BCS Championship Game: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Texas

point being, it was a great series that came out of nowhere and a total shame that it ended the way it did.

 

I'm not a fan of Greg Davis at all, but people were saying all this same stuff about Pete Carroll in 2005 with the "month to prepare" stuff. I'd also point out that the month to prepare did Saban no good last year when Utah come out and moved up and down the field as though there was no defense out there.

Saban also has a 4-6 bowl record, including a loss to Mack Brown and UT. Some of these may have been against better teams (not really sure), but it's not like he has a history of performing magic in bowl games with a month to prepare (unlike Pete Carroll had going into 2005).

 

When did Greg Davis work for Nick Saban?

Greg Davis
1998-Present Offensive Coordinator & Quarterback Coach Texas
1996-1997 Offensive Coordinator & Quarterback Coach North Carolina
1994-1995 Passing Game Coordinator Georgia
1992-1993 Offensive Coordinator & Quarterback Coach Arkansas
1988-1991 Head Coach Tulane
1985-1987 Assistant Head Coach & Wide Receivers Coach Tulane
1978-1984 Quarterback Coach Texas A&M

Nick Saban
1972–1974 Kent State (GA)
1975–1976 Kent State (D. Asst.)
1977 Syracuse (D. Asst.)
1978–1979 West Virginia (D. Asst.)
1980–1981 Ohio State (DBs)
1982 Navy (D. Asst.)
1983–1987 Michigan St (DBs/DC)
1988–1989 Houston Oilers (DBs)
1990 Toledo (HC)
1991–1994 Cleveland Browns (DC)
1995–1999 Michigan St (HC)
2000–2004 LSU (HC)
2005–2006 Miami Dolphins (HC)
2007– Alabama (HC)

They've never even worked FOR the same school, let alone at the same time.

 

The problem this year is that you don't need a month to prepare for Davis' offense this year, you only need 7 days. The tendencies are very obvious and Colt reinforces them as he tends to make the same mistakes (locking on Shipley, then panicking if he's covered, e.g.). Couple that with a weak offensive line with pretty marginal talent (Hall and Tanner were low-ranked prospects, IIRC, and won't be drafted, Ulatoski has been mediocre, IMO and always a bit overrated as he got destroyed by most decent ends he faced this year. Huey was ok before he apparently got hurt this year and was murdered by Suh obviously. Hix is the best of the crew by far.) and it is easy to shut texas down - if you have the athletes to do it.

Most of the stuff is actually pretty simple - I mean, I'm no football genius, but it looks like every time Texas goes to the silly empty backfield set, where the RB runs out to the sideline and just stands there, presenting NO threat to catch the ball, the defense now automatically blitzes up the middle and forces an incompletion or a sack. I mean that dates back to the Oklahoma game and they were STILL running the same play repeatedly on Saturday even after it failed numerous times that night. It just seems that they are laser locked on running a few plays that present 1 or 2 options, and if those options aren't there, there's no backup plan. Same thing when they were trapped on their own goal line and nearly caused a safety by running out of the I formation. That happened to them this year vs. UCF because everybody knew what was coming (handoff to Johnson). But it fails once, months later, then the same darned play is called, fails again. Reverse psychology? who knows.

The other difference is a guy like Vince Young who you can scheme for perfectly, and execute it perfectly, and still have him beat you. I mean teams like USC and OU and tOSU would spy Young with their fastest linebacker, cover all his receivers, and then he'd still rip off a 25 yard run around the corner on a scramble since he would just beat the man to the spot.

 

(just FYI - he was actually saying Major Applewhite was an OC for Saban.)

Very true - the good thing we have going for us is that the Alabama defense's big strength is stuffing the run, which is somewhat negated because anyone can do that against us anyway. Hopefully, the Alabama D-Line won't be in our backfield every play quite like Nebraska's was. If they are, it's going to be up to Muschamp to win the game.

 

He said Major Applewhite...not Greg Davis.

 

It seemed like Colt was improperly "reading" the Zone read playi n the second half on Saturday by handing off when if he was "reading" the DE he should have kept it - however those could have been designed running plays (or maybe colt was just tired of getting brutalized, for which I don't blame him).

 

He said Major Applewhite you dumbass.

 

I wouldn't mind calling more roll-outs in order to make Alabama's fat DT's run around more - the counter to the rollout is that you shrink the field and take half the WR's out of the play, but since Colt locks on to 1-2 receivers anyway (and since the pass routes with 4+ WR's are all short patterns with simultaneous breaks, which may as well be 1 or 2 WR's ) I don't really see what you are losing.

 

Hahaa...funny :grin: .

Yeah, Greg Davis runs the most predictable offense in D1. Nobody needs a month to prepare for it. How many 3rd-and-shorts can you really run with an empty backfield? Seriously...

 

Greg Davis' view of things like this is that if it's a good idea, Nick Saban will be expecting it so we'll trick them by NOT doing it! Take that, Saban.

That's why we run so many WR screens to the short side of the field to big WRs that can't dodge the initial blocker and provide no blocking WRs to help. No one will expect it, so it's GENIUS!

 

I completely agree. I actually attended UH for a year before transferring to Texas. I really liked seeing them play each other. Not gonna happen again any time soon, that's for sure...

 

Roll Tide

 

He's not leaving, and if he did, Trent Richardson is a f'n beast.

 

To be fair, Ingram wasn't Ingram last year either. He was Richardson, while Coffee was last year's Ingram.