulating saban’s approach than trying to find an effective strategy to combat it. i suspect this is very much the case with the hire that prompted this post.
SB Nation's The Historical: Because all those games way back when matter.
as an SEC fan, I can't disagree more
with this article. It is almost sheer silliness. the whole league is a
other than the obvious fact that two guys who worked on Saban’s staff are now head coaches in the league, there is little evidence to support the claim.
When Chizik was hired at auburn, my understanding is that he hired what he thought to be the best staff. Gus Malzahn seemed like as innovative a coach as any. Keep in mind malzahn ran a pass first spread in 09 and ran more in 2010 because he had Cam Newton and in 2011 because the QBs he had could not pass. Chizik is simply trying to find the best replacement, and in his eyes loeffler offers that.
not that vandy is a proxy for the conference, but their hiring of james franklin was not in any way done with Saban in mind nor has he defined his program with Saban in mind.
hugh freeze is a progressive offensive coach and his schemes will not reflect saban’s influence either
the only real point would be that Mark Richt hired Todd Grantham who worked at Michigan St. under Saban and installed 3-4, but while Richt had expressed an interest coaches familiar with the 3-4, he made it clear that he was trying to find the best coach, and he was a 4-3 guy that would have been fine.
Saban’s biggest influence is likely more behind the scenes in terms of the number of resources he employs that are not formally part of the coaching staff. Billy Napier is an asst to help with recruiting. Bama’s strength and conditioning staff is larger than most. my guess is many of those things will either be dealt with by the league (mandating smaller support staff) or emulated or both.
the league has always been competitive with regards to recruiting and Saban does not hold an exclusive right to great recruiting in the conference. he has done a great job and is at the top of his profession, but I do not think the rest of the league is emulating him or his schemes
Saban ran the 4-3 at Michigan St. and LSU.
"The same things win today that have always won, and they will win years from now. The only difference is the losers have a whole new bunch of excuses why they don’t win or can’t win."-Bear Bryant
(12-4)+2=12 hoping for a +1
Robot Chicken Star Wars should be canon.
by the thin red line on Jan 28, 2012 1:40 AM EST up reply actions
Jimbo Fisher is implementing a lot of Saban principles at FSU with great success so far. It appears that he is even able to match Saban in recruiting prowess. This all on significantly less resources than Saban has.
The Dline principles isn’t so much that it has to be a 3-4 front, but rather overall size of the front seven is important.
I think the hardest part of replicating Saban’s style is not having Nick Saban to control it all.
Guy on a Buffalo
That article is ludicrous
So a high level of organization, recruiting well and playing good defense are “Sabanization” now? Alabama the last few years has run a ground-first, ball-control offense with lots of play-action- which, if anything, has been the de facto standard SEC offense for ages. If anything, I think we’re seeing more and more offensive variation in the SEC the last few years, not even including the additions of Mizzou and aTm: the Mississippis, KY and Vandy running some variation of spread-to-runs, Auburn’s uptempo spread, TN and ARK vertical passing focus, LSU being insane and aimless, etc.
The SB Atlanta writer claims Clemson installed the Air Raid. They installed Gus/Chad’s spread.
"The same things win today that have always won, and they will win years from now. The only difference is the losers have a whole new bunch of excuses why they don’t win or can’t win."-Bear Bryant
(12-4)+2=12 hoping for a +1
Robot Chicken Star Wars should be canon.
by the thin red line on Jan 28, 2012 1:42 AM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
