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Jimmy first off I respect your insight on games.  Your usually spot on. 

Saban is never going to air it out.  He is going to play ball control and beat you physically with the run game and his defense.  He figures he is going to score 7+ with his defense every game and his defense will setup another 10+ points.  So he gets to dictate how the game goes 90%+ of the time.  He will win 90% + of the time doing it this way.

OC corrdinator is always going to be handcuffed under Saban.  Defense wins!!

I don't agree that Saban does, has or will handcuff his OC.  I hear that a lot and don't agree with it primarily because the notion runs contrary to what Saban has said ever since he has arrived on campus.  (Note: I in no way intend for this to be a dig at LSU, but for lack of a better comparison I will use them).  Saban does not want to be what LSU was offensively this season which was primarily a one-dimensional power running team.  Among other things, Saban knows that is very bad for recruiting.

In the case of LSU, they had two highly touted 5* wide receivers coming out of high school.  Reuben Randall was suppose to be the next Julio Jones.  Wide receiver is a position LSU should have had a big advantage over Alabama, but they didn't have the QB/passing game to exploit the advantage.  This is exactly what Saban doesn't want.

He doesn't want to recruit a Julio Jones, or some other extraordinary talent and then find himself in a position of not being able to make the best use of that talent because of a weakness at another position.

There are basically three things Saban demands of his offense coordinator.

1.  They MUST run a pro-style offense.  Among other reasons, that's the personel he has recruited, and that is what he told recruits he would run, so that's not changing.

2.  The offense must be balance.  As hard as I have been on McElwain, the one thing he certainly accomplished was balanace.  McElwain called almost the exact same number of passes as runs.

3.  Probably most important of all, don't turn the ball over.  In other words, don't lose the game.

Beyond these three things, Saban pretty much gives his OC free reign to do whatever he wants.

Alabama needs an OC that can talk Saban into more passing.

Next season will be tuff on Alabama having a new OC and losing maybe (7) players on defense, and maybe (7) on offense.

A.J. McCarron and the new WR will carry Alabama next season, Alabama has some really good & fast WR ready to take the starting role and A.J. has the talent to pass for 4,000 yards a year. Not sure without looking it up but i believe A.J. passed for over 2,600 yarrds in the 2011 season with only 5 interceptions.

All that was on Saban's team who feeds his RB.

It's going to be a rebuilding year, and i said months back this year was their best chance to win the NCG.

Next year they will fall but not far...going to Arkansas with QB Tyler Wilson coming back, and don't forget about Tenn QB Bray...etc. The ball in going to be aired out more in the SEC next year.

Teams always come after Alabama hard no matter who they are and now they will have more of a reason with them being the, National Champs.

I hear what you're saying, and I understand the play calling thing.  But when a program hasn't seen much success for 10 or 15 years (in Washinton's case I think since Rick Neuheisel was at the helm), the perception is that schools that have had more recent success are better jobs.  Trust me, I remember the days before Pete Carroll arrived at USC when Washington pretty much owned the PAC 10.

During the lean probation years, coaches viewed the Alabama job similarly as evidenced by the fact that Dennis Franchione bailed out of Tuscaloosa to head for Texas A&M (how'd that work out for you dumbass).  Were it not for Saban, Alabama might still be viewed that way today.

Check out this article written during the dark years of which we do not speak of.

Alabama Has Been Passed

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

By Neal McCready
 
Mobile Register
 
Some Alabama fans are really funny. I mean, Eddie Murphy-at-his-peak hilarious.
 
In the wake of Mississippi State's win over Alabama, many Crimson Tide fans came out of the woodwork demanding immediate change.

So bring on Nick Saban. Bring on Rich Rodriguez. You can interview Bobby Petrino, too. Maybe Rutgers' Greg Schiano would make a good coordinator, a coach-in-waiting if Jimmy Johnson isn't willing to commit more than, say, five years to bringing Alabama football back to where it belongs. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to come stalk the same sidelines that the Bear once patrolled? Who wouldn't want to coach in the shadow of greatness? After all, if you're going to fantasize, take it the distance.

The problem, however, for the dreaming Tide nation is that when it wakes up to the real world, Mike Shula's still the coach and the hard truth is he just might be the best Alabama can realistically hope for. The line of prospective coaches just dying to come to Tuscaloosa isn't as long as Tide fans think.

Before every home game, there's that voice. I still can't understand what he says, but it's something about "class," and "we got class," or "win with class." Then the elephant roars and another voice says, "This is Alabama football."

No, that was Alabama football. Those days are long gone and until the powers that be at the Capstone recognize that, all the Tide is going to be able to embrace is history. The people who Alabama football is selling to -- the current high school recruits -- were born in 1988 or 1989. They were 3 years old when Gene Stallings led Alabama to an upset over Miami in the Sugar Bowl and the national championship. Their experience with Alabama football mostly has been controversy, scandal, NCAA sanctions, losing seasons and mediocrity. The ardent Alabama fans among that group remember Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuel leading Alabama to the 1999 SEC title, but they were 11 or 12 then. Since that national championship night in New Orleans, a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge.

Here's reality: Alabama has been passed. Ask the kids. They're the only ones who really matter. They'll tell you Florida is cool. So is LSU. Ask them about winning tradition and they'll tell you about Auburn, Tennessee and maybe Georgia. South Carolina has Steve Spurrier. Arkansas kids are staying home. Ole Miss has built a great indoor practice facility. Kentucky has fabulous facilities. Mississippi State probably isn't far behind. Jimmy Johns would probably never admit it even if someone could extricate his foot from his mouth, but had the Brookhaven, Miss., native stayed home and gone to Mississippi State or Ole Miss, he'd be a hero in his home state and a starter on the field. Oh yeah, he would have won a football game Saturday. Instead, he went to Alabama, where he's now a highly publicized backup playing behind an underachieving senior.

So why would Saban leave sunny Miami for Alabama? Petrino might be preparing for the national championship game in early January. Why would he give that up to take on a rebuilding project that goes well beyond the football field? Rodriguez might leave his native West Virginia one day, but Alabama's a lateral move at best.

But if Alabama is intent on making that sort of splash, here's two pieces of advice: Ante up and get your eyes out of the rear-view mirror because the men the delusional Tide fans talk about are forward thinkers with healthy egos. In other words, if you expect them to come to Tuscaloosa and walk in a shadow, you'd better hope for nothing but sunny days because guys like Saban, Petrino, Rodriguez and the others aren't going to walk in a shadow that isn't their own.

Dennis Franchione didn't use the Alabama job to get to Texas A&M he left after Alabama's sanctions were handed out.

This was a long time coming from Texas A&M because Alabama took Bear Bryant from them.

You can bet one thing if he could turn back time he would have signed the 10 year 15 million dollar contract Alabama offered him from the way his career has turned out since leaving Alabama.

Him leaving was a good thing for Alabama because even though Alabama got handed down the sanctions there would have been more coming with Franchione down the line.

While at Texas A&M heres what Dennis Franchione done...

On September 27, 2007, Franchione discontinued selling a secret email newsletter to athetic boosters who paid US$ 1,200 annually for team information that Franchione had refused to release to the public.

The newsletter, called "VIP Connection", had been written by Franchione's personal assistant, Mike McKenzie, and included, but was not limited to, specific injury reports, recruitment information, and Franchione's critical assessments of players.

Started in the fall of 2004, the newsletter attracted 27 recipients, six of whom received the newsletter for free. 20 of the recipients have been disclosed. The boosters were asked to sign a confidentiality statement to assure the information in the newsletter would not be used for gambling.

Franchione was fired from Texas A&M with a record of 32 - 28 myself i'm glad he left.