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Alabama / O’Brien impact

Cane6 said:
I’ve started digging into Bama and listening and reading updates on their camp.

In addition to Bryce Young being a first time starter, I also think we get the benefit on Bama incorporating a new coordinator. I’m curious what @romancane can share regarding Bill O’Brien’s philosophies are as a play caller.

Between O’Brien’s background and their likely starters on offense, I expect an offense that leans more pro style than spread. Supposedly they’ve got a couple TEs they like, and Young has pretty consistently being going their way.
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O’Brien is gonna run bamas system. He’s not overhauling ****
 
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I’ve personally never seen the hype in BOB. He’s always had talented QBs. His offense has never really seemed dynamic, from a scheme.

Now if he is running the Bama offense, he’s also the first guy to come in with no prior knowledge of it, since Daboll back in 2017. Which even then Locksley was Co-OC and it was his second year with the team. Point being since 2014 every OC was essentially groomed for the job. BOB is the first true outside hire.

Bama has everything to lose and honestly nothing to gain in this game. Personally I believe they’ll play smart ball control early. Try and wear us down and open things up late.
 
Five page play book to one hundred and thirty eight page playbook. I’m sure it will be an easy transaction and first game for nine new starters on offense
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Control the ball? Do you guys watch games? Alabama hasn’t been in the top 40 in TOP in 6 years. You think John Parker Wilson is walking through that door?
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Good god... Lets start this over. You mention what bama has done the last 6 years. Well whats synonymous with bama over that period of time? Alex i'm going with superior qb play & dominant wide recievers for one thousand... Now fast forward into the here and now since the present is relevant in our discussion. #1 lets try bill o'brien who is KNOWN for a heavy pro set. Meaning at the least they are going to try **** hard to establish the run and high percentage completions. #1b bama is breaking in **** near an entirely new offense but especially all new wide recievers and oline. In those instances you lean even more on simple brutality. What is our degense known for? Making plays in the back field and forcing mistakes out of the qb. Our dline and linebackers arent exactly physically superior lets just say... Anyone knows our defense is predicated on the blitz. How do you counter that? You run into the teeth of it once your line establishes itself. The last thing that makes this obvious bama will work to establish top is our offense is all about quick strikes. The more they keep us off the field the better. On top of the defense becomes less effective the longer theyre on it for obvious reasons.
 
I will say this Saban does keep a base playbook on both O and D Bc he has so much turnover at his Cordinators spots. He does let the new guys add their own stuff to it but he tries to keep some uniformity for current players so the installs are easier
 
Having the best players made Coker and Chudzinski look like good coordinators. So even if O’Brien is a dud, it’s hard to totally ***** up that much talent. That said, lots of new faces on the offensive staff coupled with lots of new faces on the first team offense could lead to some growing pains or at least an “adjustment period” where the offense isn’t 100% clicking. I can’t imagine their game plan is going to be super creative. Sometimes teams are so much more talented than their opponent, they can broadcast what they’re going to do and still do it. I don’t think the gap here is quite that big so if Miami can force O’Brien into his bag of tricks, even if it’s by selling out to stop the run, that’s a win for the good guys.
 
DTP said:
Having the best players made Coker and Chudzinski look like good coordinators. So even if O’Brien is a dud, it’s hard to totally ***** up that much talent. That said, lots of new faces on the offensive staff coupled with lots of new faces on the first team offense could lead to some growing pains or at least an “adjustment period” where the offense isn’t 100% clicking. I can’t imagine their game plan is going to be super creative. Sometimes teams are so much more talented than their opponent, they can broadcast what they’re going to do and still do it. I don’t think the gap here is quite that big so if Miami can force O’Brien into his bag of tricks, even if it’s by selling out to stop the run, that’s a win for the good guys.
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It all may get simpler than even that. Football is a LOS game and as much time and attention is often given to the flash and dash, the behemoths on the LOS will decide this game. Who gets a push, who gets the time.
 
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TUSKtimes said:
It all may get simpler than even that. Football is a LOS game and as much time and attention is often given to the flash and dash, the behemoths on the LOS will decide this game. Who gets a push, who gets the time.
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Absolutely. I would expect Alabama to try to make and early statement by forcing the run. Miami is going to have to make 1st down a big deal. If Bama can line up on first down and just call a bread and butter play and get 4,5,6 yards. It’s going to be a long day. Miami will have to sell out a bit. They’re not capable of just playing some base cover 2 or cover 3 and controlling the run game. We’re going to have to use a similar method to what opponents used against is last year. Play a tite front/pinch the line, play single high with the other safety near the LOS and play physical press coverage on the outside and hope your DB’s can make it really hard for the opponent to beat you over the top. Clemson, killed us with it. Pitt did a valiant job but they didn’t have the horses on the back end gave up too many big plays. NCST tried it but D’Eriq King killed them with the vertical passing game. Knowing Manny Diaz, Miami will likely run blitz on early downs. He’s desperate to get those negative plays on first down to put the opponent behind the sticks.
 
DTP said:
Absolutely. I would expect Alabama to try to make and early statement by forcing the run. Miami is going to have to make 1st down a big deal. If Bama can line up on first down and just call a bread and butter play and get 4,5,6 yards. It’s going to be a long day. Miami will have to sell out a bit. They’re not capable of just playing some base cover 2 or cover 3 and controlling the run game. We’re going to have to use a similar method to what opponents used against is last year. Play a tite front/pinch the line, play single high with the other safety near the LOS and play physical press coverage on the outside and hope your DB’s can make it really hard for the opponent to beat you over the top. Clemson, killed us with it. Pitt did a valiant job but they didn’t have the horses on the back end gave up too many big plays. NCST tried it but D’Eriq King killed them with the vertical passing game. Knowing Manny Diaz, Miami will likely run blitz on early downs. He’s desperate to get those negative plays on first down to put the opponent behind the sticks.
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Are you playing a lot of "Nickle" as your primary defense? You saw what Ohio State threw at us in the title game, right? They came out in a base defense and often were trying to match up with our 12 personnel with 3 and 4 Lbers on the field, even in their Cover 3 look. They really struggled with Najee Harris on wheel routes and in the passing game. Their Mike Lber actually got caught on DeVonta Smith when we lined him up in the slot dragging across the middle. They had no choice in that base and Sark was seeing the easy matchups. I don't expect that from Miami necessarily, but it's tough stopping these power sets without adding guys in the box.
 
TUSKtimes said:
Are you playing a lot of "Nickle" as your primary defense? You saw what Ohio State threw at us in the title game, right? They came out in a base defense and often were trying to match up with our 12 personnel with 3 and 4 Lbers on the field, even in their Cover 3 look. They really struggled with Najee Harris on wheel routes and in the passing game. Their Mike Lber actually got caught on DeVonta Smith when we lined him up in the slot dragging across the middle. They had no choice in that base and Sark was seeing the easy matchups. I don't expect that from Miami necessarily, but it's tough stopping these power sets without adding guys in the box.
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That was my next question, if Bama goes power what does Miami adjust to, since our LBs are already undersized and the weaklink. I hope we see LT56 and Elijah Roberts playing End and maybe a 5 front.

if we are able to win, the DTs and safeties for Miami will be critical, which I think they are up for the challenge
 
TUSKtimes said:
Are you playing a lot of "Nickle" as your primary defense? You saw what Ohio State threw at us in the title game, right? They came out in a base defense and often were trying to match up with our 12 personnel with 3 and 4 Lbers on the field, even in their Cover 3 look. They really struggled with Najee Harris on wheel routes and in the passing game. Their Mike Lber actually got caught on DeVonta Smith when we lined him up in the slot dragging across the middle. They had no choice in that base and Sark was seeing the easy matchups. I don't expect that from Miami necessarily, but it's tough stopping these power sets without adding guys in the box.
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Miami plays a 4-2-5 base with a “striker”. Essentially a safety that’s playing strong side linebacker. They don’t get too fancy with personnel groupings besides occasional “nascar” package on obvious pass downs. We’re also not exactly loaded at linebacker, so playing more of than 2 at a time is highly unlikely. Even our Will LB is a converted “striker”/safety. We do have a pretty good group of versatile safety types who can be physical against the run without being a total liability against the pass. ****, even our corners are mostly the physical types with big frames.
 
TUSKtimes said:
Are you playing a lot of "Nickle" as your primary defense? You saw what Ohio State threw at us in the title game, right? They came out in a base defense and often were trying to match up with our 12 personnel with 3 and 4 Lbers on the field, even in their Cover 3 look. They really struggled with Najee Harris on wheel routes and in the passing game. Their Mike Lber actually got caught on DeVonta Smith when we lined him up in the slot dragging across the middle. They had no choice in that base and Sark was seeing the easy matchups. I don't expect that from Miami necessarily, but it's tough stopping these power sets without adding guys in the box.
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Our 2nd level defenders are mostly converted safeties. We don't have a single linebacker on the roster over 230 lbs.
 
DTP said:
Miami plays a 4-2-5 base with a “striker”. Essentially a safety that’s playing strong side linebacker. They don’t get too fancy with personnel groupings besides occasional “nascar” package on obvious pass downs. We’re also not exactly loaded at linebacker, so playing more of than 2 at a time is highly unlikely. Even our Will LB is a converted “striker”/safety. We do have a pretty good group of versatile safety types who can be physical against the run without being a total liability against the pass. ****, even our corners are mostly the physical types with big frames.
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So you are running out of a 4-3 look. That is a little more downsizing than what we tend to do with our Nickle package which is 2 inside Lbers with a 3 man line and a Jack linebacker with his hand in the dirt on the edge, usually Will Anderson and Chris Allen. From what I've seen and heard so far, both teams are going to want to control the running game, so the defensive front and backers are going to have to play big.
 
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SouthParkCane said:
I don’t think they’ll hang 45 on us and if they do I’m going to be silent as a mouse cause it will hurt me. I’m just saying there are a lot of wild takes in this thread that will get spin jobs if it were to happen
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It is almost like CIS is a tryout for talk radio and these guys are trying to get noticed
 
TUSKtimes said:
Is that a Manny Diaz thing? Speed and more speed?
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It’s a Miami thing. Jimmy Johnson famously made safeties into linebackers and linebackers into defensive ends. It’s a philosophy that’s usually worked for the program during championship seasons and underachieving seasons alike. Guys like Ray Lewis and Jonathan Vilma played MLB here at around 225lbs .
 
TUSKtimes said:
Is that a Manny Diaz thing? Speed and more speed?
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The defense is certainly predicated on speed, but poor LB recruiting the past few years has put us in the current situation. Our likely two starting LBs are

KSmith - converted safety 6’ 210
-he was a 4 star safety and played in the box a lot so his conversion to LB should t surprise anyone

CFlagg- 3 star LB from Houston 6’ 215
- ILB all day. Not great height weight speed but fantastic instincts, evidenced by the stats he put up in an extremely competitive Houston area

we’ve got a few more talented guys (Brooks ; Huff) with better measurable s but for whatever reason they didn’t win out in camp
 
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