re: Saban: It's virtually impossible to come up with a defensive scheme to stop RPOs

It's official. The game has passed up Saban. Either you get rid of him after this season while your program is in tact or you slowly go the way of Joe Pa and Bobby Bowden

RIP Bama

Why do I get the feeling that Saban has figured something out and is trying to get teams to use the RPO against him?

Of course it's hard for the defense to key in on a play pre-snap when even the offense doesn't know whether or not a play is going to be a run or a pass. You can't scheme to stop what the offense doesn't know and therefore isn't giving away ahead of time.

That said, it often goes unmentioned that choosing to run an RPO heavy offense also limits OLs and RBs and makes their jobs a bit more difficult because they don't know who will wind up with the ball either.

On a regular play it forces the RB to adjust and wait which slows him down. He can't approach the play fully committed to a run or a block and he can't approach a run nearly as fast as he can when the play is known. It can also lead to disaster when an inexperienced RB is forced to play and misreads the exchange.

The OL is forced to operate nearly blind to the play going on around them and no longer knows everything pre-snap which can and often does cause more errors and more missed assignments. Like RB this ups the learning curve for younger players and makes it all the more difficult for an inexperienced player to know where he's supposed to be and what he should be doing as the play unfolds. It forces offensive players to think about what is happening around them and makes it harder to simply just act.

RPOs giveth and taketh away. They eliminate a lot of pre-snap knowledge from both sides as compared to the knowledge both sides often have in pro-style offense.

Ultimately what that means for a defensive coach is that he can no longer say when you see X lined up like this do Y and when you see A do B. Instead players have to observe, think, and make decisions on the fly to the conditions around them. That makes it far more difficult for a coach to sit down a week ahead of time and dream up a way of shutting down the opponent based upon scheme and instead puts a lot of decision making on the players shoulders. It moves football strategy from something you can plan out ahead of time, practice all week, and then simply execute on game day and turns it into something that both players and coaches must react to and come up with as it happening.

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Ultimately what that means for a defensive coach is that he can no longer say when you see X lined up like this do Y and when you see A do B. Instead players have to observe, think, and make decisions on the fly to the conditions around them.

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This isn't even true anymore. What Saban is saying is that it makes every decision wrong for the targeted player.

The read is based on the OL. When they go downfield, the defense has to read run. The RPO makes this wrong under the current rule. The other option is for the defense to read pass every time and surrender 5-6 yards on the ground without much resistance every play.

So you better have someone smarter than Nick Saban if you want to stop RPOs.

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Whats the history of RPOs? Which/when coach started the most recent trend or created it? Root scheme from "back in the day"?

Schools that have taken this on?

Im pretty Xs and Os ignorant, so wondering. Thanks

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Its basically the Wishbone ran out of the shotgun

Did not see anything where he said it was virtually impossible.

It was more of a "I can't be bothered" type of thing.

What a whiner, lose a championship and suddenly ge complains about everything

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The other part of Saban's statement is to get at the first part of your statement and try to keep the enforcement of the existing lineman downfield penalty in the forefront of officials minds. Maybe even hoping that one day they will change it to the NFL rule (can only be 1 yard downfield on passing plays beyond line of scrimmage rather than the college 3 yard rule) but at a minimum hoping that they focus on at least strictly calling the 3 yard rule.

The statement is both candid assessment and signaling to officials.

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But you know, some people, including me like it just fine the way it is.

Doesn't bug me one bit if all that five star talent Alabama has stockpiled on defense is neutralized, and the game depends on who has the hotter qb.

And since most teams will never be able to recruit like that, I say "working as intended." Never change.

Though I have had this idea for a long time. See offensive linemen aren't allowed to use their hands and be aggressive. I say get rid of all these ticky tack pass interference penalties, bring back bump and run, and ...

Let offensive linemen head slap, wrestle, hold, and just get mean with defensive linemen.

Really change the game. I think it would rock. No more of these skinny pass rush guys, Reggie White or go home.

They said the same thing about the Wishbone 45 years ago.

And 10-15 years later, someone figured out how to stop it.

And now almost no one runs it any more.