re: Bama's 2016 team vs SEC NC winners from the last 30 years

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did you see Kifin's play calling against Washington

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Washington had a good D. Time to prep, and tape to watch on Hurts' Tendencies.

I doubt Kiffin was simply calling off a different play sheet. Was he distracted and likely pissing coach off with that distraction (or the worst possible thing, being late for or checking a phone in a meeting), no doubt.

But, that blow up likely had more to do with egos than anything else. Saban wanted Kiffin to push pause on FAU until after the season; Kiffin tried to manage both and it didn't sit well with Saban.

Post-UW, Kiffin absolutely could have affected the NCG. There is (was) no better game planner to ID and exploit matchups than Kiffin when he is switched on. For a NC, I think he'd be pretty switched on.

Saban and Kiffin got into it and it blew up. Who knows, but I think it cost Bama a NC in 2016.

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He 100% called a play that was not in our 2016 play book

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lol... well, U dub certainly never saw it coming, did they?

Maybe Sark wasn't the only one partaking in the spirits.

That said, I stand by it. Kiffin gave UA the best chance to coordinate Hurts and that offense to a W.

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IMO 2016 is the best Saban team

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Saban's best team was 2012. 2016 with a Freshman Jalen Hurts at QB wasn't consistent enough throwing the ball, and that cost us in the natty as we kept having short drives in the 2nd half and our D got gassed.

Indeed you gotta give it to Clemson that season. They were really hungry and had everything going for them. For example, playing in the ACC - I want to disparage them at times for that, but believe me I would love it if LSU played in the Big 12 or the ACC. Would be as an easy of a path to the playoffs as anyone could ever want. There's a reason why Bowden never wanted to leave the ACC.

I’m not an expert on 2016 Bama, but in my mind the 2011 Bama defense is at the top. That Bama D + Richardson and Lacy in the backfield... I’d take that 2011 Bama team over 2016 I think.

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the offense was too one dimensional. The passing tds and yards were mostly jet sweeps and quick outs. Hurts was a true freshman and was too often afraid to pull the trigger downfield and when he did he was erratic.

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I would offer that the 92 Bama offense was a LOT worse. I mean they did have David Palmer and a couple of other OK RB's but that was really it. Their QB from 92 was ZERO dimensional. Well, maybe he was an ok game manager but that would have been the best thing you could say about him. At least Hurts could complete a few passes and could keep good (not great obviously) to mediocre defenses honest with the run threat.

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As good as 2011 was, they were kind of big and slow. Incredibly sound and prepared every game, but they were bigger because it was a different era on offense.

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To go further on that thought ... these offenses that were taking advantage of the speed and rules were really not what I would call elite programs (Auburn is a big example though teams like UCF, Louisville are smaller examples). There's no shame in that -- you do what you have to, to win. Those teams were almost never able to win all of their games and be a threat for the postseason because they could play one style but that was it. So big lumbering defenses like Bama's could usually hold them off enough to win and generally avoid playing the Oregon's and Oklahoma's of the world until playoff time.

Unfortunately, when the smaller teams start using an offense like this to their advantage, the big teams (except Georgia) figure out how to mold their offense to do the same when they need to (and control the clock when they need to -- Bama did this with Tua to a large degree and I think they were actually an overall better team with Hurts -- and recently LSU did this to perfection). The smaller teams could NEVER get their defense up to snuff (Oklahoma) no matter how speedy and dynamic their offenses were. And thus will likely never win the big ones unless the common elite teams have perfectly down seasons.

On a selfish note, I do feel like LSU's defenses have always been faster than Bama's and thus were able to beat Johnny Manziel's of the world. But, during those times, we had ZERO offense.

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That may have been the best defense ever in college football

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They gave up 30+ three times.