BOL Round Table

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“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.” Karl von Clausewitz

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Sauceman213 said...

I don't think any info posted here is confidential and most of the info has already been shared in some format on this board before so I think it's ok to share.

On Duron Carter (although he never mentioned his name, he just referred to a certain suspended WR): any player that doesn't do what he is supposed to do won't be on the team. If you don't go to class you won't play. If you don't do the things off the field that are required you can't be trusted to do the right things on the field. Example: if you are supposed to run a 10 yard route but instead run an 8 yard route and the DB picks the ball off the QB looks bad but its the receiver's fault. You have to be trusted to do your assignment and that starts off the field

On Philip Sims: Sims is a good talent and was just a little behind AJ talent wise. Sims has some family that is ill and the family wants him closer to home. Sims loves Alabama and Saban wishes him all the best and thinks this might be the best thing for him.

On coordinators: Alabama does not hire "independent contractors" to come in and do their thing. Alabama hires coordinators to come in and teach the Alabama system.

On the 2010 team: the team got complacent after the 09 championship and allowed entitlement to set in. This is what resulted in the 3 losses. Alluded to the Michigan State game as what the team could do when they got focused.

On his favorite player to coach: Saban mentioned Junior Seau first and stated how it was a very sad thing to hear about his passing. Didn't answer the question specifically but did mention Seau, Jason Taylor, Julio Jones, and Rolando McClain as some memorable players he coached.

On physical football: apparently Bill Parcells chewed Bill Belichick out for not playing physical football and just letting Brady sit back their in the shotgun and throw the ball.

On recruiting: Saban and staff evaluate players according to 3 metrics. One metric is character, the other is measurables (height, weight, speed, etc), and the third is specific skills needed for the position in question. These are on a scale of 1-5. Saban made it very clear that it does not matter what other team is recruiting a player, if he does not meet our metrics we don't recruit them.

On DB recruiting: our ideal DB is 6 foot, 185 lbs, and runs a sub 4.5 forty. Specific skills needed are the ability to cover the deep third, the ability to play man to man and the ability to tackle. Covering deep and tackling prevent big plays and playing man to man gets us off the field on third down. If a player can't do all these things he is downgraded on our board.

On the movie Redtails: apparently Saban had to contact George Lucas to get the advance screening before the BCS championship game and George stated it would be ok with certain security measures to prevent piracy and asked Saban for a shoutout if possible on camera (which I remember Saban doing).

On the NFL draft: the reason I am in the green room up in New York every year is that the same things NFL teams look for in players are the things we look for in recruiting. "You don't see 5'9'' guys in the green room".

On little guys: Little fast guys are good for one thing, running the football. But the thing about football is there is only one football...so how many little guys do you need on your team?

On boxing: there is a reason you have weight classes in boxing, its not because a little guy couldn't beat a heavyweight. In fact some of the smaller guys might be more skilled than some of the heavyweights. The heavyweights are built for endurance and stamina and can wear the other guy down. (The implication was that Alabama recruits heavyweights)

On changes to the offense: our offense will look a little different this year than last due to personnel. We tweak our offense to suit the personnel we have. Since we don't have two TE's this year we might not see some of the same sets and we might throw the ball more.

On changes to the defense: while the offense is changed to match the personnel the defense is the defense. We recruit guys to do the things we want on defense so as long as Saban is there the defense should look mostly the same.

On the BCS championship game v LSU: we won the coin toss and elected to kick ass

On the 2011 team: Saban is most proud of how the team handled adversity after the LSU loss. The team decided to use the opportunity to grow and make themselves better.

On A-Day: the two lowest attended A-day games since Saban has been at Alabama have come after the two championship seasons. (Saban seemed ticked that fans got complacent)

On the UF game this year: apparently Saban let a professional PGA tour player use his lake house this past year and this person, who was a UF fan or graduate left a sign in the house that said, "See you in the Swamp!!!!" Saban then showed that sign to the team and thanked that person for "winning us that game" (any guesses who the golfer might be?)

On a funny note one guy asked a question to Saban if he is pleased that now the default position for Alabama is championships and Saban lit into this guy. He went on a long tirade about complacency and work ethic and commitment and dedication to being the best and ended with the statement "so you think we have arrived? is that what you are telling me?" I felt bad for the guy who asked the question but it was great to see that even after two championship seasons Saban is still motivated to get better and improve the program. As long as Saban is at the helm of Alabama we are in good hands.

If I think of anything else I will update the post. All in all it was a great evening and I really enjoyed hearing Saban speak.

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BamaBoyz17 said...