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It’s only Day 1 of Alabama’s spring camp and head coach Nick Saban is already tired of assumptions.
Asked Tuesday about the Crimson Tide’s offense moving to more of a “ball-control” approach under first-year offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, Saban not only dismissed the notion but also voiced his displeasure with the media predicting how things will play out this season.
“I don’t know where you came up with we’re going to go to ball-control,” Saban said. “That’s not what we do. I mean the New England Patriots threw the ball over 60 percent of the time, which is more than we threw it. So where does that assumption come from?
“Or do you do what everybody else in the media does, just create some (expletive) and put it on the wall and see what sticks, which is what I see happening everywhere. The people who scream the loudest kind of get the attention.”
Getting increasingly angrier, Saban then addressed the NCAA’s decision to change the way summer camps are run by not allowing high school coaches to be present, saying the rule change would be “the most ridiculous things that I’ve ever seen.” He then briefly touched on assumptions made in politics, stating it’s the same everywhere.
“It’s the same thing with you,” Saban said to the reporter. “We’re going to be more conservative now on ball-control offense, where did that come from? I never said that, nobody in this building ever said that, so where did you come up with that? Just had a dream about it or what?”
Daboll was hired in February after serving three seasons as the New England Patriots’ tight ends coach. He has also spent time in the NFL as an offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs. Due to his previous experience in the NFL, many have predicted Daboll would run more of a traditional pro-style offense at Alabama rather than the spread attack the Tide has used over the past three seasons.
There has also been speculation Alabama might turn to more of a rushing attack this season after failing to maintain possession in its national championship defeat to Clemson. Alabama’s defense was on the field for 99 plays during the 35-31 loss to the Tigers, as the offense suffered several three-and-outs.
“We didn’t block them, we didn’t execute very well. We didn’t throw the ball accurately when we had open people, and a couple of times we dropped it,” Saban said of the national championship defeat. “I think it was more a lack of execution than it was something schematically that we were doing.”
Alabama will look for more success in its passing game as it returns its starting quarterback for the first time in three seasons. Jalen Hurts enters his sophomore year as the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year after passing for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns with nine interceptions while rushing for 954 yards and a team-high 13 scores on the ground.
“I think that because we do have a starting quarterback coming back, it’s easier for us to self-assess what we need to do for him, with him, to help him, to coach him so that he can develop in areas that would be helpful to him becoming even more of a complete player – mostly in the passing game,” Saban said. “That’s something that we’re going to work hard on in the spring and also in fall. If he could do that and be sort of a dual-threat guy, I think it would be really, really difficult for defenses to defend him.”
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