Nick Recklessly Endangering Players

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2014/09/alabama_no-huddle_offense.html

Alabama using no-huddle offense, but is it fast? Nick Saban explains how Tide is different

Michael Casagrande
September 04, 2014 at 5:43 AM

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Take one look at West Virginia's offense and it's obvious what they're doing. Sprinting to the line after every play, the Mountaineers ran a true hurry-up offense against Alabama on Saturday.

The Crimson Tide, however, dabbled in its own brand of football's latest offensive craze. The huddle was skipped on several drives, but there wasn't the same sense of urgency.

Call it the no-huddle, no-hurry offense.

This was more a matter of rhythm and communication than trying to overwhelm the Mountaineer defense with track speed. There was some degree of that, but Alabama isn't about to join the ranks of the jet-speed offenses.

"We weren't really trying to go fast," coach Nick Saban said. "We can go fast, but to me, for us, it was a communication issue. It's easier to communicate when you're going no-huddle because you just have code words and short words for plays and passes and that kind of stuff. It eliminates the communication in the huddle, it makes it easier for the quarterback, so that's the reason that we went to it to settle Blake (Sims) down in the game."

It started in the middle of a second quarter drive when there were issues with formations and play calling. So after a 10-yard pass to Amari Cooper, Alabama jogged back to the line of scrimmage instead of the huddle. It took 18 seconds.

That was on the fast end of Alabama's no-huddle spectrum. They took as many as 30 seconds to get plays off as Sims took time to survey the defense instead of trying to catch them out of alignment. 

Still, Alabama ran 82 offensive plays after averaging 63.5 a game in 2013. The Tide's first touchdown drive (14 play, 95 yards) averaged 30 seconds per play on the game clock. But in the no-huddle touchdown march in the third quarter (six plays, 70 yards) it took just 18 seconds per play.

The experiment worked as the Tide scored two touchdowns on drives without a huddle and kicked field goals on two others.

Center Ryan Kelly said Alabama's no-huddle will never be compared to Texas A&M. It's more about maximizing the play clock since the Tide had to call two first-half timeouts to avoid delay of game flags.

"It's just, it takes 10 second pressure off of what we're doing in the huddle, so we can get to the line and if we need to make audible or adjustments we can, without being time crunched to three, two one seconds left," Kelly said. "It just gives the quarterback more time. Obviously Blake came into that game, first career start, so I think the no huddle actually helped him out. He wasn't freaked out on time."

It also helped limit what West Virginia's defense could do schematically. The Tide line saw fewer "exotic fronts" as the Mountaineers had to revert to its base defense

"For us as an offense, the faster we can get up there and run the plays, kind of keep them on their heels, it's an advantage for us," Kelly said.

But it also emphasizes an aspect of the game that troubled the Alabama line at times last fall. Communication is huge when the play is called at the line of scrimmage. All 11 players need to receive the same message traveling a longer distance.

"Obviously, when you're in the huddle, everybody's hearing the same call," Kelly said. "But when the wide receivers are over here, the line's going to the ball, the running back's back here, there's got to be communication all through the offense. There are some things we've got to work out this week. I think after two days we've already ironed out some problems. We'll be fine."

[AUChizad]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jeremy-fowler/24688445/alabama-survives-wvu-scare-33-23-with-blake-sims-at-qb

Will Tide QB Sims force Saban to tweak 'dinosaur' offensive ways?

August 30, 2014 7:09 pm ET

ATLANTA -- If Blake Sims is Alabama's full-time quarterback instead of Jacob Coker -- and that race seems far from over -- it's time for Nick Saban to embrace what he seemed to oppose for years.

No-huddle offense.

Fast Football.

The same thing that helped West Virginia frustrate an underwhelming Tide secondary with 365 passing yards while running plays every 19 seconds during Alabama's solid yet unspectacular 33-23 win in the Georgia Dome.

Sims, a fifth-year senior and first-time collegiate starter, is an athletic quarterback in a pro-style offense. He'd be perfect for some read option, but that's not coordinator Lane Kiffin's thing.

But Saban, a self-proclaimed supporter of the "dinosaur age" offense with blocking tight ends and two backs and two receivers, admits Sims was at his best when the Tide went no-huddle. Sims was rattled in the second quarter. He called a few wrong formations or plays in the huddle, causing the Tide to burn timeouts. Saban told Coker -- the touted FSU transfer who was expected to win the job but didn't -- to get warmed up. Time to play.

But then Saban had another thought. He told Kiffin to dial up a faster pace.

Sims (24-of-33 for 250 yards and an interception) was at his best when the Tide offense fired off six plays in 1:27 to end the half, an average of 14.5 seconds per play, twice the per-play pace of the previous drive.

During that span, Sims completed all four of his passes for 28 yards and ran for another 21 to set up a 41-yard Adam Griffith field goal. Yes, the Tide had to go fast since it was the two-minute drill, but Saban took notice of how comfortable Sims looked when the offense moved.

Will this challenge Saban's beliefs at his core?

"We'll certainly consider (more no huddle)," said Saban, who in early 2014 advocated a proposal that offenses must wait at least 10 seconds between plays before snapping the ball. "We have the capability to do it... I think we will do what we think benefits our players the most."

Quarterback isn't the Tide's biggest problem right now. After one game, that appears to be cornerback, where Alabama is usually stout but looked lost at times covering West Virginia's wideouts.

In fact, erase a few crucial third-down drops and WVU might have won this game. An incomplete pass to fullback Elijah Wellman at the 1-yard line early in the fourth would have been a walk-in score.

Saban said he expected a tight game since he was playing with a new quarterback and West Virginia was better than advertised, but he probably didn't plan on calling his defense "soft" during a halftime TV interview, which means either the Mountaineers are a Big 12 contender or Alabama has problems again.

The average Alabama fan didn't expect to call West Virginia's Clint Trickett (365 passing yards) the best former FSU quarterback on the field. That was supposed to be Coker, who entered the game with 1:05 left for a few garbage handoffs. Coker didn't take ownership of the job in fall camp.

The Tide found itself in survival mode, which can suit Sims well because of his scrambling ability. Sims offset a few errant throws with an impressive ability to avoid sacks.

Sims, the SEC's new version of Matt Flynn, a fifth-year senior with minimal fanfare whose relief efforts could affect the SEC West tilt, felt good winning the starting job because "I worked hard," he said.

He'll feel even better if the Tide caters to Sims' skill set.

"Very comfortable in what we did," said Sims when asked about being in the no-huddle for parts of the game. "Maybe we can bring it into next week."

Coker will probably get his shot. Saban said he wants his staff to help Sims improve "as well as Jake."

The starting quarterback won't be the star, though. Running backs T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry -- with 239 rushing yards on 40 carries Saturday -- are the stars. An Alabama quarterback must handoff left, handoff right, complete a few third-down passes, repeat.

Sims, despite misfiring on a few open receivers in the first half, sealed the game with a 3rd-and-7 conversion to a slanting Chris Black with 4:42 left. He should have had 300 passing yards but a wide-open Christion Jones dropped a deep pass late in the third quarter.

"Couldn't be more proud of that guy," said right tackle Austin Shepherd of Sims. "He pretty much just gets in the huddle and he is ready to go."

Looming larger than quarterback play is a secondary that allowed 8.1 yards per passing attempt, with starting corner Bradley Sylve struggling mightily at times. West Virginia converted 4-of-7 third downs in the first half.

Saban stressed his defense needed a quarterback, which senior linebacker Trey DePriest should solve when returning Saturday against FAU. The Tide had "a lot of mental errors," he said. A repeat performance might help Florida pull off a Sept. 20 upset in Tuscaloosa.

"Very frustrating," said safety Landon Collins about giving up key third downs.

When Saban needs a spark, though, he can turn to old friend Kiffin to change the pace. Kiffin called a "fantastic" game Saturday, Saban said.

"The guy's a really good coach, now," Saban said. "Ya'll need to fess up to that."

Kiffin can punctuate that statement if Sims, the unlikely starter thrust into a huge role, has success.

[Godfather]

You don't get it Chizad, don't worry about what Nick does. Just do what he says.

[Townhallsavoy]

I'm glad he's doing this. 

This is way out of his element and when he gets into difficult conference games, he's going to struggle with decision making.  Does he resort to his old ways of clock management, grind it out, play defense football, which his team has not practiced as much for?  Or does he keep with the new philosophy that he believes is not the best therefore keeping him unconfident going into the 4th quarter? 

[AUChizad]

Also, this.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000386450/article/nick-saban-tells-media-to-fess-up-on-lane-kiffin

Nick Saban tells media to 'fess up' on Lane Kiffin

    By Chase Goodbread

Lay off of Lane Kiffin, OK? Because Nick Saban says to.

One game into Kiffin's first season as offensive coordinator at Alabama, the Crimson Tide piled up 538 yards of offense Saturday in a 33-23 win over West Virginia. And after all the heat Kiffin has drawn as a head coach at various stops in his career -- from the Oakland Raiders, to Tennessee, to his midseason firing from USC last year -- Saban was quick to defend his top offensive assistant after the game.

"You know, the guy is a really good coach now, all right," Saban said, according to al.com. "Y'all need to fess up to that. And most places that don't like him is because he left and they were mad because he left. They weren't mad about anything he did while he was there. Just do a little research on that."

OK, Nick. Let's do the research.

Kiffin's record as head coach of the Oakland Raiders was 5-15, ending in a midseason firing with the club at 1-3 in 2008. Then owner Al Davis called Kiffin a liar in announcing his ouster. Here's guessing Raiders fans were a lot more upset with the losses under him than the loss of him. From there, it was off to Tennessee, where Kiffin led the Volunteers to a 7-6 record. Blowout losses to Ole Miss and Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl didn't exactly endear Kiffin to that fan base, either. And anger over his departure was more about how he handled his exit than the exit itself. Last year, Kiffin endured his second midseason firing when he was let go as head coach at Southern Cal with a 3-2 record, immediately after a 62-41 loss to Arizona State. Southern Cal was so mad he left, interim coach Ed Orgeron briefly became the most popular guy in TrojanLand.

Kiffin could prove to be an outstanding coordinator for the Crimson Tide and is highly regarded for his offensive mind. Saturday night was an impressive start, and with the offensive talent Alabama has, Kiffin has a chance to look awfully good this season.

But he'll never be good enough for Saban to re-write his history.

[Snaggletiger]

USC is mad at him because he left?  I think it had more to do with.....he sucked.  Do a little research on that.  Aiight?

[dallaswareagle]

USC is mad at him because he left?  I think it had more to do with.....he sucked.  Do a little research on that.  Aiight?

It looks like nobody gets mad that he "leaves", just mad that it took so long.

[GH2001]

His D and entire team philosophy is not built around any kind of HUNH.

From recruiting all the way to the style of D he runs. It just doesn't suit it. Way out of his element.

[Buzz Killington]

I hope recruits are reading these articles.  Nick hates his players and wants them to get hurt.

[Godfather]

"You know, the guy is a really good coach now, all right," Saban said, according to al.com. "Y'all need to fess up to that. And most places that don't like him is because he left and they were mad because he left. They weren't mad about anything he did while he was there. Just do a little research on that."

I heard him say that in his press conference, and thought.... what?!?

[Saniflush]

USC is mad at him because he left?  I think it had more to do with.....he sucked.  Do a little research on that.  Aiight?

[Snaggletiger]

I heard him say that in his press conference, and thought.... what?!?

Why were you listening to his press conference?

[Godfather]

Why were you listening to his press conference?

Was on SEC TV, and I was taking a shit.

[Godfather]

[Snaggletiger]

Was on SEC TV, and I was taking a shit.

I can live with that.