This was posted by one of our regulars here, and I couldn’t resist making it a featured article. Enjoy. I’m sure it will fuel some conversation today. Read it and share your thoughts on what Alabama should do in the rematch against LSU.
Dear Coach Saban,
Congratulations on your team making the BCS championship game.
As I’m sure you know Coach, we’re accustomed to playing for championships around here.
Those guys represented by the statues at Bryant-Denny Stadium have taught us a few things about championship football.
One, was paying attention to the details.
Here’s a few off the top of my head for you to work on:
(1.) If you win the toss of the coin, defer to the second half, kick the ball to them and play defense first. I won’t bore you with the details on why, just rest easy in knowing the other Statues were real big on that, so it must be important.
(2.) While we’re on kicking, don’t kick to Tyrann Matheiu. It will increase our chances of winning exponentially.
(3.) Teach A. J. to quick kick. I don’t know if you’ve noticed (no joke) but our punter sucks. Everybody says he’d make a great linebacker.
Put his ass there.
(Timely reminder time: don’t kick the ball to Tyrann Matheiu)
(4.) According to the rules (I looked it up) you get 3 timeouts per half, but there’s a catch. The one’s you don’t use in the first half don’t rollover.
(I know what you’re thinking: how is that fair, my cellphone minutes roll over but not my first half timeouts?! Sometimes Coach, life’s not fair)
If you use them for nothing more than to contemplate the wisdom of dropping A. J. back to pass inside our own ten yard line, we’ll understand.
Which leads me to #5.
(5.) Don’t drop A. J. back to pass inside your own ten yard line. A. J.’s a sophomore. He doesn’t understand that he can’t drop back and hold the ball back there all day against one of the nation’s best defenses. He needs guidance from our offensive co-ordinator on this.
(or maybe our offensive co-ordinator needs the guidance)
Regardless.
Until he’s a junior or senior and has proven the ability to realize that, my advice is just hand the ball to our Heisman candidate, Trent. if we don’t make a first down, punt the ba………wait, remember that quick kick thing??
(6.) Did i mention don’t kick the ball to Matheiu??
(7.) In the first half nov. 5th, Brad Smelley was a heck of a weapon for you. In the second half, he didn’t touch the ball. My advice?
If you’ve got something that’s working in the first half, use it in the second half. There’s no rule against that. It CAN rollover!
If something’s working, use it until they stop it.
(the Statues were big on that too!)
I know this is getting a bit long-winded and you have things to do, so I’ll wrap this up as quickly as possible.
(8.) Stay away from overtime. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings on this one, Coach, but the fact is your record in overtime ain’t that great. (in fact, it sucks too) If you were to find yourself one point down after scoring a touchdown late in the game and went for two and didn’t make it, you’d hear some grumbling from some corners,but I would understand.
(9.) Should you ignore my advice (I know, perish the thought) and find yourself in overtime, tell A. J. to take the snap, turn and HAND THE DAMN BALL TO TRENT!
(sorry. Didn’t mean to yell, Coach. I got excited)
(10.) Just to make sure I’m clear on this, don’t kick the ball to Tyrann Matheiu.
In closing, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you were in the championship game against the best team in the nation. Of course that means they’re from the SEC. We’re not playing a team from the Pac 10 or the Big 12 or the Big 10 where the athletes and coaching are inferior to ours.
You’re not going to be able to get away with the mistakes or depend on the opposition’s coaching errors of, say, the ’09 BCS championship game.
These guys are good. Real good. It will require everything you’re asking of the players from the coaching staff and game plan as well.
Coach Bryant let it slip one time that it was his sole responsibility to put his team in the best position to win.
We’ve kind of taken that to heart around here.
I don’t mean to pressure you, but we expect that of you too.
In closing, don’t bother thanking me. I know your time is limited. Just trying to do my part as a concerned and loyal fan.
Sincerely,
Finebammer.
28 thoughts on “An Open Letter to Coach Nick Saban on Strategies for the BCS Championship Game”
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I read that earlier,lol.Good stuff
I had to post this since there was one point I wanted to respond to, and I thought others might find themselves in the same boat. This should be great for discussion.
Anyway, point #1 that Alabama should defer, isn’t necessarily true with the current clock rules.
Saban spoke about this before, but I can’t find his reasoning on it to give you the quote. However, I do remember Saban saying things like taking the ball or deferring are planned prior to the game.
I agree on deferring to the 2nd half. The 1st 5 minutes of the 2nd half are critical. Why give that possession to your opponent? The only play LSU consistantly hurt us with was the option toss to Ford. Got to defend that better and put Jefferson on his ass anytime he tries to run it, toss or not.I don’t blame Foster at all on the missed kicks. We were at the 25 numerous times and 2 substitution infractions and several negative yardage plays trying to run sweeps to the short side of the field against a very fast aggressive defense took us out of Shelly’s range and into long range. Very stupid play calling in those situations.
Good point. Let me ask this.
What is Alabama’s best unit? Defense?
if the defense is the best unit, then why not put it out on the field first thing in the second half and try to get some nice field position for Alabama’s first drive of the half?
Of course, that requires Alabama kicking the ball deep and covering a kick….
So, yeah. Forget I said anything.
LSU did not beat Alabama.
Alabama beat Alabama on Nov. 5th.
And PLEASE don’t kick the ball to Tyrann Mathieu!
Please put me in charge I am a fan i know the personnel a whole lot better than the coaches who are with them every day do. I watch the games on TV and can see the other team’s weaknesses a whole lot better I have taken Bama to 20 straight NCs on NCAA Football
BamaGrad00
BamaGrad00 there’s always 1 smartass in the crowd. And at ’00 you’re a little young to be giving advice to students of Bear Bryant. I thought the letter was very good advice and candid. You could actually win a game following it. I think that sometimes the coaches by getting caught up in the big picture of a game can overlook the simple things, the common sense things. But it’s not always the coaches fault. The sweeps that took us out of field goal range were caused by not picking up rushers. Now accidents can happen. But when you leave a rusher standing all alone on the line of scrimmage 5 yards outside the Tackle and 5 yards inside the Tight end, and that’s exactly where Trent is going to run it – that’s first the responsibility of the blockers to know how to block that play and second it’s even more the responsibilty of the damn QB to see it and fix it or call time out. In particularly I love the quick kick idea. It is a play that has never failed in my 50 years of football. Oh, and don’t kick to Mathieu!
Crimsonite it is called sarcasm geez
You’ll have to explain what sarcasm means to Crimsonite.
And while you’re at it explain to him it is the coaches responsiblity to teach the players to pick up the rushers and what rushers to block.
I like the idea of Bama giving up its third downs and quick kicking it to us also. Go ahead and admit defeat while you’re at it. LMAO
honey badger ain’t worth a crap – kick to him and beat his weak scrawny azz down ….and the kicker is the linebacker type not the punter
I say kick it to the badger !! We owe his sorry ass…On the opening kick take his ass down hard and let some one put a hat on him while on ground like sphere his ass and take the personal foul ..Like try to hurt the son of bitch..Take the 15 yards and go with it..!! Let his ass know quick he better watch his back..I know i would…ROLL DAM TIDE!!!!!!!!!!
Now that’s the Bama fans and players the whole nation knows, right there!
And you’re Bama you probably wouldn’t get called for the penalty anyway.
BamaGrad, sorry. I’m a little jumpy right now. I’ve spent the past week and especially since Sat night fighting with half the inbred, homer, troll assholes in the United States. Not so much on Capstone since it’s been kinda dead. But on Rivals at OSU, OU, LSU, Georgia, etc.. And blog after blog on the conversation areas of ESPN writers and so forth. It’s phucking armagheddon out there and we’re the target. If Finebammer had been his usual self dissing the team, I’d have jumped his ass too. But the letter was right on. Loved it. And yours read like someone a little too serious for a team blog. Sorry. Do ya’ll realize that we may set a never to be broken record with a 3 peat for one State and Heisman Trophys? I’m going to check, but a 3 peat National Champion for one state may be a record too, unless some combo of Fla, Fla St and Miami did it during the Spurrier era. I’m going back to ESPN to defend our honor and start a fight or deal out hell anyway. Laters. RTR!
The letter was right on because you’re scared of the Honey Badger?! That’s why you agree Bama should kick it away from him?
You skeered Crimsonite?
hunny bunny is pretty good, I would say. But, he didn’t do much in the first game against Bama, except that cheap shot that got called as ‘holding’. But please don’t confuse Georgia for Bama. I think they held funny bunny in check pretty well the first time. You think your guys will be able to deal with Richardson again?
I won’t confuse Georgia for Alabama, they actually won their division of their conference.
Why wouldn’t we be able to deal with Richardson again, did he grow another leg or something since we last played him? Ya’ll make some of the stupidest statements around here.
Before I go fishing in hotter waters I want to say one more thing. OSU is a very good team. Their fans aren’t too bad either. They are testing new waters and a National Championship would have been very important for them – even though it wasn’t going to happen against LSU. I’m very happy for them to get the Fiesta Bowl which is like playing for 3rd place. But as far as being butt hurt screwed, there are 3 teams who come to mind whose fan bases have a right to be blue ball pissed. #7 Arkansas and #8 Kansas St in the Cotton Bowl? WTF? They should be in a BCS Bowl – the Sugar. Worse? Ok, how about poor, poor 11-1, one point loss, Boise St? The Gaddamn Maaco Bowl against 6-6 Arizona St. I want to give my personal condolences to these three teams and support them with a 100 foot tall three finger phuck you birdy to the Bowl Selection Commitees! RTR!
Scared? Of what? Hell we practice every day against a better team than LSWho! I was just being cautious and hoping there will be a conscious effort to eliminate the errors that handed you the last game on a silver platter. As for Mathieu, I hope he gets to return the very first kick of any kind, as long as Dre’ is on the coverage team. It will probably be the Honey Bastards last play of the game. Ya’ll remember when the comentators made a big issue out of what appeared to be Awbies Trooper Taylor mouthing off at Dre’ as he walked back past him after a play? It was assumed he said something nasty, but that wasn’t the case at all. What he said to Dre’ who had been Taylors receivers worst nightmare all night was, “Go Pro so I can run my damn offense”. Bwaa haww haww! RTR!
Crimsonite,
You posted the following: “little jumpy right now. I’ve spent the past week and especially since Sat night fighting with half the inbred, homer, troll assholes in the United States. Not so much on Capstone since it’s been kinda dead. But on Rivals at OSU, OU, LSU, Georgia, etc..”
I don’t understand… You and your cohort have spent the last few years arguing that non-Bama posters on this site are obsessed with bama, insecure, or some other deragatory characteristic. You guys constantly proclaim that you never go to other non-Bama boards. What the heck were you doing on OSU, OU, LSU, Georgia, etc boards?
Wrong FYI! You don’t pay attention. Is your concentration broken by the fear that an Elephant will at any second come charging through your door? I cannot vouch for others, but I have never, ever said that. Many’s the time I’ve come on here with a report of the Bama bashing gong on at Rivals, ESPN, SI and SBN sites. But I don’t live at any of them like a bad case of termites. As for right now, much to the chagrin of the Corndogs and you Barnturds, Bama is the hottest topic in the nation.
. Doesn’t matter if it’s good press or bad press, it still keeps us the focal point of everything football, and that pisses you Barners off. And the Corndogs are just livid because this is their time and nobody gives a rats ass about them. They are done until Jan 9th. But we’re just getting started. We’re front page and I have every right to surf the other blogs for info or more to the point, for the latest bullshyt. RTR!
I hope Alabama wins. That way we can have another split championship. Is there a tie breaker to decide if Alabama wins in January? No playoff = No true champ
This may be the stupidest spin on the whole rematch. Was it a split title when Florida defeated Florida State after FSU won in the regular season?
Of course not.
It won’t be this time either.
K? As in Coach K from Duke? Bwaa haww haww! Absolutely not!!! There will be no *. There will be no annotation. No foot note saying this team lost to LSU in the regular season game. Much as all the homers around the country would like it to be. However, the AP in all its wisdom could very well award LSU their NC in the name of ‘fairness’. But it means exactly diddly. All 120 FBS schools joined the BCS and agreed to abide by their rules. The AP is not part of the BCS. Technically an AP NC is no different than a Better Homes & Gardens NC, and it don’t come with a Crystal Football. Anyway, if the game goes like last time except that we eliminate the ‘stupid’ factor, we could win by 2 or 3 TD’s. Then who’s gonna say it should be split? Of course we know the answer to that already. – LSWho and definitely whoever wins the OSU-Stanford game since they could certainly beat the ever lovin’ shyt out of Bama! Bwaa haww haww! (sarcasm fools). RTR!
You’re right for once Crimsonite, there won’t be an * or annotation because after LSU beats Bama again they will be both the BCS and AP National Champions!
And diddly, I guess, is exactly what some of those National Championships Bama claims means? Is that what you are admitting to here Crimsonite? Finally an honest BAma fan.
If you troll other boards there is plenty of crap talk going on but according to Flash,we post stuipid stuff. LOL. Deal with the reality of it it is what it is. Being number 1 and on top of the world isn’t good enough,you still have to whine about having to play is again. Even the honey badger is being mentioned in the Heisman conversation but Bama is the only thing on your mind.Here is a tissue Flash. Or maybe some cheese and crackers to go with that whine. REAULX TIDE!!!!!!!!! Stop being a hypocrite. 🙁
“Those guys represented by the statues at Bryant-Denny Stadium have taught us a few things about championship football.”
Do you realize your little lecture is addressed to one of those statues?
That was a particularly dumbass post. Of course he didn’t you retard. Few Bama fans are aware of that statue. Jesus, the more they come, the dumber they get.