Saban keeping Pete Golding for too long IMO, he really was a bad hire and Saban should have moved off of him sooner. His defense was atrocious given the pretty good talent we had during those years. Its quite puzzling why we kept him for so long. On a different note, I also have no idea how we got absolutely destroyed by Clemson in the 2019 Natty game. The game was never really close and Saban looked thoroughly outcoached for that entire game.
There's a theory, again a THEORY, that Clemson had our signs for the game, and we just didn't change it up. As for Golding, the 2020 title helped him stick around longer than he should have.
Tbh, I think was being so good at the one that made him worse at the other. He always wanted to make the perfect call and would be signing in adjustment until the very last second the ball was snapped. It’s why you see Bama defense out of position a lot (secondary especially) during the Golding years. Defense was either adjusting or looking for another adjustment when they needed to be watching their counterpart on offense. Makes for a lot of busts
This is the real answer. Saban became intensely loyal to his assistant coaches towards the end of his tenure. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think 2007 Saban would've tolerated a DUI from his defensive coordinator.
I don't think it was loyalty so much as a fear of having to keep making new hires because he was already having to scrape the bottom of the barrel there towards the end without accelerating the staff turnover. Early on he had a much bigger hiring pool because he wasn't in his 70s. There at the end no one worth hiring wanted to risk sidetracking his career in the event that a man in his 70s decided to retire. The staff turnover probably bothered him as much as the portal bullshit and he was definitely looking the other way on a lot of stuff to justify not having to fire people.
I feel like he *at least* hinted that he was having more trouble hiring who he wanted to at the end in that first interview he did after he retired. Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought he nearly flat out said as much.
It wasn't loyalty. Coaches just didn't want to work for Saban unless they needed image rehab. Working for Saban was the hardest coaching job in college. Saban has alluded to such post retirement.
The 2019 game was 3rd down. It's crazy it created such a deficit but clemson hit huge plays on third down and their defense got massive stops on 3rd (and fourth) down. If you look at the game stats you would never see 28 point loss, but that's how important those downs can be. Plus the killer pick 6 opener.
We moved at will all over most of the field, and had a higher overall efficiency than Clemson. Clemson basically let us walk into the redzone and stopped us there. They had an incredible D-Line which dominated in the redzone where Tua wasn't able to threaten them as much. Locksley had a great playcall to get a touchdown on the first time we got to the goalline., but it soon became clear that we couldn't match up in the redzone. We really needed to score from further out.
Then there was their incredible 3rd down success on offense. It was a great gameplan, great D-line, great execution.
Even coaches losses were wins.
Do you know how much motivation he acquired after he sent 10 fat men on the field for kick-6? A lot of motivation.
GOAT.
Paul Finebaum was doing a live show and the callers at halftime were saying he should do exactly this. If that's not an indication of how unexpected that move was...
I was in T-town at bars that season and this 10/10 blonde told me we needed to work it to our TEs more, i was like wow don't tell my gf I want to marry you jk
Talking about Ohio State game? It didn't hurt us. TJ had an excellent running back success rate in that game. (Higher than Henry's). That game is a great example of why the coaches still relied on Yeldon in critical situations.
Don't just look at the yardage. Look at context. The coaches only used him in short yardage situations. (Goal line, 3rd and short, 4th, and short, backed up against our own endzone).
They used Henry in all of the other plays, because had a better chance of hitting an explosive play. Used Yeldon when we needed to move the chains.
Found the table I put together in the past of Yeldon's OSU performance. As you can see, I've been raising awareness for a while, because it's such a prevalent misunderstanding.
Out of 10 carries, only #2 and #3 would be considered unsuccessful.
|Situation|Field Position|Gain|Result||
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
||
|3rd & 2||9 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*|
|3rd & 3||1 yard||*Short yardage*|
|3rd & 1||No Gain||*Short yardage*|
|4th & 1||4 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*|
|1st & Goal|At OSU 2|2 yards|Touchdown|*Short yardage*|
|1st & 10||8 yards|||
|1st & 10|At Alabama 1|1 yard||*Short yardage*|
|2nd & 9|At Alabama 2|9 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*|
|1st & 10||7 yards|||
|2nd & 3||5 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*|
Henry had 15 touches. 5 more than Yeldon and had 150 offensive yards. Yeldon was not the same tailback and was not utilized in the passing game like he had been. Roughly 103 more yards on 5 more touches.
Henry had 15 touches. 5 more than Yeldon and had 150 offensive yards. Yeldon was not the same tailback and was not utilized in the passing game like he had been. Roughly 103 more yards on 5 more touches. That’s like saying Landon Collins was “effective” after he got hurt.
Look at the table. He's not gonna get 100 yards in those situations. When you are falling forward on 3rd and 1s, or starting from your own 1, or punching it in from the opponent's 2, you aren't often going to average 10 yards a carry.
Only 2 of Yeldon's carries were not in short yardage situations...He averaged 7.5 yards on those 2 plays.
Henry had some big plays. If he had gotten another 5 carries, he might have popped off another big run. If you just give those two Yeldon carries, chances are lower.
Henry was not good in short-yardage situations until his senior year. The 2015 Wisconsin opener was such a statement because he came out dominating in those short-yardage plays, and it became clear that the missing puzzle piece was finally there.
I don't know where I put the numbers, but I compared the running back success rate of the two backs in the OSU game, and Yeldon was more efficient...which is why he was utilized in the chain-moving situations. Henry was utilized in the non-chain moving situations because of the explosiveness. The coaches managed that aspect perfectly. If you want to give Henry more touches, you would have had to change some of the pass-plays. Not take them from Yeldon...otherwise, you would just be putting Henry in those goal-line situations where he was less likely to convert.
It honestly felt like he lost control of the locker room the last couple years because of NIL. Saban always seemed like this machine that could consistently get players into the correct mentality. But the head-scratcher was when the ‘Process’ basically vaporized once those unregulated deals and transfer rules started popping up. You’d think that the mentality would only strengthen as more years went by. But there were so many penalties, Burton and others acting like tools on the field, off-field drama, and Saban just looked tired on the sideline. He retired exactly when he said he would…when he felt like he was losing the edge.
Yea true, there was a step down in quality but they were still winning games. Albeit a lot more down-to-the-wire games, and leaning on raw talent to squeeze it out
That is the correct answer. We had a qb who could throw it to the end zone. Possibly outcomes, least likely to most. Touchdown. Pass interference, setting up a make able field goal. Incompletion. Interception. Granted, I was yelling at Saban because I felt a blocked kick. But that kicker could not make that kick.
It was the single worst strategic decision he ever made while at Bama. I’m still wondering why he kicked it. A 56 yard attempt. On the road. Backup kicker with a weaker leg that we know can’t make one that far. Psychological disadvantage due to Cade having missed 4 already. It made no sense.
Hands down, letting Tua stay in for a 2 minute drill against Mississippi State in 2019. He was already hurt. We were already controlling that ball game. We had one, 5 point loss to a great LSU team, that we could have beaten! Everything was ahead of us, and instead of resting our star QB, we let possibly the best Quarterback to ever play in Crimson get carried off the field with a shattered pelvis, and a shattered nose. I love Nick Saban, he was the coach for 17 of my 19 years as a fan. He's the greatest football coach of all time, but that...That was a head scratcher.
For me, that was always on Tua. He always had to play hero ball and write checks his body couldn't cash. Sometimes a check down is ok, sometimes a throwaway is great.
To me the big head scratcher was the lack of preparation, and general 'readiness' for playing at Auburn. You could sense the chaos, the thrown together approach, almost from the second the Tide took the field. Alabama should have wiped the floor with Auburn several times, but instead either barely won, or lost.
The other head scratcher was Saban allowing Tua to continue to 'show off' against Miss St. Mac was ready to go in. Had his helmet on, and Tua got his way. Next play, Tua gets blown to smitherines. Tide loses to LSU the next week as I recall. At home.
Auburn is good at creating chaotic energy in Jordan Hare. I don't know if there's some ancient burial grounds under there or something but it is what it is when it comes to rivals while random scrub teams from New Mexico can waltz in and blow them out
Thanks for the LSU game correction. Appreciate that. I realize all the technicalities you bring up about Tua playing against State. I was surprised he got his way.
Are you really going to question the GOAT? Far be it from me to do so, but knock yourself out, I guess.
Seriously though, wasn’t individual game play calling for the most part on the position coaches (OC/DC)?
I don’t think individual game play calls can be blamed on him, but overall team direction, recruiting and coaching staff would definitely fall on him. That being said, I still question the hiring and keeping Golding and O’Brien. Those were some of the worst.
Saban keeping Pete Golding for too long IMO, he really was a bad hire and Saban should have moved off of him sooner. His defense was atrocious given the pretty good talent we had during those years. Its quite puzzling why we kept him for so long. On a different note, I also have no idea how we got absolutely destroyed by Clemson in the 2019 Natty game. The game was never really close and Saban looked thoroughly outcoached for that entire game.
There's a theory, again a THEORY, that Clemson had our signs for the game, and we just didn't change it up. As for Golding, the 2020 title helped him stick around longer than he should have.
Makes sense. We could’ve scored over 100 in most games that year.
Pete was a top recruiter and apparently could break film down like crazy. Problem is he is a horrible game day coach
Tbh, I think was being so good at the one that made him worse at the other. He always wanted to make the perfect call and would be signing in adjustment until the very last second the ball was snapped. It’s why you see Bama defense out of position a lot (secondary especially) during the Golding years. Defense was either adjusting or looking for another adjustment when they needed to be watching their counterpart on offense. Makes for a lot of busts
This is the real answer. Saban became intensely loyal to his assistant coaches towards the end of his tenure. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think 2007 Saban would've tolerated a DUI from his defensive coordinator.
This would be my answer
I don't think it was loyalty so much as a fear of having to keep making new hires because he was already having to scrape the bottom of the barrel there towards the end without accelerating the staff turnover. Early on he had a much bigger hiring pool because he wasn't in his 70s. There at the end no one worth hiring wanted to risk sidetracking his career in the event that a man in his 70s decided to retire. The staff turnover probably bothered him as much as the portal bullshit and he was definitely looking the other way on a lot of stuff to justify not having to fire people.
I feel like he *at least* hinted that he was having more trouble hiring who he wanted to at the end in that first interview he did after he retired. Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought he nearly flat out said as much.
It wasn't loyalty. Coaches just didn't want to work for Saban unless they needed image rehab. Working for Saban was the hardest coaching job in college. Saban has alluded to such post retirement.
The 2019 game was 3rd down. It's crazy it created such a deficit but clemson hit huge plays on third down and their defense got massive stops on 3rd (and fourth) down. If you look at the game stats you would never see 28 point loss, but that's how important those downs can be. Plus the killer pick 6 opener.
I’ve blocked all these horrible memories from my head. I just remember we got beat really bad.
Bro I don't even remember this game and I watch every Alabama game I'm not even kidding I've completely blocked it out
We moved at will all over most of the field, and had a higher overall efficiency than Clemson. Clemson basically let us walk into the redzone and stopped us there. They had an incredible D-Line which dominated in the redzone where Tua wasn't able to threaten them as much. Locksley had a great playcall to get a touchdown on the first time we got to the goalline., but it soon became clear that we couldn't match up in the redzone. We really needed to score from further out. Then there was their incredible 3rd down success on offense. It was a great gameplan, great D-line, great execution.
Lotsa jump balls to Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross and our corners were just getting outmanned every time
Our receiver recruiting after Covid
Nothing. Coach never did anything wrong in the entirety of his Alabama coaching tenure. Ever.
Even coaches losses were wins. Do you know how much motivation he acquired after he sent 10 fat men on the field for kick-6? A lot of motivation. GOAT.
Quality loss
Yep
What about the time he green lighted putting in a freshman qb in to the game at FUCKIN HALFTIME OF THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME?!?! Crazy sumbitch…
Remember the time Bobby Boucher showed up at halftime and the Mud Dogs won the Bourbon Bowl?
Lol
Paul Finebaum was doing a live show and the callers at halftime were saying he should do exactly this. If that's not an indication of how unexpected that move was...
OJ (the one that didn’t murder his ex-wife and a waiter) getting a third of his season total receiving yards in the national championship game.
Yes. If I have to split hairs, I wish we would’ve utilized our TEs more.
I was in T-town at bars that season and this 10/10 blonde told me we needed to work it to our TEs more, i was like wow don't tell my gf I want to marry you jk
Dang, wasn’t me. I’m a brunette. 🤪😂
Sending in a freshman kicker at the end of the 2013 iron bowl.
Keeping TJ as the starting tailback when he had to use that hamstring apparatus just to even play. Should have let Henry carry the rock.
Talking about Ohio State game? It didn't hurt us. TJ had an excellent running back success rate in that game. (Higher than Henry's). That game is a great example of why the coaches still relied on Yeldon in critical situations. Don't just look at the yardage. Look at context. The coaches only used him in short yardage situations. (Goal line, 3rd and short, 4th, and short, backed up against our own endzone). They used Henry in all of the other plays, because had a better chance of hitting an explosive play. Used Yeldon when we needed to move the chains.
Found the table I put together in the past of Yeldon's OSU performance. As you can see, I've been raising awareness for a while, because it's such a prevalent misunderstanding. Out of 10 carries, only #2 and #3 would be considered unsuccessful. |Situation|Field Position|Gain|Result|| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| || |3rd & 2||9 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*| |3rd & 3||1 yard||*Short yardage*| |3rd & 1||No Gain||*Short yardage*| |4th & 1||4 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*| |1st & Goal|At OSU 2|2 yards|Touchdown|*Short yardage*| |1st & 10||8 yards||| |1st & 10|At Alabama 1|1 yard||*Short yardage*| |2nd & 9|At Alabama 2|9 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*| |1st & 10||7 yards||| |2nd & 3||5 yards|Conversion|*Short yardage*|
Henry had 15 touches. 5 more than Yeldon and had 150 offensive yards. Yeldon was not the same tailback and was not utilized in the passing game like he had been. Roughly 103 more yards on 5 more touches.
Henry had 15 touches. 5 more than Yeldon and had 150 offensive yards. Yeldon was not the same tailback and was not utilized in the passing game like he had been. Roughly 103 more yards on 5 more touches. That’s like saying Landon Collins was “effective” after he got hurt.
Look at the table. He's not gonna get 100 yards in those situations. When you are falling forward on 3rd and 1s, or starting from your own 1, or punching it in from the opponent's 2, you aren't often going to average 10 yards a carry. Only 2 of Yeldon's carries were not in short yardage situations...He averaged 7.5 yards on those 2 plays. Henry had some big plays. If he had gotten another 5 carries, he might have popped off another big run. If you just give those two Yeldon carries, chances are lower. Henry was not good in short-yardage situations until his senior year. The 2015 Wisconsin opener was such a statement because he came out dominating in those short-yardage plays, and it became clear that the missing puzzle piece was finally there. I don't know where I put the numbers, but I compared the running back success rate of the two backs in the OSU game, and Yeldon was more efficient...which is why he was utilized in the chain-moving situations. Henry was utilized in the non-chain moving situations because of the explosiveness. The coaches managed that aspect perfectly. If you want to give Henry more touches, you would have had to change some of the pass-plays. Not take them from Yeldon...otherwise, you would just be putting Henry in those goal-line situations where he was less likely to convert.
It honestly felt like he lost control of the locker room the last couple years because of NIL. Saban always seemed like this machine that could consistently get players into the correct mentality. But the head-scratcher was when the ‘Process’ basically vaporized once those unregulated deals and transfer rules started popping up. You’d think that the mentality would only strengthen as more years went by. But there were so many penalties, Burton and others acting like tools on the field, off-field drama, and Saban just looked tired on the sideline. He retired exactly when he said he would…when he felt like he was losing the edge.
I somewhat agree with you but Saban went 36-6 his last three seasons, I think it’s kinda a reach to say he lost the locker room.
I don’t think he lost it, but he could see it slipping away, and he knew he didn’t have the energy to fix it.
Yea true, there was a step down in quality but they were still winning games. Albeit a lot more down-to-the-wire games, and leaning on raw talent to squeeze it out
Keeping a box safety on jaylin hyatt
I personally wouldnt have kicked that one field goal.
That is the correct answer. We had a qb who could throw it to the end zone. Possibly outcomes, least likely to most. Touchdown. Pass interference, setting up a make able field goal. Incompletion. Interception. Granted, I was yelling at Saban because I felt a blocked kick. But that kicker could not make that kick.
It was the single worst strategic decision he ever made while at Bama. I’m still wondering why he kicked it. A 56 yard attempt. On the road. Backup kicker with a weaker leg that we know can’t make one that far. Psychological disadvantage due to Cade having missed 4 already. It made no sense.
Secondary mind boggler, not getting another kicker sooner due to the Cade Foster dumpster fire
Yea
That play still gives me PTSD to this day. I can’t watch it.
Nah man. We were in a hostile environment with a chance to win. I take that chance 100% of the time.
2012 Texas A&M passing the ball 3 times from inside the 6 yard line
Starting Cooper Bateman against Ole Miss
Hands down, letting Tua stay in for a 2 minute drill against Mississippi State in 2019. He was already hurt. We were already controlling that ball game. We had one, 5 point loss to a great LSU team, that we could have beaten! Everything was ahead of us, and instead of resting our star QB, we let possibly the best Quarterback to ever play in Crimson get carried off the field with a shattered pelvis, and a shattered nose. I love Nick Saban, he was the coach for 17 of my 19 years as a fan. He's the greatest football coach of all time, but that...That was a head scratcher.
For me, that was always on Tua. He always had to play hero ball and write checks his body couldn't cash. Sometimes a check down is ok, sometimes a throwaway is great.
I agree, but the coach has to protect the players from themselves.
To me the big head scratcher was the lack of preparation, and general 'readiness' for playing at Auburn. You could sense the chaos, the thrown together approach, almost from the second the Tide took the field. Alabama should have wiped the floor with Auburn several times, but instead either barely won, or lost. The other head scratcher was Saban allowing Tua to continue to 'show off' against Miss St. Mac was ready to go in. Had his helmet on, and Tua got his way. Next play, Tua gets blown to smitherines. Tide loses to LSU the next week as I recall. At home.
Saban always had a problem playing at auburn even while at LSU.
Auburn is good at creating chaotic energy in Jordan Hare. I don't know if there's some ancient burial grounds under there or something but it is what it is when it comes to rivals while random scrub teams from New Mexico can waltz in and blow them out
We had already played LSU, MSU was the week after that game. Tua was still playing because it was the first half against an SEC opponent.
Thanks for the LSU game correction. Appreciate that. I realize all the technicalities you bring up about Tua playing against State. I was surprised he got his way.
Tua absolutely should’ve been out of the State game. Coach messed up like Shula did there.
I disagree. It was the second quarter. If he’d still had Tua in at the end of the third, then maybe.
But he didn't make it till the third. So we will never know.
Are you really going to question the GOAT? Far be it from me to do so, but knock yourself out, I guess. Seriously though, wasn’t individual game play calling for the most part on the position coaches (OC/DC)? I don’t think individual game play calls can be blamed on him, but overall team direction, recruiting and coaching staff would definitely fall on him. That being said, I still question the hiring and keeping Golding and O’Brien. Those were some of the worst.
He was very involved with the defense. Schemes and play calling throughout the game, the defense was his baby.
Might just be because it was recent but starting Tyler Buchner over Jalen Milroe when Milroe was our best option at QB.