Kiss Saban's Ass, Gene Chizik by ScAUbinsky

[Townhallsavoy]

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - You're a head football coach.

Your defense is young and inexperienced.

You made your bones on that side of the ball, and now you have to make a decision.

How do you compen­sate for your defense's shortcomings?

Do you subscribe to the KISS method? Do you keep it simple, stupid?

Please.

Keeping it simple is stu­pid.

That's not my opinion. That's the opinion of a head coach who's gener­ally considered one of the brightest defensive minds in football.

Nick Saban didn't use those exact words, but he made it clear. He would rather coach up his players, no matter how young, than dumb down his game plan.

The Alabama coach ex­plained that philosophy in response to my question on the subject Monday.

"I have confidence in the players," he said. "I have confidence in the players' ability to learn. I think a lot of coaches sometimes say they're making it simple. I never wanted to be a guy that was making it simple but then not put the play­ers in the best chance to be successful because you're being so simple, they really didn't have a chance.

"We probably always erred on the other side. When you do that, you actually develop a greater capacity for them in terms of the resource of information that they can handle, that they understand and they can adapt to in the game when things don't happen exactly like you thought they might."

After the Penn State game, Saban emphasized the need for a defense "to survive the script," the opening series or two of play calls that opposing offensive coaches put together.

He said Monday that, in the last year or two, as other teams have tried to outsmart Alabama, the opening scripts the Crimson Tide has faced often have looked nothing like what Saban and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart expected them to look like.

For the most part, the Alabama players have been able to adapt because the Alabama coaches had educated them instead of babying them.

"If you made it simple," Saban said, "they wouldn't know what to do."

Kevin Scarbinsky is a columnist for The Birmingham News. His column is published on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.It's important to note at this juncture that Saban was talking about his team during that discourse, not any other school in this state that may be struggling with youth and inexperience on defense.

He faced it last year. The Crimson Tide lost nine of the 11 starters from the 2009 team that won the BCS Championship. Alabama lost three of four starters in the secondary, three of four starters at linebacker and all three starters on the defensive front.

Alabama lost enough talent and experience to lose three games in 2010 primarily because the defense got worked for key stretches in each defeat.

"Last year, we made a lot of mistakes, but I think we grew from making those mistakes," Saban said.

Now, Alabama may have the best defense in the nation. Meanwhile, Auburn has one of the worst.

Head coach Gene Chizik and coordinator Ted Roof said goodbye to eight of the defenders that started the BCS Championship Game against Oregon, and that defense was great only in spots.

Through the first three games of this season, Chizik and Roof watched playmaker after playmaker leave behind Auburn's defensive replacements. Their solution after the Clemson debacle? Keep it simple so their young and inexperienced players can do less thinking and more tackling.

With Florida Atlantic out of the way, we'll see how that works out. Logic says simplifying the plan might give you a better chance to win if your defense has talent that's at least equal to the other team's offense.

Consider some of the playmakers Auburn will face in the next three weeks: Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery, Greg Childs and Joe Adams, Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.

Now think about the minds that will be drawing up the game plans and callings plays against the Tigers for the next three games: Steve Spurrier, Bobby Petrino and Charlie Weis.

Will Auburn really try to devise a simple solution to the complex problems they'll present? If so, Chizik and Roof could turn out to be simply brilliant -- or simply an easy mark.

 

Drop a civil comment below. Write Kevin at kscarbinsky@bhamnews.com. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/KevinScarbinsky.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/09/nick_saban_prefers_to_coach_up.html

[Kaos]

I don't like the comparison and I think Saban is full of shit and doesn't do 98% of the stuff he claims, but...

Taking plays out of the playbook didn't work for Tony Franklin.  Dumbing down the offense didn't work for Nalls-minger and Jason Campbell -- a five-year starter in the NFL, BTW. 

We've seen this same lame excuse several times already and each time we've seen it, it wasn't because the players weren't football smart enough to grasp complex schemes. No, it was used to cover coaching deficiencies. 

It's a fail.  Faility, fail fail fail. 

[Jumbo]

You spin my head right round, right round. For the record I'm a huge Kiss fan.

[Townhallsavoy]

I agree with the premise - youth isn't an excuse for bad coaching. 

But why bring Saban's name into it? 

Did we see articles about how Saban should take a page out of Gene Chizik's notebook last year? 

I don't think we did. 

I was surprised that Scarbo wrote this piece though.

[Buzz Killington]

I agree with the premise - youth isn't an excuse for bad coaching. 

But why bring Saban's name into it? 

Did we see articles about how Saban should take a page out of Gene Chizik's notebook last year? 

I don't think we did. 

I was surprised that Scarbo wrote this piece though.

I'd like to know what Saban thinks about your comment.

[Jumbo]

I agree with the premise - youth isn't an excuse for bad coaching. 

But why bring Saban's name into it? 

Did we see articles about how Saban should take a page out of Gene Chizik's notebook last year? 

I don't think we did. 

I was surprised that Scarbo wrote this piece though.

Saban replaced 5* players with 5* players. Were not there yet.

[RWS]

Saban replaced 5* players with 5* players. Were not there yet.

I thought all of Alabama's players were overrated due to pressure from BOL writers?

[Snaggletiger]

Saban replaced 5* players with 5* players. Were not there yet.

5* players is more smarter than 4* kids.

[Jumbo]

5* players is more smarter than 4* kids.

Those is my facts.

[Kaos]

The same players who were so stupid they couldn't figure out but two of Tony Franklin's calls had no problem digesting the hieroglyphics of Gus. 

Just a thought. 

[GH2001]

I thought all of Alabama's players were overrated due to pressure from BOL writers?

Your overrated 5*'s are better than our overrated 4*'s.

[Jumbo]

The same players who were so stupid they couldn't figure out but two of Tony Franklin's calls had no problem digesting the hieroglyphics of Gus. 

Just a thought.

Pictures of Cam confuse the shit out of Trotter.

[GH2001]

Pictures of Cam confuse the shit out of Trotter.

As they should.

[JR4AU]

The same players who were so stupid they couldn't figure out but two of Tony Franklin's calls had no problem digesting the hieroglyphics of Gus. 

Just a thought.

Franklin's debacle wasn't about it being too complicated.  Gus' offense is the model of simplicity, it only looks complicated to the opposing defense. 

This "dumbing things down" is coach speak.  Nothing more.

Scarbo's piece is nothing but him poking at Chiz and Roof.  Simple as that.  And using Saban's words as if he knows the only way to coach a football team.

[jmar]

Franklin's debacle wasn't about it being too complicated.  Gus' offense is the model of simplicity, it only looks complicated to the opposing defense. 

This "dumbing things down" is coach speak.  Nothing more.

Scarbo's piece is nothing but him poking at Chiz and Roof.  Simple as that.  And using Saban's words as if he knows the only way to coach a football team.

He's criticizing and challenging Chizik.