5 reasons why Alabama needs Nick Saban back immediately
Sorry, Alabama fans, first things first - Nick Saban is retired. He will turn 73 next week and has certainly earned a right to a life after football. He's doing a good job on television and is probably enjoying not spending 100+ hours per week working. But Alabama could use him again.
Some of the growing pains in the transition to Kalen DeBoer were inevitable. Saban was always going to be a hard act to follow. But the Tide are reeling, so here's why Saban would fix most of the problems.
Five reasons why Alabama needs Nick Saban back immediately
#5 Where's the improved passing game?
Kalen DeBoer was hired because his impressive pass-heavy offense could have been much sharper than Nick Saban's sometimes antiquated approach to offense. But it hasn't been. Put into DeBoer's offense, QB Jalen Milroe has been a bit worse.
Milroe's completion percentage jumped a bit, but his yards per passing attempt, touchdown rate, interception rate and QB rating have all gotten worse. In other words, the main benefit DeBoer was supposed to bring hasn't shown up yet.
#4 Penalties
Another culprit in the Alabama slide has been penalty flags. Maybe it was a Saban trick; maybe it was sheer intimidation, or maybe his teams were better prepared. But Saban didn't have these types of problems. In just seven games this year, the Tide have had three games with 100+ penalty yards.
In the last eight seasons of his Alabama run, Saban's Tide averaged just 2.0 games per season with 100+ penalty yards. Only twice in that run did a Saban team pick up 15 flags that Alabama had last week.
#3 Third down defense
The Tide haven't been able to stay on the field and also haven't been able to get off the field.
For a coach with a background in defense, it's difficult to imagine that Nick Saban could stand by during a three-game run of awful third down defense. Vanderilt converted 12-of-18 third downs to best Bama, but the next two games haven't been much better, sa Bama gave up 50% and 43% of third downs respectively.
Last year, a team that wasn't Saban's best didn't give up more than 44% of third down conversions in any game. Only once in the 2020s did Saban's Bama team have a third down game as poor as that Vanderbilt one, and that was to No. 10 Florida in 2020, en route a national title. No titles are likely coming without Saban.
#2 Where'd the ground game go?
Alabama has traditionally been a team that's strong and physical in establishing the running game. This year, since the SEC opener against Georgia, Alabama's run game has been MIA. The Tide have averaged 4.0, 2.7 and 2.2 yards per carry in the last three games respectively.
Some of the issues appear to be physical. The Alabama offensive line isn't great, and no Tide ball carrier has been elite. Some are schematic - DeBoer's pass-heavy plan isn't really run-centric. But whatever the reason, Saban wouldn't watch Alabama run the ball this badly.
#1 Their mojo is gone
The biggest issue the Tide face is that they simply don't look like the Tide. In four league games, they're won two and lost two, and all four were one-score games.
There's no sense that this is a juggernaut playing - Alabama could be LSU in red uniforms or Texas A&M in redder uniforms. The last time Alabama played four straight one-score games was 2007 - Nick Saban's first season.
The majesty of Alabama used to be worth a few extra points in any game. Teams facing the Tide did so with more than a little fear. There's nothing to be afraid of now. It's a good SEC team, but it could be any other team. If Saban were back in charge, that simply wouldn't be the case.
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