I want to say I wouldn't want any other coach in the country. Wouldn't care if you guaranteed me Saban would coach another ten years and Kirby would only coach ten more years, I wouldn't want to trade. So please don't misunderstand me as saying we can do better or he's got to do better or else or anything like that.
#1 If you are aggressive, elite, believe in your players, etc. then in a ten point game where the opposition just pulled a huge momentum swing on you by converting a fourth down (yes, I know he didn't catch it) and going up by ten, please attempt to do something with the football when you have 48 seconds of clock left before the half. Treat it like it's the end of the game there. We're down ten, not down three, not up 17. We're down ten and just let them steal one. Try to get something back. Yes, it could turn out even worse. But given how their defense had put the screws to us in the first half, need to take every shot you can because it looks like there are a lot of duds in the chamber. Would be nice to know we took every chance to hit a live round in that situation.
#2. I fully admit that Gary may not know what he's talking about here, but he said we put in the jumbo unit for the one yard TD late in the fourth on fourth down. In other words, we tried to get a one yard score on two separate occasions with a one yard plunge without the jumbo unit in. And with all the bodies piled up, time is just melting away. That limited us to only one chance to really stop them after the kickoff, where we might have had two chances and also might have had all of our timeouts if we hold them to a three and out. We likely just kick it out of the EZ there and just play it like normal without as much stress on the D at least early on. There was no urgency at all on those plays it seemed.
The play should've been reviewed, but Saban shot his shot when he went for it on fourth down at midfield. Yes, it should have failed and we should have gotten the ball. But he coached aggressively and it worked out for him. We did not. I hope that's a learning moment.
#1 If you are aggressive, elite, believe in your players, etc. then in a ten point game where the opposition just pulled a huge momentum swing on you by converting a fourth down (yes, I know he didn't catch it) and going up by ten, please attempt to do something with the football when you have 48 seconds of clock left before the half. Treat it like it's the end of the game there. We're down ten, not down three, not up 17. We're down ten and just let them steal one. Try to get something back. Yes, it could turn out even worse. But given how their defense had put the screws to us in the first half, need to take every shot you can because it looks like there are a lot of duds in the chamber. Would be nice to know we took every chance to hit a live round in that situation.
#2. I fully admit that Gary may not know what he's talking about here, but he said we put in the jumbo unit for the one yard TD late in the fourth on fourth down. In other words, we tried to get a one yard score on two separate occasions with a one yard plunge without the jumbo unit in. And with all the bodies piled up, time is just melting away. That limited us to only one chance to really stop them after the kickoff, where we might have had two chances and also might have had all of our timeouts if we hold them to a three and out. We likely just kick it out of the EZ there and just play it like normal without as much stress on the D at least early on. There was no urgency at all on those plays it seemed.
The play should've been reviewed, but Saban shot his shot when he went for it on fourth down at midfield. Yes, it should have failed and we should have gotten the ball. But he coached aggressively and it worked out for him. We did not. I hope that's a learning moment.
