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What did Kirby learn from Saban that Alabama is missing?
Posted on 12/7/25 at 10:17 pm
Posted on 12/7/25 at 10:17 pm
1) Run the ball
2) Stop the run
3) Iron sharpens Iron - Good-On-Good every Tuesday during the season
4) Take away the run game and make the other team one dimesional then work to take away the next thing they do best.
Number 1 & 3 have no part in this Alabama team. If a team does not face physical combat every week, do they really understand how to sustain it when you face a team that does it every week?
Alabama has no run game for multiple reasons but #3 is a big part of that. We start the game one deminsional. Kirby took away the short and intermediate over the middle passing game. After that, walking up on the edges takes away the short out game when combined with a pass rush and getting your hands up.
What did Kirby leave us with? No run game / no intermidiate over the middle, No time to throw deep. The only thing left is behind the LoS passing and we did not try it enough or execute it well when we did try.
2) Stop the run
3) Iron sharpens Iron - Good-On-Good every Tuesday during the season
4) Take away the run game and make the other team one dimesional then work to take away the next thing they do best.
Number 1 & 3 have no part in this Alabama team. If a team does not face physical combat every week, do they really understand how to sustain it when you face a team that does it every week?
Alabama has no run game for multiple reasons but #3 is a big part of that. We start the game one deminsional. Kirby took away the short and intermediate over the middle passing game. After that, walking up on the edges takes away the short out game when combined with a pass rush and getting your hands up.
What did Kirby leave us with? No run game / no intermidiate over the middle, No time to throw deep. The only thing left is behind the LoS passing and we did not try it enough or execute it well when we did try.
This post was edited on 12/7/25 at 10:28 pm
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Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:01 pm to Tw1st3d
It'll be to Kirby's detriment that Georgia is built like a Saban team from 15yrs ago. They aren't explosive or built to play from behind. If they play Ohio St they're gonna get their asses kicked. Any team would've looked dominant only having to go 40 yards against a team like they did yesterday.
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:15 pm to Tw1st3d
Dont give them that much credit. We just suck on offense. Offensive coordinator is a arrogant prick and isnt helping anyone on the offense out.
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:24 pm to Tw1st3d
You don't need time to throw a back shoulder fade or a go route. You need accuracy.
Kirby was giving that to us all game leaving his CBs on an island and our QB refused to throw it.
The reason why Kirby was able to take away the middle and our running is the same reason everyone pins their ears back and sends more than we can block.
They know our QB will NOT punish them for it.
The answer is very simple either Ty learns to throw a deep ball and gets these defenses to respect it or we suffer with needing him to be accurate and our WRs to catch every catchable ball... dinking and dunking down the field... know one error kills the drive.
Kirby was giving that to us all game leaving his CBs on an island and our QB refused to throw it.
The reason why Kirby was able to take away the middle and our running is the same reason everyone pins their ears back and sends more than we can block.
They know our QB will NOT punish them for it.
The answer is very simple either Ty learns to throw a deep ball and gets these defenses to respect it or we suffer with needing him to be accurate and our WRs to catch every catchable ball... dinking and dunking down the field... know one error kills the drive.
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:27 pm to Tide or Die87
quote:
Offensive coordinator is a arrogant prick and isnt helping anyone on the offense out.
Go back and watch the replays from the behind the QB and see every play Ty blew he either stared down his WR, threw to the wrong read or threw an inaccurate ball.
That INT should have never happened had he recognized zone and NOT throw right into it. His TE was releasing and he had an easy dump off pass for 15-20 yard gain. Instead it's an interception setting up a TD.
That one play was a big swing from possibly 3-7 or 7-7 to being 0-14!!
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:28 pm to YStar
quote:
You don't need time to throw a back shoulder fade or a go route. You need accuracy.
There is something to this. When we went into desperation mode, Ty started tossing it around. Guys had good looks and dropped some good passes. Obviously we need to do this as a regular part of the offense. Eventually something is going to give.
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:37 pm to YStar
I agree with you but i think its also play calling. The drive where we scored the touchdown the offense was a little more aggressive. Even though Williams dropped the pass.
Posted on 12/7/25 at 11:40 pm to Chris ALL Capps
You’re automatically assuming they will get their asses kicked. Ohio State has to get ahead big first, which may not happen.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 12:04 am to Tide or Die87
Right. Georgia looked unstoppable last night but people forget they haven't exactly been lighting teams up either the last two seasons... they struggled with Tech, Florida and Tennessee and looked pedestrian against Charlotte. I legit think Pavia would have upset them early on.
Last year they got pantsed by Milroe, upset by Kiffin and escaped one of the worst teams in the conference with a 1 point win. Not to mention absolutely should have lost to Tech and would have if not for two questionable calls that gave them life in regulation.
People were saying the exact opposite when we beat them in September. We hit a slide due in large part to shitty QB play and suddenly UGA is some unstoppable force that they weren't two months ago...
Last year they got pantsed by Milroe, upset by Kiffin and escaped one of the worst teams in the conference with a 1 point win. Not to mention absolutely should have lost to Tech and would have if not for two questionable calls that gave them life in regulation.
People were saying the exact opposite when we beat them in September. We hit a slide due in large part to shitty QB play and suddenly UGA is some unstoppable force that they weren't two months ago...
Posted on 12/8/25 at 6:51 am to Tide or Die87
quote:
I agree with you but i think its also play calling. The drive where we scored the touchdown the offense was a little more aggressive. Even though Williams dropped the pass.
The play calling wasn't changed though.
What was aggressive was Ty was desperate so finally stopped overthinking and just started chucking deep balls.
Go back and watch it.
The second that happen it threw of UGA's entire defense and that's why the WR screen opened up because UGA were shook from RW dropping that fade and changed how their defense played to guard for those fades.
We run a WR screen up the middle which was now unclogged because the UGA defense had to account for fades and the rest is history.
Throwing fades are no different than running. If you never throw those deep pass the defense will creep up and force you to play a very short game. Just like if there is never a threat of a run they will pin their ears back and go after the QB
This post was edited on 12/8/25 at 6:53 am
Posted on 12/8/25 at 7:05 am to Tw1st3d
The importance of a running game. I may get some pushback here on this. I did when I voiced it earlier in the year, but KD does not emphasize the running game. It's like he views it as an afterthought, or a bug, not a feature.
To be fair to him you can get away with that where he came from, but not in the SEC for B1G. Kiffin was the same way in his early days at OM, but he came to realize its importance. It's something you can't wait until the SECCG to attempt to address and impose on another team. There has to be a philosophy shift and it has to be implemented in the Spring. Hoping KD evolves. It's the only thing that's holding you guys back. Your D is good enough to play with anyone in the Country given a balanced offense.
To be fair to him you can get away with that where he came from, but not in the SEC for B1G. Kiffin was the same way in his early days at OM, but he came to realize its importance. It's something you can't wait until the SECCG to attempt to address and impose on another team. There has to be a philosophy shift and it has to be implemented in the Spring. Hoping KD evolves. It's the only thing that's holding you guys back. Your D is good enough to play with anyone in the Country given a balanced offense.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 7:34 am to SemperFiDawg
quote:
The importance of a running game
On Saturday night, Georgia looked like “old” Alabama. You’re right, an emphasis on running the ball and getting special teams to just stop making dumb mistakes. The defense was put in bad spots all night.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 7:47 am to SemperFiDawg
quote:
The importance of a running game. I may get some pushback here on this. I did when I voiced it earlier in the year, but KD does not emphasize the running game. It's like he views it as an afterthought, or a bug, not a feature. To be fair to him you can get away with that where he came from, but not in the SEC for B1G.
His Washington teams were tilted toward the pass, but certainly ran it a lot more than they do here. In ‘23 they roughly ran just over 500 passing play vs. just over 400 running plays and did about 2000 yards on the ground, more if you take out sacks.. Not exactly fully balanced, but not like they abandoned it, like we’ve seen here.
It think it’s multiple factors. Struggles with the makeup of the line and the scheme, lack of quality depth at the RB position and then situational abandonment because of a lack of trust.
It’s going to fall on recruiting and the portal to fix these issues. You’re also right that some tuning of the scheme to better fit SEC play will be needed too.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:14 am to RolltidePA
quote:
His Washington teams were tilted toward the pass, but certainly ran it a lot more than they do here. In ‘23 they roughly ran just over 500 passing play vs. just over 400 running plays and did about 2000 yards on the ground, more if you take out sacks.. Not exactly fully balanced, but not like they abandoned it, like we’ve seen here. It think it’s multiple factors. Struggles with the makeup of the line and the scheme, lack of quality depth at the RB position and then situational abandonment because of a lack of trust. It’s going to fall on recruiting and the portal to fix these issues. You’re also right that some tuning of the scheme to better fit SEC play will be needed too.
His Fresno State teams also had solid ground games, although they too were tilted toward the pass.
I think your last four sentences encapsulate everything. The problem is a vocal element of our fan base are never going to buy in even if we run the table this year and win the thing.
Because they don’t just want to win, they are hung up on us proving ourselves to other regions of the country and want to win a certain way that emphasizes what they view as toughness because they view the sport as a metaphor for life in which participants learn valuable lessons instead of a game now played by mercenary professionals who are only interested in themselves and would go straight to the NFL if they could if not for the requirement that they hang around a college for a couple of years.
This element never really forgave Saban for pretty much abandoning the stuff that the OP praises but had no recourse while he was here, and they’ve come out of the woodwork since our recent struggles have given them the opening.
But at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I share some of that element’s sentiments. But I do think this offense can work in the SEC. But not with the lack of preparation and attention to detail I am seeing, and the stubbornness of keeping someone at the single most important position in this offense in moments where he’s literally looked like he had PTSD.
That’s how I want to go backward, to preparation and attention to detail. Curt Cignetti’s practices at Indiana are 90 minutes, tops. But every one of those 90 minutes is accounted for and they go at max speed and intensity for each of those 90 minutes. I haven’t seen our practices but there’s no way we’re doing that.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:18 am to The Silverback
Either Ohio State or Indiana would annihilate Georgia. Georgia is my second favorite SEC team, my paternal lineage is in Washington near Athens, but Saturday night wasn’t as much a case of them looking like a title threat as us looking like caca.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:23 am to Tw1st3d
DeBoer needs to figure out that this is the SEC and you can't always outscheme the guy on the other sideline because he's just as good of an X's and O's guy as you are. We need to have the ability to outphysical the other team on days when the scheme isn't getting it done. We aren't even close to that right now.
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:36 am to TheTideMustRoll
A bad OL and RBs with no juice is a bad combo. There have been some plays throughout the year where we actually had it blocked correctly and the defense just closed so fast…. Like our backs are stuck in mud. Jam has been a good kid and loves Bama and I appreciate everything he has done but he doesn’t have that extra gear to run away from defenders . He is a bruiser and why he is injured so much . He has gotten stronger with muscle mass but it has slowed him down big time
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:38 am to TheTideMustRoll
We aren't trying to out scheme anyone, it would be a welcomed sight if we gave that a whirl.
We are calling the offense the same way we called it in late september, early october. The problem is that the tape is out on us now, so defenses aren't playing us the same way.
Team have played us two high safety and are sitting on the intermediate routes and just clogging the middle of the field. Grubb hasn't adapted, we're running the same concepts we ran early in the year. The throws have to be absolutely perfect because those routes aren't open.
The only thing he's changed is that he now has absolutely zero faith in the traditional run game. The opening drive was pretty telling. 4 yard run, 4 yard run, now on 3rd and two you run an end around, which is pretty much what we've done all season in third and short, if we run it on that distance it has been a "trick" run play.
If he is going to just abandon the run altogether then we need to commit to that and play in 5 wide sets. If you're only going to run the ball 7 times, you're limiting your passing offense by having a back and tight end on the field together for most of the game. Spread the defense out and get 5 good athletes on the field and snap the ball. Force the defense to cover 5 guys in space. Grubb has to pivot away from what's not working. I think it's clear that Rico Scott isn't a future first round talent, but he's probably better than Georgia's 5th corner with minimal snaps on the year.
The strength of our whole receiving corps aside from Horton is running after the catch. Ryan, Germ, Rico, Lottie...all 4 are a tough tackle for a defensive back in a 1 on 1. Make the defense get out of what they're comfortable in. When we come out in 11 personnel, that's exactly what defenses have seen on tape and they know exactly what we're trying to do. It's a comfortable position for the defense. Change it up. If you can't run it, then commit to throwing it
We are calling the offense the same way we called it in late september, early october. The problem is that the tape is out on us now, so defenses aren't playing us the same way.
Team have played us two high safety and are sitting on the intermediate routes and just clogging the middle of the field. Grubb hasn't adapted, we're running the same concepts we ran early in the year. The throws have to be absolutely perfect because those routes aren't open.
The only thing he's changed is that he now has absolutely zero faith in the traditional run game. The opening drive was pretty telling. 4 yard run, 4 yard run, now on 3rd and two you run an end around, which is pretty much what we've done all season in third and short, if we run it on that distance it has been a "trick" run play.
If he is going to just abandon the run altogether then we need to commit to that and play in 5 wide sets. If you're only going to run the ball 7 times, you're limiting your passing offense by having a back and tight end on the field together for most of the game. Spread the defense out and get 5 good athletes on the field and snap the ball. Force the defense to cover 5 guys in space. Grubb has to pivot away from what's not working. I think it's clear that Rico Scott isn't a future first round talent, but he's probably better than Georgia's 5th corner with minimal snaps on the year.
The strength of our whole receiving corps aside from Horton is running after the catch. Ryan, Germ, Rico, Lottie...all 4 are a tough tackle for a defensive back in a 1 on 1. Make the defense get out of what they're comfortable in. When we come out in 11 personnel, that's exactly what defenses have seen on tape and they know exactly what we're trying to do. It's a comfortable position for the defense. Change it up. If you can't run it, then commit to throwing it
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:39 am to YStar
Has back shoulder fade ever been heavily used at Bama? I agree it should because you can throw it from a 1-2 step drop which really slows the pass rush. UGA has always been very successful with this pass because it’s almost impossible to to defend.
This post was edited on 12/8/25 at 8:42 am
Posted on 12/8/25 at 8:59 am to InkStainedWretch
quote:
Either Ohio State or Indiana would annihilate Georgia. Georgia is my second favorite SEC team, my paternal lineage is in Washington near Athens, but Saturday night wasn’t as much a case of them looking like a title threat as us looking like caca.
I don't think Ohio State or Indiana is annihilating anybody with a good defense
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