re: Saban is a defensive mastermind, correct?

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Yep. Saban's gonna have to change his philosophy which he has formulated and codified over many years of coaching and has ingrained in his coaches and players. But in just the last 5 years offenses have increased in sophistication to where you have to approach them with a different mindset. It's no longer about beating your man but anticipating where he's going to be. Requires an aggressive approach and quick, heady players. Some of these route trees I see now didn't exist 10 years ago. But you definitely can't have a bunch of bruisers who were recruited as 3-4 DE's trying to rush a quick, mobile passer when you're in dime. You have to have true pass rushers and you can't afford to give up coverage by blitzing LB's and DB's every single play. That replay of a 300 pound DE trying to contain Trevor Knight running to the sideline when he threw that touchdown back across his body showed exactly why Saban's defenses have so much trouble against those offenses.

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