Crimson Red Sports

It didn't take CNS long to initiate his plans for getting Bama football back to where he wants it, celebrating national championships. After blowing a game to Auburn, which Bama had victory in it's grasp and then the disaster in the Sugar Bowl, the coach started looking for answers as to why this team finshed the season on such a downhill slide.

A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Lane Kiffen would come on campus as a consultant to help with the woes of the offense and that caught everyone's eye. How could Lane Kiffen ever be invited to this campus as a consultant for Bama football problems and some laughed it off as nothing to it. This invite turned out to be much more than an invite to do some consulting, it opened the door for some major changes in the Bama program.

Nick Saban is a genius as a manager of things, he knows when there are problems long before they expose themselves to anyone. This is what helps him so much in staying ahead of the competition as he senses a problem and reacts immediatly, not sometime later on. He didn't bring Kiffen on campus as a consultant, he had already made a plan for this team and now was looking for the right coaches to implement it.

With the changes in the coaches ranks that has begun, that only brings on the speculation of changes in how Bama plays football. The fast tempo offensive has certaintly caught everyone's eye as Auburn gave Bama a reason to notice when they ran up big chunks of yardage against a pretty good Bama defense and passed for big yardage as well. When I saw Mason just chew up Bama's defense, I could only think of how great Yeldon, Henry, and Drake would be running in an offense of that sort and don't forget about the passing game with our receivers.

How many more coaching changes will happen in the coming weeks or will there be any more changes to the staff? There are lots of questions now that the OC position is changing but I think the big question now is will the offense get a major overhaul and who will be the quarterback. There are lots of questions to be answered in the upcoming weeks and it should get to be very interesting.

Excellent post!

Right on Jamos.  You could see this coming after the SB debacle. And I gotta think Kiff's eval of the O included some blunt statements that CNS realized were accurate and significant.  I'm guessing there will be some more changes but nothing of the magnitude of Kiffin.  Also, good time for a new OC since we don't have an incumbent QB next season.

I wonder if that would include the Special Teams coach, an area we have struggled for 7 years?


 :dunno:

I thought the special teams did great until Sunseri got hurt. The kickers and the punt and kickoff teams had done pretty good.

If you are referencing to a kicking coach, Bama does not have a kicking coach per se but they do have a coach that works with the special teams units.

The kickers did okay until the Auburn game and the bottom fell out.

I think the kickers get their own help through camps or a kicking coach in the off season to improve themselves.
 

I really don't think the loss of one player caused the problems we had on special teams. We still can't make a kickoff into the end zone on a regular basis so it's not returned, we missed field goals at critical times, we allowed too many run backs resulting in teams starting at the 30, 35, or 40 yard line (see above about kickoffs), etc. This is the weak spot on the team.


 :dog:

Whether it was the result of the absence of Vinnie or just a coincidence, there is no denying that special teams played a lot worse after he was hurt. I don't think it was coincidence. Vinnie was a real force and a leader on special teams.

We all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Saban certainly knows this as well.

I look for a major offensive shift in strategy in 2014.

I thought we had very good special teams this year. We had one bad game at auburn. Look at the SEC stats:

KO Returns 4
KO Coverage 4
Punt Return 1
Punting 1
Net Punting 1 (only 13 of 40 returned)
PAT's 100%
Field goals 12-17 (only missed 1 prior to barn game)

Several of us were praising Foster for the job he was doing late in the year.

we made fun of "LAME" for a few years didn't we ?
I guess getting fired at the airport changes the way folks see him now ...

ain't life funny  :lol2:

I would not want Kiffen as a head coach. He is young and too cocky for me. However, I think he is the perfect offensive coordinator. I think this is a dynamic hire that will help our offensive production and recruiting.

Hmmmm, rumors have it that more changes are possible. :dunno: