re: Spring Football News & Info

quote:

---

Sark really worries me. I've just never been impressed with the guy and A-Day didn't do anything to change my opinion on him.

---

Thanks for your great post.

Regarding the quoted portion above, I know that this sentiment is shared by many Bama fans, but I don't get it.

Granted, I totally get folks being apprehensive a few years ago about his drinking, but that seems to be far in his past.

Regarding his offensive coaching acumen, I don't get many Bama fans' nose-turned-up attitude toward Sark. Jim McElwain was an excellent OC for us, but his career outside of Tuscaloosa has been a dumpster fire. Nussmeier won a title at Bama, and his resume ain't that great. Lane Kiffin was a homerun OC for us (except the 2nd half of his last year) and his career had gone leprosy-level untouchable before we hired him. Locksley's career had 1 foot in the grave 4 years ago, and he did a bang up job last year.

And regarding Sark's lone game as our OC, I think he did a great job in a really tough spot. If Bo Scarborough doesn't break his leg, we win a Natty and everyone would LOVE Sark. He got criticized for not running with the other backup RBs, but if you go back and watch the film, he very much did try to run the ball the next 2 drives. We went nowhere - and one our Olinemen said postgame that Bo's injury shellshocked the Oline and they were lost for a couple series - and the film corroborates this.

In the following drives, I personally wish he hadn't gone hurry up, but the staff new that 1 TD iced the game, and sold out to get it. It backfired of course, but I'm suspicious that the command to go fast came from Saban himself, given his recent comments at the time. And if Saban had wanted Sark to eat clock instead of go fast, that's what would've happened. And so, I think regarding Sark's playcalling after Bo's injury, we need to really understand the context and understand that Saban is always calling the shots.

Simply put, both our coordinators have some proving to do, but I see no reason to be overly skeptical of Sark's offensive coaching abilities, particularly in the face of our coordinator history and how well he did overall in that championship game. Dude had 1 week to scheme and call a Natty, and had it in the bag until Bo broke his leg. That's just the truth.