Welcome to the Solid Verbal.
I'll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for Dake Edith State.
Is that whoo whoom?
And Dan and Tye.
Welcome back to this solid turble boys and girls. My name is ty hilden Brand over there on the other side of the table. Yeah, he is a fine gentleman. We like to call mister Dan rupert Stein, Sir, how are you.
I'm doing pretty well. I'm I'm under the weather. I am currently full of Cuban food because that's what you do in Tampa. But you know what, Ty, it's wonderful to see you. Life is great. We're here for Alabama Clemson and we have and we mentioned this on Twitter dot com slash Solid Verbal got some goofs going on
in the background. We have a multi layered college football Playoff National Championship preview, and so we have decided in advance to just like get as much information as possible so that once we get here we could just be dumb and not rely on people.
Generally, as we discussed, we're very unreliable. Yes, we are very much When it comes to planning things out in advance. So the fact that we did as much as we did beforehand, Yeah, I think really is a testament to how much we've grown as individuals. That's what this is all about.
I can't believe we have almost assuredly pulled this off. So we have a show that you will hear momentarily. So we have this game Alabama Clemson. We have recruiting with Bud Elliott, ESP Nation Recruiting Analysts editor and just sort of how these two teams constructed themselves. We have a statistical profile with Bill Connolly. We have Ryan Nanny to just be you know, his usual tell us.
About Tampa Tapa, what are we to do when we're down here?
He did make some recommendations. Hey, there's Chip Patterson from CBS, and we have who am I forgetting? Right now? We have Andy Staples talk about Nick Saban, Krispy Brown. We have Krispy Brown. I'm being tickled by Chip Patterson right now. We have Krispy Brown. We spoke with him about exactly what Clemson does on offense and how they simplify and how they go about their business. We have Richard Johnson from Espimnation who also is sitting at this table just
minding his own business. He has a lot of pertinent information on Alabama's rushing attack and how that has evolved over the last couple of years. Now with Jalen Hurts and all sorts of goodness, I don't what am I am I missing anybody? We have Ryan Abraham to talk about the Sark factor.
The Sark factor. It is Sark Week here, which we'll get into in a little bit. So, as we mentioned, they call this audio avenue. Yes, this is now the sixth time I counted that. Yeah, you and I have been at a National champs in Arizona. It's grown in terms of the production that we put into this whole National Championship Week thing. They call this audio avenue. They've been kind enough to invite us to this portion of the media gathering for the last couple of years. Now
this year, it's decidedly louder because the room is decidedly narrow. Yes, so I think we're really going to have to project here. That's fine if we want to get our voices out there. These people will not us by the time we leave.
So we have around this room. It looks like is that Bobby Bouden over there.
That could be Bobby.
You can't tell all old people.
I see the Tennessee end zone with the checkerboards, I don't see.
We've got Tony Bruno behind me, We've got Sirius XM. It's a it's a hearty group. We ran into rivals in the elevator coming down here, Bruce and Sue from Fox Sports. We had a knife fight, yep, and they seem to be doing all right. So ty, let's start with this big picture, since we are going sort of micro with the layers that we're about to dip into. Big picture, what do you think Alabama Clemson is sort of defined by.
I think it's defined by Alabama's defense and by Alabama's dominance over this stretch that Nick Saban's been there, I think far and away when you think of these two teams, That's what comes to mind what I'm interested in, And I wanted to ask you and really all the people that we talk with. As you know, when you do research for a game like this, it's very much incremental. Yeah, you know, it builds on things that be knew back
in Week one that we've come to redefine. Now after fifteen weeks of college football when you did your research and starting looking into all right, what are the key factors for me, Dan, what's going to work for Clemson, what's going to work for Alabama? What was your starting
point for that research. Were you coming from a place where you're just automatically assuming that Alabama is dominant, Alabama is unbeaten, it's going to be near impossible to beat Alabama, or were you coming at it from a perspective of this is a close game last year, Deshaun Watson's a transcendent player, could have very easily won the Heisman this year? What was the starting point for you?
The starting point was one just figuring out how much I can believe in Clemson after a year in which it's been tricky to believe in Clemson, even though they've sort of almost run the table. They have the lot of loss against Pitt. I wanted to see if it was sor if it was a matter of anomalies with you know, Deshaun Watson struggling in the passing game. You know, the Troy game was very close. The NC State game
should have probably been a loss. The loss to Pitt, but then we know what we can get when Clemson is firing on all cylinders. So I wanted to know if it was just a matter of Clemson playing sloppy and when they're focused they're greats because I think Alabama's especially defensively, it does almost doesn't matter what Alabama does on offense when they're not letting teams score more than like thirteen points. So Clemson, to me, even though we've seen them in this spot, was still much more of
an unknown quantity after this season. So it was figuring out the differences between good and bad Clemson. That's what it's actually defined by, because they were so close last year.
Absolutely. So you mentioned the defense, Our favorite meaningless stat is total defense. Alabama led the nation in vent for whatever it's worth. They also led the nation in scoring defense eleven point four points per game. In rushing defense they allowed only sixty two per game two yards per carry, which is crazy, and fourteenth in passing defense, so across the board, a really well balanced defense.
You want to see what the analytics look like.
Whatalytics do you have in front of you?
This?
Oh gosh, wow, look at this. Did the solid fiance say yes before or after she saw.
That she's the one who told me how to use.
V look up.
WHOA Okay, so you know it's real.
You know it's real with V look up.
So yeah, the analytics obviously love both of these teams. There's some weaknesses for Clemson. The only thing that you can say about Alabama is their touchdown frequency is in top of the top. It's right around forty, which is fine when you have the defense that they have, and they've stalled some in the red zone. But as we saw against Washington, they can generate longer touchdowns and so it doesn't matter as much here.
Here's what spooks me a little bit. All year, it was Alabama is dominant, right, domin what context? Dominant in that you can't run on them, you can't score on them, right, You're not going to beat them period. Now they've got this third dimension, if you will, with a running or back. It's tough to try and defend all of that, Ammo. What spooks me now is if you read media reports in the build up to this game, a lot of people that I think very highly of in sports media
and college football media have slowly gravitated towards Clemson. Correct And I don't know why that is, I didn't see anything last week other than a truly dominant performance gainst Ohio State. It was great.
Shutout, Hi, shut out.
Okay, it was great. I didn't see anything in that game that otherwise would lead me to believe, excuse me, that Clemson would all of a sudden win this game. I felt pretty good about what I saw on the Alabama side. But all week I've been reading about people. I think it was USA today five of seven for Clemson.
Uh huh.
So I'm starting to like overthink this. It's my most redeeming quality.
So we know about this matchup already because we've seen it. We saw it last year. There isn't too much that's different. I mean, the Alabama quarterback situation is certainly big, the addition of Mike Williams for Clemson is certainly The loss of a couple of key defenders for Clemson is certainly
a big factor. But unlike the Notre Dame matchup, in which we saw a lot of late intellectual money coming in on Notre Dame, right, we sort of talked to ourselves into like, well, that defense has been great all year.
I'm like Pete Sampson sneaking this way, Yeah.
Loves it. The thing is with Clemson, they just shut out a playoff team, not a pretty good team, they shut out a playoff team, not one, not two, not even three, but four fingers deep, tie fingers deep. So we know that Clemson with authority has the capability to
beat Alabama, right, I would think so. Yeah, as with Notre Dame in this situation a few years ago, when people started talking themselves into it, it was sort of like, well maybe if and then I think it's a totally different scenario with this pick.
Let's put it this way.
Yeah.
When I saw the points spread for the Alabama Washington game, yeah, I thought to myself, Alabama can definitely cover this, and they did. When I look at this point spread, depending where you look, six six and a half, seven seven and a half. In some places, I look at that and I say, I saw I don't feel great about that.
I think it was odd shark. I think the money is about fifty nine forty one Clemson right.
Now, it makes sense to me, and that's kind that's kind of how I feel about it now. Of course, it's a separate ball of wax al together. Can they beat them? Yeah, can they outright beat them? Last year scored scored a eight touchdown, covered the point spread this year can I don't know. I don't know, so that's sort of the whole purpose of this. The game is Monday night, eight pm down here at Tampa at Raymond
James Stadium. I don't know if they have the pirate ship decorated and it's in any particular fashion, or if they'll fire the cannons. If any team scores.
I would pay attention to Richard Johnson. He will be doing a stadium walkthrough walk through. He will be getting the information that you use such desire to have full disclosure. He's seated right now, still sitting right, He's still seated here since he's already on this show. We don't need We're not paying them enough money. That's right, That's what I'm saying.
That's what this comes down to. Monday night, eight pm, Raymond James Stadium. Look for Richard's walk through. The game is on ESPN, of course, Chris Fowler, Ork kurb Street. Tom Rinaldi's going to be doing Alabama. I saw Sam Ponder is going to have the Clemson sidelines. Alabama's fourteen to zero. They are a six and a half point favorite, at least on my sheet, over Clemson thirteen oh one, the one loss coming against Pitt earlier in this season. What our plan is for this show is to walk
through those layers. We're gonna analyze this from an analytical standpoint, as far as schemes go, as far as matchups go. We're going to talk about the Sark factor and all sorts of things here over the course of the next hour or so. Before we get there, though, we got to pay some bills. Here is and appropriately pre recorded. Yes, commercial, we're working ahead. This is what we do. Now.
I love this.
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is the deal. Get fifty dollars towards any mattress purchase right now by visiting Casper Casper dot com slash and using the offer code verbal. That's Casper dot Com slash verbal offer code verbal fifty dollars toward any mattress purchase. Terms and conditions do apply, all right, Dan, Let's get rolling with our layer great read.
By the way, Ty, you did a great take you okay, thank you? Where we start.
Let's get rolling with our layered previews. So a good way to start this thing is to take a step back. Let's look at the numbers, just the way we always do before every game during.
The most of all regular season sport.
The numbers, the numbers, how the game is played on paper, and whatnot. You talked to Bill Connolly.
I did, and what was really interesting to me is I did. And you know what, let's just start out right here. I asked him if anything jumped out to him even surprised him about the stat profiles mclems in Alabama. It was, actually, it's pretty interesting.
Okay, here's some of your interview.
Well, I don't think there are any major surprises here from a stat standpoint. I mean, basically, the biggest advantage of Alabama seems to have and you can see how this would define the game. You know, the Clemson's not a very good running team. They're better than they were at the beginning of the year, but Alabama's Alabama.
They're not going to allow big run plays.
They're going to probably Clemson's a pretty bad short yardage team, so Alabama's going to pretty much put it all onto Shaun Watson's shoulders. And that might work out okay for Clemson. But you know, that's kind of what's going to happen here. It would be very surprising if Clemson was able to generate too much on the ground. And then on the other side, you know what we saw Clemson being able to do to J. T.
Barrett last week.
I think is pretty similar to You're going to see, you know, a very good pass rush making Jalen hurts his life pretty uncomfortable when when they have.
To pass or when he chooses to pass.
Alabama will be better at running the ball than Ohio State was, or at the very least it's safe to assume they won't give up on the run as quickly as Ohio State did, and so you know, maybe that's enough. Maybe they get enough run run production that it doesn't matter that they can't really pass. But I don't think Alabama will be able to pass very well.
What is a glaring deficiency or tendency for each team that you think will be very much publicly on display in this game.
Well, I think Clemson's lack of a run game really is you know, like I said, they have improved as the as the season has progressed, but they don't. I don't think they're ready to take on Alabama in that regard yet. And I think that they give up a bunch of negative run plays. They give they get stucked in short yardage situations a lot. If you do those things against Alabama, I mean, any other quarterback and being rendered one dimensional pretty much ends your chances.
But I do think that's what we're going to see.
I think we're going to see a situation where that you know this, if a run game is just completely non existent against Alabama, I'd be surprised if if Goldin really gets going in that regard For Alabama, though, I mean,
it's kind of the same deal. They also give up some negative run plays, they give up a ton of sacks, and as we saw, you know, they didn't move down too much in the ratings for not being able to pass against Washington because Washington has a very good pass defense, but they won't be able to rely on the on the pass, that's for sure. Clemson's pass defense is fantastic.
And if it becomes a s situation where Hurts has to have time, I mean not only they have to pass, but I mean he has to get receivers downfield, it's gonna be really tough because comes and rushes the pass are really really well.
Is there anything else from the statistical profile of these two teams, the profiles of these two teams that stands out to you as perhaps being unexpected.
Well, I think, you know, maybe because we remember last year's you know, forty five to forty game. It's most of the advantages on both sides of the ball are defensive. That's usually the case with Alabama just because they typically have a humongous defensive advantages against anybody, but even against Clemson it's the case. And then on the other side, even against Alabama, Clemson's defensive advantages, the pass rush and
whatnot seemed to stand out. So I would be really really surprised if we get anywhere close to eighty five points in this game. It feels more like a twenty five to twenty situation than than forty five to forty.
All right, So that's Bill's perspective, That's how he sees the game shaking out, doesn't see as many point could see it unfolding in a similar fashion.
Two great defenses. I don't think it's a reach at all to say.
That in a similar close fashion as we did last year. The next place you and I decided to look for clues was to our good friend Bud Elliott. So, as you know, Bud Elliott does a great job Tomahawk Nation covering the Knowles to the degree that they do. But
he's also really in the weeds. When it comes to all things recruiting, and when you look at games like this and you look at matchups, you want to talk to people who not only know the teams well, but also know the players, know the construction of the team, the talent on the team, really know what these coaches are working with. So we asked, Bud, can you give us some indication where you think this thing might head based on the construction of these two teams.
These are the two best houses in college football. They have the two best foundations absolutely.
For about the billionth year in a row.
Now it seems the national championship is going to go to a team that has signed more four and five stars over the last four seasons than two and three stars. Got to have a certain minute level of talent to take home the national title. I call that the blue chip ratio, and you can read about that on espnation dot com. This year, Alabama unsurprisingly was number one in the blue chip ratio, with an incredible seventy seven percent of their signings over the last four years being blue chips.
Clemson was number twelve with fifty two percent. Really, the goal here is just to be over half what we see with Clemson, though, is that Clemson has one of the most talented rosters in college football, much like Alabama does. Other than the quarterback position, though these teams are not
that dissimilar. They both have dominating defensive lines. Clemson with Christian Wilkins, Carlos Watkins, and importantly Dexter Lawrence, who I think is probably, if you want to make an NFL comparison talent wise, probably the closest thing we've seen to Albert Haynesworth since Albert Haynesworth. He moves like a three hundred pound guye despite being forty pounds bigger, and that's just that's a whole lot of mass moving at a
quick speed. It's just difficult to block. On the other side, I think if you look at Alabama, one of their most impressive players this year is Jonah Williams, a former five star offensive tackle. I believe he enrolled early, came in started immediately, has played great this entire year. And playing offensive tackle is a really tough ask of a
true freshman. But the tie they have Jonah Williams on one side is doing it, and on the other side they have Cam Robinson, who's one of the top draft prospects.
And he's been doing it for three years now.
Alabama, we know all the stars up front, and that's really I think what separates Alabama from most of the other teams is we had this much talent on the team.
There's no doubt that you're.
Able to practice at a higher level because if you take a day off practice at Alabama, they have somebody else, probably very close to your.
Talent level behind you.
And I think the drop off in terms of talent when you go down the depth chart at Alabama is less. That is, it utters schools and other schools they may have the top level talent may be the same, but they probably haven't stockpiled quite that death. As we've seen again seventy seven percent of their signings over the last four years being four and five stars. That's by far the biggest amount in the country. I'm excited to watch
this ball games. I think there are really playmakers at every position.
You know.
Alabama has has a nice trio of running backs like Wayne Golman out of Clemson, but really it's can.
Either side block each other.
They're so good on the defensive lines that I think it's it's just it's hard to do a lot offensively against these guys. Pitt torrip Clemson a little bit. Alabama really hasn't given up many points the entire year, but they're missing a couple of guys on defense. Miss and Eddie Jackson now one of their top linebackers is out as well, one of the better cover guys at the linebacker position.
I'm excited to watch this game.
You don't see a whole lot of matchups that feature this much talent on the field at one time, and from somebody who makes his money on people caring about recruiting, I'm really.
Happy to see that again.
The National Championship rings are going to go to a team that has recruited what I've defined as kind of the minimum threshold of talent you need to bring home the title.
Okay, thank you, Bud. Next up, where do we look for our clues? Next?
Chrispy Brown chris By Chris B. Chris By Brown of Smart Football and has done some work for The Ringer, formerly of grant Lands. Touched on a number of issues, but really focused in on Clemson, their offense and how well the wrinkles that they've added these past couple of seasons, how well they're working.
Chris Brown Smart football dot Com has been a long time guest of the show, has a lot to offer.
I mean, as we know, Clemson went Inity are not wanting to run Deshaun Watson too much, which is I think a smart move, but is also a little bit of a challenge at times when you're a spread offense that's sort of designed and originally built to include quarterback run in what you do. Otherwise you'd run a pro
style offense and do something else. So at times it's not like this year they're playing with one hand behind their back, but against Ohio State you saw them unveil a couple things that hadn't shown previously and then also just emphasize a couple more that they've been working on
this year. One of the main ones, and ironically you actually saw Alabama run the same play was something growing out of a play that Cam Newton made famous a few years ago, which is called the inverted veer or the power read, which is basically where the offensive line will block sort of an old school traditional power play.
The backside guard will pull around, but instead of sending your full back to kick out or block that defensive end like you see Stanford and Michigan running with Jim Harbaugh. The quarterback will read that defender and he'll either hand it off to a running back on a sweep around end, or if you remember Cam Newton winning the Heisman Trophy, sort of keeping it himself and running right up the middle for a big run. That play has been effective
for the last five six years in college football. You've seen a lot of teams try to find new ways and new wrinkles that take that same idea and expand
on it or do different things. One of the cool ones is something that high school coaches talk about really a short time on about a year ago, and then suddenly a bunch of teams started running it this year, including Clumbs and then again later in the year Alabama, which is where instead of putting the ball in the running back's belly as he sort of fakes a sweep and then letting him try to dash around end, the right back will actually swing out and the quarterback has
the option to either pitch it to him or keep it up the middle himself, which allows the running back
to get wide much more quickly. It kind of what it does is it kind of takes the old speed option like the Nebraska you know old school option fotball where the quarterback runs down the line and can either pitch it or keep it himself, and combines it with this the inverted veer power read game, where it's a little bit of a it's both a faster read gets it to the running back faster, or a little bit slower, more deliberate run inside. So you saw you've seen Clemson
using a bunch of times. Well this year they pitched outside the Wayne Goldman a couple of times. When Alabama ran it, you saw Jayalen Hurts keep it up inside for like a first down. But the other marinkle is that Ohio State was ready for that play. They were ready.
They clearly scouted it. So where they really killed Ohio State and Deshaun Watson at a touchdown and two or three really huge runs was where he faked like he was tossing it, but then instead of running the power read to the same side, he came back the other way and ran what they call a counterplayer counter tray where the guard and then the tight end would pull around and lead around, which, ironically to Ohio State, was
probably one of their best plays. Is the counter tray, and when you saw Ohio State try to defend the thing, they ended up a guy short. A couple of different times. Watson took it down the sideway for a bunch of
big games, and so it was. It was a great example using the bowl season to both expand what they were doing, using more runs with Deshaun Watson when it's crunch time, but then also taking Ohio these preparation and using it against them, which is something you have to do against Alabama because you know they've will have watched ten years of your film and scouted you out and know every tendency. See, you have to strategically break your Tennessee.
So who does it specifically stress this this variation on a single concept, Who on the defense is it meant to make make a quick decision? And you say, Ohio State was ready. So now with even more variations to this play, how do you anticipate teams? And I guess specifically Alabama in this case or Clemson in this case defensively since they both run an offense, what is a potential solution to cover every single area if possible.
Well, that's that's that's the whole game. Is you can't cover every single area. So the play the bass play itself, whether it's the inverted Viera, the toss toss read concept is you're just trying to read the defensive end. So if he goes out with the running back of the quarterback keeps it inside. If you crash it down inside, you you pitch it outside. You defend that by getting
your other players involved. Safety is coming downhill, linebackers scraping over the top to stop the running back, and then that's when you start opening up other things. So Ohio State plays a quarters cover four defense, so which basically requires the safeties to be hard run defenders, and then they also give a lot of flexibility because the safeties are there on sort of either side of the line to
the linebackers to flow fast and defend the play. So that was why Clemson then faked the toss read and then ran the counter the other way, and you had the linebackers either hesitated or over pursued towards where the running back went. And then so when Watson sort of took it around end, you actually saw on a couple of them the pulling tight end base almost had no one to block until he was five, six, seven, eight yards downfield. The ended up hooking the safety and resulting
a big game. So that was where Clemson saw the reaction from Ohio State and then stressed the linebackers. A fun example from earlier in the years, Ole Miss runs this play a little bit, and when they played Alabama early on, Alabama had its safeties coming down hill hard because they were Savans known for playing sort of Cover one with a single safety deep or Cover three, but actually against a lot of spread teams, he'll play a lot more sort of two safety looks where the safeties
can get involved in the run game. And they ran a play where they faked the toss read, the running back ran out wide, the guard pulled, but it was a play action pass and they had a sixty three yard touchdown wide open because the safety and sort of the nickel guy both just came up to try to
stop the sweep in the quarterback. So that's the fun part about it is that it's a cat and mouse game sort of on the macro sense, but even in the micro you figure out who's overreacting, what are they doing to take away the play, and then you come
back with something else to try to take advantage. I do expect to see clems and take a couple of shots, maybe faking the toss read or even the toss sort of read counter or that they were running, and then maybe trying to take a shot to Mike Williams or somebody downfield.
Do you anticipate Alabama being able to adjust quickly? I mean we're still talking about about seven to nine days to be able to adjust to all of the different options that Clemson will have. Or is it simply a cat and mouse thing and hope that your talent is good enough to play on an island?
I mean, yes and no. Will Alabama adjusts and alaban be prepared? Yes, that team does nothing but adjust and prepare, and even within series, between series, between plays, once you do something that works, you know the old adage with Alabama, and I've heard everybody from Gus malls On to other people say, if it worked in you know, one series, don't expect it to ever work again, because that team adjusts like no other. You know. On the other hand,
you know, there's there's a limited number of numbers. And this is where Clemson now being in the in the playoffs, where they're they're sort of using the full talents of Watson, understand that they don't want to take him to take a bunch of hits, but using his full talents to try to stress the defense. So then it does result in Okay, if Alabama's going to bring a safety up, maybe they don't, you know, fake them out like all
missed it. But you still have a one on one with you know, Mike Williams or somebody and just it's just a regular play action pass or some mother traditional run or they're able to option a guy or do something. But then you know, the other element too, is that the play only works if you can block the counter
or block the power. And as you've seen, you know, even Washington, who I thought had a perfectly rational plan against Alabama, they might make the right read, but can't block Jonathan Allen on the double team, and he splits her double team and then you know he was ready to tackle the quarterback two years deep in the backfield. You had the right scheme, but just didn't get those
guys blocked. And that's that's a lot of what Alabama's just done to people this year, is that you know, a scheme destroyers, you have a great plan but can't block the front seven.
Something you've also written about recently is you've looked over an older Clemson playbook from a couple of years ago and sort of notice certain themes throughout, and it seemed like the main thing that jumped out to you was simplicity, which has gone a long way obviously for Clemson. I think there's something like fifty nine to nine since they
lost the Orange Bowl. How do you think a sort of theme and notion of simplicit city plays to Clemson's possible strength against a near impossible defense.
Yeah, I mean it's a strength until it isn't. So it's a strengthen that it gets everywhere on the same page. They're able to play with a lot of tempo. Is what a lot of that's built around is that they have a good number of formations, but they don't They don't throw a ton of concepts at you, and then they do include things. They include a variety of concepts or ideas or different schemes without having to have a
million ways to do each one. So they have quick passes, downfield passes, play action passes, sort of shot sort of deep plays. They have base runs, option runs, read runs, screens. They have all those different things, but they don't have a huge playbook like there's some kind of West Coast offense. They have one hundred versions of each and so it allows them to play fast, play efficient, and they're very good. And I give a credit to Davo at a staff.
They really think players not plays. They're not. They're not trying to say fool you though, they're they're doing soundstf up and try to, you know, get advantages. But it's it's, you know, recruit really good players and get them the ball in their hands and put them in good, good positions.
But eventually you know there there can be limits, is too much simplicity if the other team knows what's coming and they can stop it, I mean, and that's sort of the ultimate challenge on that is playing an experienced, well coached Alabama defense who who their preparation is is unreal. You can't tell me that that they didn't spend some of the bowl preparation time on Clemson, a team they also prepared for last year, so they're very familiar with them.
And so a question then becomes that they if Alabama can get ahead of you, do you have answers, and and that's where the challenges if you're too simple, is that if they take away sort of option A m B and you just don't even have a C. So so that's where that that kind of mouse game goes. It's also just a matter of the other thing I thought was interesting in the playbook was the passing game was really really really simple. I mean it was like almost so simple. It's like it's kind of a high
school passing game at times. Now they've grown it a lot. That was from twenty thirteen Deshaun Watson. They've really tried to expand it to to sort of benefit the sounds, but they're not running the West Coast offense over there. A lot of it is based on you got to defend the run. You got to defend the formations, you got to defend the tempo. You got to fend the
read the read option stuff. And then they'll even do the run pass options things for you know, if you crash down, the throw a hitchress or a little you know, a quick screen or something like that, and then only that, and then they'll even do some you know, motions and bootlegs and stuff to get the pass game and only at that point is that okay, and go drop back and read one, two, three, four in a pass progression. But I think it's really hard to do that against
Alabama because they rush you so fast. But it's also a team that is going to force you to do what you don't feature. And last year in the Bowl, in the in the championship game, you know, Watson threw the ball really well and the biggest thing was the receivers went up and made a bunch of contested catches
and big plays. And so I think that will be the stress on Clemsons playbook, on Watson himself, and then on on on the whole Clemson team is can they execute in the past game against the defense that I mean they're running in an NFL sophisticated defense over there.
It's like the Bible their playbook. And so I mean, I always say, comparing Clemson's offensive playbook to Alabama's defensive playbook, there are more pages dedicated to path concepts and offensive formations and schemes in Alabama's defensive playbook than they were in Clemson's offensive playbook. It is a Bible of defense. So so that would be a real challenge and I mean, you know, the the group that I'm I think we'll know pretty early in the game how how the flow
of the game is going to go. Because last year Clemson's offensive line played outs out really really well. Obviously Watson played great and Golman and those guys, but the offensive line blocked those guys, and I think that's the you know, we'll see in the first few series. Can they block Alabama? Because as I said, you can have all the great scheme in the world, a lot of that. You know, Alabama's made a habit of throwing that out the window by just being in your backfield the whole game.
Final question, it's something you've talked about extensively, not just with Nick Saban, but also with some other really noted
defensive minds like Gary Patterson. Alabama plays a couple of different coverages against you know, we're talking about a very good quarterback and Deshaun Watson, but against everybody, and the thing that you've sort of come back to and explained, and if you could just give a cliffs notes, especially since Clemson will run some we'll run a lot of tempo and a lot of run pass option at times, what exactly is pattern matching and how can it help to deaden run pass option and some sort of more
stressful spread option attacks.
Sure, a couple couple of elements of pattern matching, and really at this point it's just becomes sort of a principle, and I think it's actually increasingly difficult to find teams that don't use some sort of pattern match concept as opposed to traditional zone. And so all pattern matching is is really it's somewhere between a matchup zone and basketball. There another way to think about it is it's just mann to man, but instead of just old school backyard saying I got him, I got him, I got him,
and you just play man across the field. It's a man to man, but there's some rules and principles, so meaning that I have man to man on him if he runs ten yards downfield, and then I just play man on him everywhere. Or I have man to man on him if he runs a short route, but then if he doesn't, I'm gonna then become a floating robber player, or I'll go double team someone else. And so it's
just rules. I increasingly just think about it's rules for mando man defense, which is one reason why I think Alabama is so good at coaching is because they play a lot of just true man and then they also mix in pattern match concepts. And so the other element is that one reason they're so good at pass defense is that because they're a pattern match. It's the rules for mando man. But then they specifically and as I said, their playbook has like one hundred and something pages on
like passing concepts. Is that Saban teaches them, not just you know the old school zone is dropped to your zone and you know, watch read the quarterback's eyes and break on the ball. And this goes back to saving time with Bill Belichick. I mean he's just say, you know, you're playing Dan Marino, they will break on the ball. Shit don't work. So that's how where a lot of this grew out of. So they they have names for them.
So they they name it's like, you know, one concept is poll, another is slugo, another is seam, another is is whatever the concept. So they actually teach the defense here's the actual passing concept they're running. And so when you read their playbook, it looks like a like an NFL playbook for an offense because they have every pass concept that you could see. So what that does is a few things. One a big tenet of Savings defenses
is he doesn't like to give you easy throws. You know, he talks a lot about when you watch one on one drills for you know, the defenses that they're playing off coverage, it's like eighty percent eighty five percent completions for the offense, but all of a sudden you get there and press them and challenge receivers, the completion percentage drops toll like thirty twenty five percent. Now, most coaches are afraid to because they're afraid of getting be deep.
But a Savan's got great athletes and he personally coaches the secondary. They also have a great pass rush. You have a lot of time. And then the big thing is his theory is that if you just can get offensives off schedule. So the other thing was where it helps defend on things like run pass options is just the fact that they're actually covering all the receivers. They're
defending them all. The whole point of a run pass option is you're either running the ball or you're taking some sort of gimme easy throw, like a quick screen to the outside. Or like a five yard stop route by a receiver and they're just covering those receivers taking them away. I will say pattern match, you could argue,
is at times more vulnerable to run pass options. And if you watch you know, like a team like the Baylor teams or some of those that sort of were very aggressive run pass option teams, a lot of that was designed around taking advantage of pattern match teams because those teams will often have players who are in sort of both run in pass responsibility. So there's still elements
to that. But I think the biggest thing that Alabama does that makes it hard to run and be really good at run pass options against them is that they just run so many defenses you don't know where they're going to be. It's like it's sort of like old school option football. If you're you run the triple option, you're trying to read the defensive end with the defensive tackle or the linebacker. If they're moving defenses and blitzing guys and moving stunts and playing I mean say it.
I mean you talk about coverages. I mean a lot of them are variations on the same coverages, but I mean they have seventy coverages fifty coverages, you know, all these different Seahawks, a solo special clip, cover two buster like, you know, cover two cut, like all these different rules that just change little subtle things that make it really hard. So if you don't know who you're optioning, and in
this case, a run pass option, it's really hard. And then that leads to indecision and either a mistake or interception or just a blown out play. So Alan, it is really hard. I think Clemson's actually got a shot, but I think we'll learn pretty early whether they can move the ball. The advantage for Clemson is that they can get up Alabama's often. I don't think it's geared to throw the ball and come back, though they did it against All miss But but it'll be a challenge.
All right. Again, that is our good friend Chris B. Brown from Smart Football dot Com. We didn't just want to leave you with one bit of scheme. Yeah, theme type stuff. Did we hit on Clemson. We hit on some of the Alabama defensive stuff. But there's a whole other world in this game. There's a whole other world in this game, and we alluded to it a little bit earlier. Jalen hurts this year gave Alabama a whole different dimension.
He did.
We're not used to seeing, you know, a guy who can run. Jake Kocher didn't run last year. I think back o roy Rad Gallops. Yeah, I mean, this is not part of Alabama's offensive game plan, and it's made them all the more dangerous. So we wanted to talk to somebody who could fill in the gaps and let us know how has this changed things? How will it changed things in this game?
Well, I think the best answer is they actually use him, and they use him a lot. You know, in previous years kind of because of the class of quarterback that Nick Saban recruited in that Alabama had, they just didn't really they didn't really have guys that were runners. They were running a more pro style, kind of bash you
over the head type of offensive system. But as Nick Saban has seen what types of offenses have beaten him or at least given him trouble in the past few years at Alabama, the Tide have evolved into this and this is really really good and really really hard to stop. Because Jalen hurts is I don't want to call him a glorified running back. That's taking away from his ceiling as a passer, which I think is high, although he hasn't met it because he's just a freshman, and I
understand that. But he is the leading ball carrier on this team, like he is their best running back and their quarterback. And that's what's so so scary about kind of this like three now a three headed monster that album has.
And beyond that, they're gonna.
Use both Scarborough a lot in the National Championship Game as well, lane Kiffin said. And this is even in the wake of his you know ouster, whatever you want to call it. Lane Kiffin has said that the game plan was to give Bo Scarborough the ball more than any person on Alabama's roster. So in essence, the thing might even I don't think it's gonna flip to Jalen Hurd's not getting so many carries. I just think Alabama in general is going to run the ball a lot
more in the National Championship Game. It's just going to be more from like a two headed thing than it is just Jalen or a reliance on just Bo Scarborough. It's gonna be the both of them kind of taking cracks at Clemson's at Clemson's defense.
Schematically, what are the keys for Alabama's success rushing the ball successfully in this new formation? In this new strategy, it.
Is still largely the zone runs inside and outside zone that they've always done, the wrinkles that they that they employ. You know, they'll do some stuff with some wide receiver sweeps. You'll see Alabama do a little bit of mid line option where instead of you know, typically in a zone read or an option system, you'll see the quarterback read the defensive end, but in a mid line option he literally will read like the nose tackle. Like he'll read
a defensive tackle instead of defensive end. So it'll look a little bit different on a film and you'll say, oh, well, what was that. Well, he's still making a read, it's just a different player that he's reading. But they'll also use receivers. They send receivers in motion a lot more than anything. They do it to get the eye discipline
of the defense going the wrong way. They want you to pay attention to the wide receiver and almost kind of use him as a decoy to get you out of phase or to move you out of position and negate whatever angle you may have. So the blocking angle is more advantageous for Alabama, and you know, Jalen Hurts as a really really asked athlete, or even Bo Scarborough is better suited to blow by you because you, as a tackler, do not have the angle that you once did.
But the bread and butter is still inside and outside zone. It's the same thing that your own college football team probably runs. If you're a fan of the sport. It is what pretty much everybody runs, and Alabama, obviously with their horses, just do it better than anybody else.
How simple do you feel like Alabama's offense has been made for a true freshman quarterback?
I don't know if simple is the word to put it. I do think like they've added things that suit him, like they've just they've plugged him into a system that more suits him. I think as an athlete, as a general athlete, even more than just a quarterback. You know, I know they don't throw the ball, some of the concepts and that kind of stuff in a passing game.
You know, they're not terribly complex or intricate. But then that goes back to the fact that they they run the ball a lot, and they run it really, really well. So you know it is, like I said, it is largely the same Alabama. They've added some things, you know. Chris Brown Smart Football wrote about the toss read that
they have. I hadn't got a chance to read that, but like that's one of those like little wrinkles that they do that I think people like think, is this like really really big thing, But it's it is essentially an add in to the general running game concepts that they already have in place. Like Alabama's not going to reinvent the wheel, really, They're just going to kind of tweak what works and continue to do it at a very high level.
With respect to other teams that have been certainly doing this longer. How well do you feel like al Alabama has executed. How successful does Alabama look running a more wide, open, running quarterback friendly offense.
Oh, they look good, And they look good because.
Of the personnel more than anything else.
I mean, like I've already said it, like the personnel, it's just really good. Like it's still just really good. And if Hurts was a more polished passer at this stage in his development, I think they would look even better. I mean, if they were able to really I mean Calvin Ridley is a guy that and our Darius Stewart
just really really talented whiteouts. Gar Dieters a tight end like these guys are, I don't want to say lost in the sauce, but a little bit forgotten about just because Alabama doesn't necessarily, like in that Washington game, like they didn't really hit one of those like Alabama play action bombs that you kind of expect them to hit
when they run so well. So those other kind of like wide receivers like that, they're not even really getting used as much as in years past or you know, really showing off what they can do.
All right, That was Richard Johnson. We've got much more to discuss here on our layered college football National Championship preview.
Are we getting to the sour cream?
Now?
Is that how that's working?
A little black beab, that's I think that's sort of how it's going. Look, so let's pay some bills. We'll come back at you. Oh, speaking of as you know by now, Clemson in Alabama are cooking up a little something something special. Now it's your turn. Try blue apron. Here's the way it works. Pick from a variety of savory meals that you want delivered to your home blue Apron. They can deliver to ninety nine percent of the continental United States and ninety nine point five percent of food deserts.
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game of the season. Nick Saban decides, Ah, let's turn it over to the understudy.
Here before that, if I recall correctly as well, Yeah, let's turn it over to one Steve Sarkisian. Indeed, So started the season out looking like he was going to be calling like the number three Fox Sports one Big Twelve Game of the Week, finishes the season controlling an offense for his first national championship since his run at USC.
I mean it's a bit of a meteoric rise.
Yeah, I'd say so.
It'd be more meteoric if he didn't already have some prominent head coaching and play calling experience. But nonetheless it is notable in the biggest game of the college football season. What we wanted to do is figure just how is this going to factor in? We needed to find somebody. Is there anybody out there that you can think of? I don't know, somebody who knows what both these guys can do as play callers. Sure, if we can find that human being, maybe you could add another layer here.
I feel like if we could find somebody, perhaps perhaps who has followed USC for decades and might know some tendencies and per personality quirks of Steve Sarkisian. Maybe somebody like Ryan Abraham of USC football dot Com to weigh in.
Ryan Abraham, he's seen both play callers up close and in person. How are these guys like, how are they different?
How to listen?
There are certainly some similarities between Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, both coming from that Pete Carroll Tree at USC as far as being offensive coordinators and play callers. First, with Steve Sarkasian, I think he's actually probably a better play caller than Lane. I think a little bit less ego gets involved, and I can talk about that in a minute with Lane Kiffin, but I don't think he's probably
like as an original thinker as Lane. Lane's a little bit more creative, maybe thinking more outside of the box. I think what you saw he ran more of a spread system up in Seattle, and I really like the way he utilized the tight ends and focused on the running game too. It wasn't just a pass happy offense, and they kind of got away from that when he
came to USC. But you know what you saw in Seattle, I thought there were some real positive signs there, and then you know, coming back down to USC, the offense, you know, it wasn't really what a lot of USC fans thought it was going to be. Now, he only lasted for eighteen games, and I think it's still a lot of that was under development, and you saw Cody Kussler be a really efficient passer under Steve Starkesian, but it really wasn't quite the explosive offense that a lot
of people would have liked to see. As far as Lane Kiffin goes, I do think his ego kind of gets in the way sometimes as a play caller. He does seem to be a guy that's a lot more about the x's and o's of the play than the you know, the Jimmies and Joe's. You have a lot of great players and a lot of times you're just trying to fool somebody or you know, show somebody how
smart you are. And I think you could see that in a lot of the games he called, especially this last game in the semi final, when you're talking, you have a running back that's just bowling people over and you decide to go away from that, and and it's just you've seen that before, even like using the util of the tight end he waited to all season last
year until the National Championship Game. There's so many weapons there at Alabama, and I think it gets to the point where if there's something that's obviously working, he doesn't want to use it because it doesn't really give him a.
Whole lot of credit.
If you see bos Scarborough just running people over, everyone kind of knows that all ray, So he'd rather do something else to show you how smart he is.
So that's good info. The other thing we asked Ryan is how he thinks Sark is going to handle this sudden onslaught of pressure. Because he's been on the sidelines since its dismissal from USC This is a big spot to just plug and play. How will he deal with that kind of pressure.
Yeah, I'm more curious long term what his situation at Alabama is. I think, you know, in a short amount of time, Yes, he's being thrust into a big position like the National Championship Game, but it's basically a week. It is a week, and he will either figure out how to make it his own and sort of call this game successfully or he won't. I'm curious about the weekend week out the recruiting, the meeting, that whole thing.
What Steve Sarkisian's long term tenure a year, two years, three years looks like at Alabama, That's the fascinating thing.
Here's what Ryan Abraham had to say as far as sark taking over for Lanes, Certainly there's going to be a lot of pressure there, but there's not a lot of time to think about it.
Five or six days.
We've seen you know, Sark fold under pressure at usc as last game when he played his former team Washington. But he's had a lot of time off and I think, you know, hopefully his mind is right and he'll be able to jump back into the game. But just from being on the sidelines all this time, you're thrust into the most important game probably of your career. I do think there's going to be a lot of pressure there, but he's not going to be able to change all
that much. I do expect it to see. I think he's going to recognize probably what works best and where the best assets are. I think you're going to see Jalen Hurts, you know, run the ball just like you normally would, but both Scarborough being able to pound the
ball of it. Maybe it won't be as easy against that Clemson front versus Washington, but I think they're going to be committed to the run, and I think you're going to utilize the tight end position a little bit more, which can be kind of a security blanket for any quarterback, especially a freshman one. So I kind of think he's going to do okay in that role. You know, it's Nick Saban's show and Steve Sarkisian is basically just taking over as the show for He's not going to be
asked to do a lot. Call the plays, get the guys out there, you have, you know, superior athletes most of the time, put them in a position to win, and I think he'll be able.
To do that.
All Right, There you go everything you ever wanted to know about Steve Sarkisian. Yeah, Link Kiffin, what have you from? A guy who would know Ryan Abraham from USC football the.
Smartest of us all, living in southern California in the sunshine?
You know it?
Man?
All right? You've heard the expression the game within the game. Yeah, I think it's overused. There are like eight different games within this game. And we're doing our best here with this preview to try and cover them all the coaches. How could we omit the coaches. Let's talk about coaches now.
Yeah, first up as Andy Staples, who has written about the process, and the key thing to remember with Nick Saban and the process in Alabama is it's not a results oriented thing. It is a literal journey to the results. That's where the satisfaction comes from. So really interested to hear from Andy about where he feels like this year's Alabama team ranks or just sort of settles among the recent great Alabama teams. And if he feels like Nick Nick Saban is in a place where he is he
is pleased, He is satisfied his happy places. Absolutely.
I think he's pretty pleased because this is sort of his evolution plan coming to Fruition. You know, he started this thing probably even before Johnny Football beat them in twenty twelve. He was aware that the offense was changing, that they were going to have to deal with more and more duel threat quarterbacks, that the things that they did on defense weren't going to work as well anymore as the game evolved. So he started recruiting like the
class of twenty thirteen, Jonathan Allen, Tim Williams. Those guys are not guys that they necessarily would have recruited for the same positions in two thousand and eight, because before the defense was designed to stop LSU, they had to deal with LSU. That was the biggest threat to them. And LSU played basically like they did. They were you know, could play in a phone booth downhill running. You needed to be huge up the middle. You needed Terrence Cody
three hundred and forty pounds up the middle. You needed Rolando McClaine two hundred and sixty five pounds behind him. Now you've got Duran Payne at about three fifteen in three twenty, and then behind him you've got Reuben Foster at like two twenty eight and Jonathan Allen at two ninety,
where Jesse Williams played at about three twenty. So it's it is definitely shrunken the defense, and then offensively, the chance is more obvious because they went after the same kind of quarterback that they were having trouble with and they finally landed one of Jalen Hurts and low and behold, he wins the starting job as freshman year. So I think this is the result of all the changes that
he started making around twenty twelve. It's hard to tell if it was before or after that season that they began in earnest, but the fact that a lot of these guys that are in the twenty thirteen class have been such big contributors to the changes suggest that he already had them in mind even before that season began.
A lot of times, after either losses or close wins shootout type games, whether it's Texas A and M, whether it's Ole Mess last year against Clemson, Nick Saban will talk about being relieved to sort of escape with a win, or you know, being kept up nights. Do you think this is all sort of part of his evolution? Has he always wanted to be able to feel different types of defenses? Do you think he as an a stubbornness
streak to what kind of defenses he plays? Or is it just sort of this is what's necessary, this is what he's going to do.
He's one of the least philosophically stubborn coaches in football. He is more inquisitive, more open to adaptation than most of his peers, and that's why he beats his peers so often. Because the coaches who say this is my system. I'm the genius who came up with this. You will do what my genius mind came up with, and that's all we're going to do. They're the ones who get passed by.
Well.
Nick Saban is still winning national titles in basically different eras of college football. Because you know, the clock rule change in two thousand and eight. He's won four national titles since then. But I would argue that the first
three the world hadn't changed all that much. The last one was a very different football environment than the first three, and so I think that's probably the biggest thing is he's willing to chall Like Ohio State beats him, he brings in Tom Herman and says, show us how you beat us, and then he adapts to it. You know when when he brings in a new fortin Angel Kiffany says, these are some of the things I want done. I
want you to up the tempo. I want jet sweeps, I want this, I want this, I want this, And you know, Lank Kippen had never been enough tempo offensive coordinator before he got to Alabama. That was Nick Saban's doing.
Is there any reason to believe now that Deshaun Watson, the Clemson offensive coaching staffs, and now Clemson's offense with an added weapon they didn't have last year on Mike Williams. Is there any reason to believe playing Alabama's defense already on this stage last year gives them an advantage that Nick Saban having played Clemson's offense does. Does Clemson have any sort of advantage over Nick Saban.
At this point, It's not an advantage they have over Nick Saban. It's a difference between them and most of the teams Alabama plays. Most of the teams Alabama plays lose to fear before they lose to Alabama's actual defense. And Clempton has no reason to fear Alabama's defense because they scored forty on them last year for the same reason that Ole miss this year did not fear Alabama's defense because they meet the Alabama two years in a row.
So you've got to have some success against them before they stop feeding you when they get off the bus. For lack of a better term, I mean, part of the problem is teams that haven't had success against them or have never seen them before. You see them show up for warm ups and you're like Oh my lord, every one of these people is going to be in the NFL. They're so much better than us. How are we going to do this?
You know?
But Clemson has basically the same level of athlete and they had such success last year. I don't think they're going to come in afraid of Alabama at all. And that's one of the biggest advantage that Alabama has in most games.
It will not have it in this game.
Is there any reason to believe that Nick Saban now, especially if he wins this year, he is sort of in uncharted territory high level college pro football in terms of how often he's won. Is there any sense that there is a point in which Nick Saban will just be satisfied with his accomplishments.
I think he's got a pass Bear Bryant, and if he wins this one, he'll tie him, so we would still need one more at least. And you know, it's sort of like the whole Tiger Wood situation. You assume this can go on forever and then all of a sudden it just drops off. I don't see a drop off coming up for Nick Saban. He's sixty five, but he looks like he's forty. This might be his best recruiting class in class twenty seventeen that he's had at Alabama,
which is saying something. So they seem to be set up to compete for national titles for at least three four more years. So I think he's got a good chance of passing Bear Bryant. But it's hard to win a national title, and probably nobody knows it more than he does because he's won so many of them, and it is not easy to get there. It takes some good fortune, it takes some breaks, and so if he wins this one, I would bet he's gonna go for at.
Least one more so other guys who have had not this level of success but ongoing year over year over year over year success recently. So Pete Carroll and Urban Meyer are the two big ones that come to mind in terms of winning national championships plural. They leave their jobs for you know, Urban Meyer for health and burnout reasons. Pete Carroll leaves, I mean there's the looming sanctions and also the opportunity to succeed again in the NFL, and also the he did which he did, and the limitations
of you can only practice so much you can. You know, well, there were certain levels that Pete Carroll didn't want to or certain things that he didn't want to deal with anymore at usc If not for just being satisfied, what is either a positive or negative thing that you could see Nick Saban just saying all right, my time in Tuscaloosa is over.
The only thing I think that would would bother him enough to chase him out are the expectation that they are supposed to win every game in every national title, because realistically that's not possible, even though they've come awfully close. I think that's probably the biggest knock on that job right now. But he's got a better job than most of his peers because he can go to the president and say this is what I want and he'll get it, and not many of the coaches get that. So he's in a good spot.
I don't think.
I mean, he would have gone back in the NFL already. I think if he was going back, I think he's going to be a college coach. He's going to be a college coach to Alabama. I think the next move is to TV. But question is how many more titles is he going to win before you go to TV.
One of the things that's obviously a big storyline going in is Steve Sarkasian taking over the offense. Is there anything that's known about the relationship between Steve Sarkasian, who advances from being an analyst, and Nick Saban? Obviously the langkiffn relationship seemed, at least from the outside, pretty contentious. Is there anything that's known sort of with sark being thrust into this position.
Not really, not much is emerged in terms of behind the scenes stuff. But you know Sarkaty's troubles at USC with alcohol, but common sense tells you that he probably hasn't had many issues at Alabama because if he did, he would have been fired from his thirty five dollars a year for analyst job immediately. I mean, this was a second chance, zero tolerance kind of deal for him
when he got brought in. So my guess is he's he's been able to do what he's because think about this, if there were any froms Nick Saban would know about them, and a guy who hates distractions more than anything else, if there'd been proms, those would have been distractions and a thirty five thousand dollars. Your analyst is not worth distractions, So that would have been that. So I don't know
about in terms of interpersonal relationship, I don't. The question is how much into personal contact had they had before this week, because obviously Sark was being groomed for this. But were they talking every day? Were they talking a couple times a week? Where they're talking once a week. I mean, it's a pretty big organization that they SAVEN runs. How much realistically could he have dealings with one of the analyts?
What is it?
On that same note that is, what is it about Nick Saban's I guess, force of personality or regimen or ability to run a program? And mentioning Pete Carroll earlier, one of the things that sort of be deviled him was attrition coaches, players, whatever. It's just hard to keep things up year over year. Nick Saban loses coaches, he loses position coaches, coordinators, whatever, and yet from the outside
the drop off is minimal, if any. What is it about Nick Saban specifically that makes him so good at just being consistent in hiring the right people, in figuring out the right ways to sort of mix people. What is it about the sort of the business mind of Nick Saban that so consistently works.
He's willing to be more consistent, and he's more disciplined than the rest of us. There are people as disciplined as him, but there aren't many, all right, Dan, You and I when we were thinking about what we were going to eat for lunch, we imagine the entire realm spectrum. Yeah, Taco's, pita burgers, sushi, you name it. They say it needs the same salad for lunch every day because that's one less choice he has to make. He likes it, tastes good, gives him what he needs. That's all he needs. And
you would call that boring. I wouldn't do that, but that makes me less consistent than he is. That makes me less disciplined than he is. He is disciplined like that in every phase of his professional life, which creates a very disciplined program. And he hires people that are going to adhere to that discipline, and if they aren't, they're not going to be around very long.
Do you think winning football makes him happy or do you think working to win at football makes him happy?
That's a process question right there, and it's a good one. The process tells you when football is not the thing that will make you happy doing, the things that make you whin it's football are the things that should satisfy you. And then you reach the ultimate goal because you took every step along the way. I always tell people this. Do you remember the exercise in kindergartener first grade where the teacher says, tell me how to make a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich. And you say, well, you get some bread, and you get some peanut butter, and you get some jelly, and you put the peanut butter on the bread. And then the teacher goes, no, no, no, no no. You have to unscrew the jar of peanut butter first, and then you have to dip the knife in the peanut butter, and then you have to put the peanut butter on the bread. Nick Saban would get that right. He wouldn't skip a step. The rest of us would skip a step, all right.
So that's Andy Staples, you know from SI dot com, longtime friend of the show. He's like one of the first people.
Yeah, we were. We were coworkers, colleagues with Andy Staples way back when at SI dot com when I was doing video and you were writing, shout out to Jimmy trainer, shout out to Maggie Gray, shout out to everybody you know.
Such a great bit there by him. Where you both of you guys? Really when you talk about is Nick Saban happy? Is he happy with this? And it's it comes up from time to time. It's a real question. Yeah, you just don't know what makes him tick. I don't think he has the same motivating factors as ninety nine percent of the other people out there, and he acknowledged as much. He's just a different kind of cat.
He has a different cat. And I would like to quote the great and immortal Miley Cyrus. Yeah, it's not the results, it's the climb.
It's all about the climb, absolutely all right. Well, the other coaching element in this game is Daboswinny. Yeah, an incredible story. Totally different kind of cat, yeah from Nick Saban, much more excitable, just different in so many different ways. We could do eight different podcasts talking about it. We had the good fortune of stumbling across our good friendship Patterson.
Oh incredibly sports mister acc. We've had him on this program countless time to talk about all things ACC football, Who better to talk about Dabo Swiney than Ship Patterson. So we asked him a couple of things about Dabo. First and foremost, what did he learn from a year ago in that heartbreaking five point loss.
I think that with each of the big non conference wins, which include two against Oklahoma, which go all the way back to that tight, tight LSU game the Ohio State in the Orange Bowl a few years back, I think that was like a forty to thirty five game, another very tight game. I think that he understands that the building has to take these cons like there's got to be some confidence to it. Like in twenty eleven, here
we go. Twenty eleven, Clemson beat Virginia Tech. It was their first ACC championship in thirty years, and Dabo Sweeney told us he was like listen, man, like we're not just gonna rock it up. We are building something to last. And that was in twenty eleven. Then they got stalled
by Daniel Holgerson in West Virginia. They hung seventy on him, and there was something in that experience where every single time that Clemson has come back and had another big time game against a power conference opponent, there's been a little bit of an extra confidence and a little bit of extra experience.
No longer going up against Alabama.
Are they a team that is continuing to build up that resume of experience.
Now he's got it down to a format.
He knows what it takes to coach fifteen games, how to work these guys up, how to revt down. And I might even say that that contributes to how comfortable these Clemson players were in their own skin while everybody else earlier this season was freaking out that they weren't as good as Big old Air quotes here for the podcast, but they weren't as good as last year's seen it.
So when you look at this matchup again from a coaching perspective, it seems to be widely assumed that Nick Saban is the one with some kind advantage. He is the one where does Dabo have an advantage?
Dabo's advantage probably lies in the unknown, in the fact that the book on him is still being written, and it's not much of an advantage, you know, Like I think Clemson's advantage in this game is the fact that they have a phenomenal defensive line and a game plan from the LSU game that they can apply, and I think Dabosweeney and his staff are smart enough to look for advantages and exploit them.
But like Sheer coaching advantages.
Like Dabosweeney is he has gone up against Alabama on the recruiting trail and been able to, you know, give Clemson a fight here. He has been able to go out and make Clemson a recognized brand. He has been able to be the salesman that Clemson needed him to be. But he doesn't have a coaching advantage against Nick Saban.
But there is some value, as he said, to being the crazy guy in the fight, no doubt, being the Carrie Sheffield out to not have a book on you is something that you can use.
I think that uh, you know what he learned from last year. He's gonna be looking for that onside kick. They're not going to leave that thing wide open again, because that's like we're reviewing the tape. Alabama had it three times, two times before they finally hit it on the third. I guarantee you Clemson will not have that spot of the field open again on.
Kickoffs, all right again. His name Chip Patterson cbssports dot com. The layers just keep coming to like that all the time here, stacking them on top of each other. We are nearing the final stretch where yes, we add up all the data here. Yeah, I mean if you crack out the slide rule and make our selections.
I feel like we've almost jammed backed. Too much information and too much relevant football. Nugget try Okay that nugget Tree, Yeah, nugget Tree. I think it's time to take a half step back and sort of really honor what this show is all about in the first place, and that is total mindlessness, mindlessness, fried food, and Florida recommendation. So the Tampa in tangible factor, the Tampa is very important that people here.
An audio or what is the audio an I actually know this. They're not talking about the Tampa and Tangibles.
No, they're not, absolutely not. They're talking too much football. So we have Ryan Anny of Estipination to to sort of pull back the camera a little bit and talk about the game as a TV show, just what he wants to see it from a peer entertainment spectacle. And then his I mean, Tampa's first son, what to do if you're coming into town, what to do for this game?
So I think I'm looking forward to the game going long because the it always goes long, and people are going to be unhappy about it. I guess you're gonna be like.
Oh, why don't we always do this on a Monday?
Gotta take the kids to school, Jesus, stupid Clinton. Now, long games are usually good games, but there's always some people and I'm not I'm not necessarily criticizing them for that, but they're just like, Oh, you gotta be kidding, you gotta be what.
No, run the ball, Just take a knee.
I don't care that it's tied on.
The Alabama side. What would make you laugh the most if you were to see blank happen from Alabama either with the ball defensively outcome of this game sark related.
I think the funniest thing that could happen on Alabama side of the ball is if they unveiled this just deadly passing attack. If you're like, wow, Jalen hurts through four three hundred and eighty yards, completed eighty percent of his passes. Clearly, Lane Kiffen had no idea what he was doing with this kid.
On Clemson side, anything specifically from Dabo, from Deshaun Watson from ben Ben Bowlwaer, we're on the record right now, right four fingers deep is an actual life talk.
So we talked about this on Shutdown Full Cast. Yeah, four fingers is not a measure of depth. It's a measure of width. You know, all your fingers are mostly the same length. So what you're gonna want to watch for entertainment value from Clemson is Rabbo is obviously prone to weird postgame or halftime interviews when he's agitated in some way. And I really I think winning the national championship would take Dabo to an emotional place that I
don't think any of us can contemplate. I think he would cry, but I think more importantly, he will just start speaking in gibberish and then like a week later, we'll realize that if you play it backwards, it actually made perfect sense in English, but only if you play it backwards.
What should people know about Tampa, Florida? What should they do in Tampa? And what defines the city of Tampa.
Here are the important facts you need to know. Yes, Tampa has a bunch of strip clubs. B These strip clubs are not like kept off in some Oh. This is the CD part of No, they're on an industrial they're on a main thoroughfare. When Tampa got its first Whole Foods, it's walking distance to these strip clubs. Third, the man who started the most prominent strip clubs is a man named Joe Redner. Okay, he has run for mayor city council. He's run for a bunch of things
in Tampa. Never one has never won. But I believe his son is co owner of a micro brewery in Tampa called Cigar City, which makes really excellent beer.
Okay, so you can drink.
You can go there and say you've drink strip club air beer, strip club air HgI R.
Not ai R.
That's an important anymore. But the airport's great.
Airport's fantastic. Have they recently redone it their FI?
No, it's always it's I mean, they have done improvements to it over the last five years or so, but it's always been a really solid airport. And of course Tampa is home to Outback Steakhouse, the Australian themed restaurant founded by people who had never been to Australia.
After seeing Crocodile Dundee.
Apparently, I think that's what it was.
I think they thought that they could capitalize on the.
Ossi field at the time.
Yeah, okay, fair enough. And by the way, I don't know if this is if this is something you want to publish, is okay, let me use the stage as we conclude and move on with the show to say, anybody from the Outback Bowl or anybody who just feels like tweeting at the Outback Bowl, we are desperate to make Ryan Bloomy the bloomin Onion for the twenty seventeen out Back Bowl and whatever responsibilities that that may entail.
I think the hashtag we're still talking about it. The one I like best so far is fran Nanny. Fryan Nanny's good.
That's kind of a winner to make.
Have you ever eaten a blumin onion?
I have?
You know what I used to this is this is the most disgusting thing. I guarante this is the most disgusting thing you'll hear about food today.
In college.
This was in Eugene, Organ maybe.
Springfield or like a first year move first or second.
You would think, but it was all throughout. Okay, I don't remember like the terminology that we called it, but in Springfield, Organ, which is sort of like Eugene but for shady people. Next to do Or we would go to outback steakhouse and Jack in the Box and I would get like six like disgusting grease envelopes that they call tacos, a jack in the box and split a bloomin onion and just annihilate my insights. Wow, this is totally unrelated. Though I was a larger person in college.
I wow, Yeah, it's real bad. I do like the bloomin onion, though I haven't had in a long time.
Wow.
One was the last time you had a bloomin onion?
It's been a long Yeah.
It's not something. Once you hit a certain age, you're like, man, I can't Well, you.
Also can't do anything after what you have a bloomin onion? Play a couple. No, you're done.
That one's accepted. If it will you know what if I have to eat a bloomin onion and play play two set pro SATs, right, play two pro sets and that'll get me bloomy, I'll do it.
Absolutely, you will, all right?
Ryan Anny first Son, Yeah, of the Tampa Saint Pete metro area.
This is true.
Uh.
He supposedly has a uh a picture or a name on a debate trophy at his high school. So if you can piece together where he went to high school, go check it out.
All right, that does it for the layers. It does so many layers here. Do you have enough information now at hand to make.
Because I need to hear from you the most need to hear from me.
You're gonna let me influence your.
Pick, Absolutely, I am, because you have figured out, you've tapped into a winning formula this year of deep dive research, figure out how everything sort of dances with your gut and then you just go the other way. Yeah, and that's been a pretty successful formula for you this.
Year through bull season. I didn't quite adhere to that the same way I did during the regular season.
Bull season is a different animal. But this is a game with huge stakes, not unlike regular season games that week to week there are stakes, and this is a game that much in the way you've done with the bigger games in the regular season, You've researched, you've thought about you, You've weighed different factors in your head that are important to you. I've done the same, and yes, am I the surest thing in college football picking.
Of course, one hundred percent of the time, right or wrong.
Yeah, right or wrong one hundred percent of the time. That's mathematics people. But no, that's that's what I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for your thoughts, right.
So, well, I have a couple. I have a couple of things that I'm chewing on.
Yeah.
The first is, I'm not sure I know what this offensive game plan looks like for Steve Sarkisian Now, yep, with Alabama. You heard Ryan allude to it a little bit in his bit, But he thinks sark is more devoted to what works and less devoted to his own ego, doesn't care so much about looking like the smartest guy in the room, just wants to trot plays out there that he knows are going to work. I think in the case of Alabama, we know what would work. We
know what works best for them. Anyway, what has throughout the course of the season. That is the running game. Yep, they want to run the football. I fear a little bit, because it's his first game as offensive coordinator, that it might be super conservative, that if there's a spot where he needs to stretch the field vertically, maybe he will be a little bit apprehensive about doing that. I don't know,
just something I've been chewing on all week. The other thing that conservatism, in this early conservative conservatism, excuse me, probably favors Clemson because Clemson I don't think is going to have any conservatism at all. That's just not their style, right. The other thing that's bouncing around for me is Deshaun Watson. And you could cut this thing one hundred different ways
if you want to. But what we saw towards the end of last season, what we've seen a little bit though not to the same extent, but a little bit again this season is that in the biggest spots to Sean, Watson gets the ball more. Sometimes he throws more, more often, he runs more. But pretty much one hundred percent of the time, they're leaning on him heavily to try and win this game. Last year, look at what he did
in the championship game. He ran it at least twenty times in each of his final four games win the championship. In particular, four hundred and seventy eight total yards, four touchdowns, four or five passing. That's the most in National Championship history. So I think what I'm getting at here is how far can he take them as one singular man against this incredible defense? How far can one guy take BA or can one guy take Clemson. I have a hard time believing he can take them all the way to
the Promised Land alone alone. He needs help, and he's got the big receivers, and I think maybe they can channel some you know, modest running game here and there in spots, in situations, but as a whole, I don't think there's enough balance. So for as much as I want to see Clemson win, and for as much as I'd like to see something different, I'm going to go
Alabama to win this game. I'm going to say something in the ballpark a twenty seven to twenty three, twenty seven to twenty four very similar but lower scoring, similar but lower scoring? Is Bill Connolly mentioned earlier? I think Alabama wins another national championship, But but I would not be surprised if Clemson pulled up. You Hedger, Well, I wouldn't be surprised. I think Clemson covers, but Alabama wins.
Okay, My question to you as a follow up is what is it about Jalen Hurts specifically? And it may may be a matter of the fact that the combination of Alabama's defense, I believe leading the nation in touchdowns defense, in touchdowns scoring defenses, going against a Clemson offense that has been a little bit too careless this year, has turned the ball over more than we expected. That's not a great hat to hat combination. What is it about
if there isn't Alabama defensive touchdowns? About Jalen Hurts that you feel like against this Clemson defense, coming off of a shoutout, coming off of some very impressive defensive performances, it makes you feel like he can lead to twenty seven points against a very good defense.
I feel like he's got.
After struggling with Washington too. I should mention through the.
Air after struggling, and he did.
Yeah.
I mean that's another factor that we could certainly consider. I have more confidence in the pieces that he has alongside him in the rushing game. I think, then I do the pieces alongside the Shaw Watson. So as we've seen, the formula at Alabama is you don't always need to have a premier quarterback to win, right. You need to have good pieces around that quarterback, but you don't need to have a guy who does a whole lot. You just need to find somebody doesn't turn the ball over.
Kurtz gives them an extra dimension with his legs. I think that combined with the fact that he's got some really good pieces in the running game, too, reliable pieces Damien Harris Boscarborough. We saw what he did. I feel really good about some combination of those guys against anybody, let alone Clemson.
If Clemson is forcing third and sevens consistently, how much more worried are you about your Alabama pick consistently? Yeah, if they're consistently like, okay, it's third and seven, like if they're forcing passing downs over and over and over again. And one of the differences, Jake Koker threw the ball down field really well last year in big games. That Michigan State game, he had a huge Sorry, he had multiple huge bombs, notably to Calvin Ridley. But Ardarius Stewart
is still there. If Clemson, I'm not going to say if they make them one dimensional, but if Clemson is able to force some single dimensional activity from Alabama, is it does it become a toss up sort of situation too.
Let's put it this way. Alabama averaged five point seven yards per carry this year, Yes, all right, if they are continually finding themselves in third and long situations, yeah, that's bad. Yeah, that's not a good situation.
So put up five yards per carry, not against exter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins.
That is correct. Yes, However, for the entirety of their season, being that consistent in the rushing game has absolutely made them what they are.
Yeah.
So if in fact, Clemson could find a way to put a cap on that, maybe make it four yards carry, I don't know, you know, get some tackles for loss. If they're doing that reliably consistently, that changes this game all of a sudden. Then I think that tips things in favor perhaps of Deshaun Watson. What can he do with the pieces around him? How much can he run for? If we see that situation develop time and time again, then yeah, yeah, that's the situation I think that Alabama's afraid of.
I'm going to fairelessly pick Clemson. I'm gonna tell you why. I am not going to hedge. Of course, none of us would be surprised if Alabama wins this game. But I am saying Clemson wins this game period, without a I wouldn't be surprised if Clemson and I think it's a pretty equal game. Clemson has the sort of advantage of their coming off of a year in which they know they cannot just hang with Alabama, but they can
beat Alabama. They're not losing this game, like Andy Staples said before they even play, which is the case with a lot of Alabama opponents. You have a true freshman quarterback. We've seen first year quarterbacks succeed in the National Championship Game. Nick Marshall had a pretty nice game against Florida State, Cam Newton won, Jameis Winston. These were red shid freshmen. Jalen Hurts true freshman, although he's been there since January and played Deshaun Watson as a scout teamer this past
January year ago. But I think because things seem to me to be so equal, I think Alabama's big advantages. I think they have a much better secondary than Clemson's secondary. I think without Mackenzie Alexander, they don't have that true lockdown guy. But I also don't think Jalen Hurts is a quarterback that can expose really good secondaries. It's not elite, whatever that word has come to me in twenty seventeen.
But if you are going to give me a relatively neutral field, I expect it to be about fifty to fifty because I mean, we're not far from Clemson, We're not far from Alabama. It's going to it's it's not going to be a decided crowd. You're gonna give me. And Alabama does have a running back and a running game advantage, and that's big. But I think Deshaun Watson is a true star and is a true game changer in a way that Alabama. I don't think that they have.
I just they have it on defense. I don't think offensively they have somebody who can take over a game.
So the counter question, yeah, counterpoint, what have you? Let's say hypothetically that the true teeth of this Alabama defense, it's a linebacking corps, is able to confuse Sure, Deshaun Watson. We've seen it countless times this year. Deshaun Watson doesn't see a linebacker, doesn't see somebody lurking in a short zone coverage, something like that and frozen interception. Let's say through half of this game, Deshaun Watson's having a hard time.
I'm dissecting that portion of the Alabama defense. The passing game isn't coming as naturally sure a rhythm three hundred and twenty eight yards per game, seventh nationally in terms of passing offense. Let's say it's.
Nowhere near that reasonable to guess, Yeah, he Clemson still win the game. Yes, because I don't think he's going to go into a shell. We're talking about somebody who is I think we're pretty sure as a first round NFL quarterback, and not in a Jared goffway, in a we've seen him beat really good teams really recently kind of way. I think we're positive of his talent. We've seen him have. I think it's pretty clearly the best and biggest game of his career on the best and
biggest stage. So I don't think if he throws a pick early he is going to become tentative. He throws a ball downfield, he throwed like even the interception, it took an out of this world Malik Hooker play to pick him off in the end zone. That's what it takes at times when he is when he is operating, I think they're going to be creative. You know, we talked to Chris Brown about the sort of wrinkles that they've added to the run game that what is it
that the toss read? So I think Clemson is constantly evolving. I think it's going to be a great cat mouse game. I love the Alabama defense, but on a stage like this, what did they What did Alabama need last year? They needed a herculean effort from Oj Howard after Clemson was beat up. That, I mean, that's a reality. Clemson defense doesn't rush the past or maybe as well as they did last year. But to me, it's hard for me
to find to pick. Like, Okay, Alabama is going to get a crazy game from Calvin Ridley or Darius Stewart bo Scarboro maybe, but I'm more sure of Deshaun Watson than any one of those players breaking out. So I'm going with Clemson. I have it twenty eight twenty seven in my head. Twenty eight twenty seven, nail bier. And you ready, if we're gonna get very specific Alabama wide rights in the closing seconds, how about.
That wide right closing seconds?
Because okay, so what would be I wouldn't be unforeseen, would not be unforeseend what would be the most prizing outcome Clemson big ten to seven.
What Clemson big would be would be surprising.
Yeah, that would be nobody comfortably beats Alabama.
No, No, I mean it's it's always by the hair on your chin, right, it's not.
You could argue Ohio State sort of did a couple of years ago.
Zeke, Yeah, that was that would be. That would be a surprise, I think, in the same way, probably a much bigger way than what we saw in the semifinal with cumps and shutting out Ohio State because that was a bit unexpected.
To I think to me, a bigger surprise would be Clemson winning this game with Deshaun Watson not having a great game.
It's like Wayne Goleman rips off like free hundred.
Yards, Wayne Goleman going for two oh eight and the defense scoring two touchdowns, slipping the field. Something like that, Like Clemson winning sixteen to thirteen with a pedestrian offensive effort would be kind of a shocker to make.
All Right, So you're all in on Clemson twenty yearly seven time, fearlessly. Okay, I'm gonna go Alabama. I'm going to be the boring old man.
That's okay.
Twenty seven, twenty four is my finally very.
Exciting when people pick Alabama and Alabama wins, that's always the.
Best we do have. Yeah, thank you. We do have a consensus though we're both like Clemson plus.
Uh yeah, we're gonna gobble those points up.
All right, Well, we do thank everybody who chimed in, from Bill Connolly to Bud Elliott, Chris Brown, Richard Johnson still seated at the table here.
Absolutely.
We've also had Ryan Abraham on this show, Andy Staples, Chip Patterson, and of course our good friend the first Sun Now of Tampa, Ryan is. Oh yes, all right, there, we go, enjoy the game. We'll be here all weekend. We'll be doing interviews. We'll hear those interviews at some point in the future. We'll be doing Facebook Live you.
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Sorts of cool stuff. So if you're a fan, if you like the show, do stay tuned to our Twitter, to our Facebook, to our Snapchat, to our Instagram. Everywhere you can find the verbal.
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On that note. For the fine gentlemen seated directly across from me, mister Dan Rubinsteveh, from myself, Tie hilden Brand, thanks again for joining us. Enjoy the football game. We'll talk to you all on Tuesday. In the meantime, stay solid, peace,