Defensive-minded Saban still brings offensive magic

By Robert Rousseau  |   Tuesday, May 27, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Alabama Crimson Tide
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Just about everyone under the sun knows that Nick Saban has had success as both a defensive coordinator and college football head coach. Of course, whenever you hear that someone was a defensive coordinator before he became a head coach, you assume that means he tends to boost defensive play.

That's certainly true with Saban, someone who successfully served as a defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and Michigan State Spartans during his career. That said, it appears that when Saban comes to town as your college football head coach, the thing that improves most is your offense.

Consider the following:

The year before Saban was hired as LSU’s head coach, the team managed to score 20.3 points per game and racked up 301.7 yards per contest. However, during his first season with the club, the Tigers put up 26.5 points and 376.4 yards per game, both significant improvements. The next season, the Tigers racked up a whopping 30.9 points and 451.5 yards per game.

Of course, his offensive coordinator at the time, Jimbo Fisher, probably had a whole lot to do with that. But when you take Fisher out of the equation, such as during Saban's short stint with Alabama to date, there appears to be a similar trend.

In 2006, the Tide accrued only 22.9 points and 335.9 yards per game on offense. In 2007 -- Saban’s first season at the helm -- the team improved on that significantly by amassing 27.1 points and 373.8 yards per outing. Interestingly, the club’s defensive stats worsened some.

Heck, even when Saban was the head coach at Michigan State, it had a pretty prolific offense. Back in 1996, for instance, his Spartan 'O' averaged 32.5 points and 416 yards per game.

The offensive improvements likely occur in part because Saban knows how to hire a great staff. Perhaps they have a lot to do with the fact that defensive coordinators know what’s hard to stop, and Saban has an ability to convey that to his offensive staff and players. There’s also no question that his ability to recruit helps.

Regardless, although Saban is a defensive mind, his teams have regularly improved significantly with respect to offense. And so far during his Alabama tenure, that’s exactly what has happened.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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