Nick Saban's Former Assistants Taking What They Learned to a New Level: All Things CW

We're only a couple of weeks into the 2022-23 football season, but collectively they've been dominating a lot of headlines.

Upset wins. Epic debuts. Gut-wrenching decisions. Shocking conclusions.

Wherever you find a former Nick Saban assistant from Alabama serving as a head coach these days, the fan base is probably pretty excited this fall. We're not even talking about some of the more obvious ones, including Kirby Smart and the national champions at Georgia, Steve Sarkisian at Texas, and Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.

Like the former two, Brian Daboll was Alabama's offensive coordinator in 2017. He subsequently went to Buffalo and helped turn the Bills into Super Bowl contenders. Now he's the head coach of the New York Giants, and won over the fans on Sunday with a Week 1 win against the team that was the top seed in the AFC playoffs last season.

But it wasn't just beating the Tennessee Titans 21-20 that was so important, but how he did it. With the game on the line, Daboll didn't hesitate to call for the decisive two-point conversion and change the tone of the franchise.

"Going for the win," Daboll said about why he went for it per Giants Country. "We’re going to be aggressive. That’s what we want to do. That’s the mindset I want the players to have. If it didn’t work, I could live with it. I thought that was the right decision."

What Daboll subsequently added was even more telling:

"You’re an inch away or whatever it was. I trust Saquon (Barkley). I grabbed a couple of defensive players and busted their tails out there. I went up to some of the offensive guys that weren’t out there too, and I said, ‘Hey,’ we got the ball, wherever it was. I said, ‘If we score, I’m going for two. Are you guys good with that?’ And they said, ‘F-yeah.’"

This is one of the oldest, and proudest franchises in the NFL, which went 4-13 last season, and has some of the most demanding fans in all of sports. Daboll was dancing along with former Crimson Tide safety Xavier McKinney in the locker room.

On Brian Daboll's postgame dance.

Eli Manning to Peyton: "I want to see you do that same dancing move, Peyt."

Peyton: "If you go all season without making fun of my forehead, I will do that dance."

Eli: "No dance. No deal. Cannot do it." #ManningCast 🏈 pic.twitter.com/hc5vcjI2KF
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 13, 2022

But look beyond Saban's former Crimson Tide coordinators.

Two years ago, Charles Huff was the position coach for running back Najee Harris when he became Alabama's all-time leading rusher. Last weekend, his Marshall team won at Notre Dame, 26-21.

“Notre Dame’s a hell of a football team, hats off to them," Huff told NBC after the game. "But our guys all week, we talked about control what we can control. We have good players, too. We knew if we didn’t beat ourselves that we’d have a chance. The kids did a heck of a job. Our staff did a heck of a job. I couldn’t be more proud."

Naturally, everyone jumped on the Thundering Herd bandwagon including the media. Two extensive, and very different features on the coach, including on how he took everything he could from Alabama to Marshall, can be found under the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella:

Marshall Slayed Notre Dame. Charles Huff and the Herd Don’t Want to Stop There

Marshall’s Charles Huff Is College Football’s Next Great Coach

Billy Napier was Alabama's receivers coach from 2013-16. He then went to Arizona State for one season as offensive coordinator and turned it into the head coaching job at Louisiana. This past year he introduced the process to Florida.

Have you seen the team photo with the revamped support staff? Napier did that with the Ragin' Cajuns too, and then brought some of those same people with him.

Introducing your 2022 Gators Football Team#GoGators | #jOURney pic.twitter.com/nRPIRHmUrW
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) August 23, 2022

The Gators opened with a win against No. 7 Utah. They subsequently lost to No. 20 Kentucky, but it's still an impressive start for the 43-year-old coach.

Mel Tucker at Michigan State deserves a mention, as does Mario Cristobal, who was on the Crimson Tide staff from 2013-16. He went to Oregon and is now back at his alma mater, Miami. The No. 13 Hurricanes are 2-0 heading into Texas A&M this weekend.

The one thing that they all did with their new teams was take what they learned from Saban at Alabama and used it to change the culture of their new teams almost immediately, including at some places where it's not easy to do.

If this keeps up the trend to hire former Saban assistant coaches won't just be popular, but where a lot of head coaching searches start.

5 Things, Good and Bad, From Texas Trip

Sometime over the next couple of years, Texas will officially become part of the Southeastern Conference, and last week's game gave Alabama fans more than a feel for what it'll be like having the Longhorns in the league.

It had been 100 years since the Crimson Tide last visited Austin, and in general the reviews were favorable, but not all. Yes, Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium, which has been home to the Longhorns since 1924, had 100,000-plus crazed fans. Yet most of the ones from Alabama weren't overly impressed.

Said one in confidence: "With all their bravado and resources you would think the stadium would have been nicer."

Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated was more direct: "For a program of such distinction, in a city of such character, very little of it seeps into the stadium or its immediate surroundings. It’s just a huge place wedged into a tight space on campus."

Here are 5 things that got the attention of Crimson Tide fans, both on the positive and negative side:

Plus (+)

1) The atmosphere. Texas hadn't enjoyed a big-game feel like that at home in a while and the fans were out in force.

2) The traditions. Crimson Tide fans last saw them at the Rose Bowl for the BCS Championship Game, but it's never quite the same as in a team's home venue. For example: Bevo.

3) The play-calling and plan. Both were first-rate. Texas knew exactly how to try and hit the Crimson Tide, and didn't pull any punches. It also did everything it could to nullify linebacker Will Anderson Jr., as did Utah State in the opener.

4) The defense was especially impressive, including the way the Texas players tackled. That's something the Longhorns haven't been known for lately.

5) Texas wasn't gimmicky in its approach. It went toe-to-toe with the Crimson Tide, and in the process earned a lot of respect. Even though the Longhorns lost, Sarkisian has the program heading in the right direction.

Minus (-)

1) Non-stop cursing and fans giving the finger, including chanting "F--- you Saban" when he was doing a pregame interview for Fox.

2) The double-standard being overly sensitive about Horns Down. Here's hoping the SEC shuts down any proposal to make it equivalent to a taunting penalty during games (unless Hook'em Horns is as well).

3) The raising of the field goal net during the play when Crimson Tide kicker Will Reichard was attempting the game-winning field goal.

4) Inconsistent Big 12 officiating.

5) The lousy treatment of the marching band, leading Alabama to keep it home, and the poor location of the Crimson Tide section.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 complaint among fans who didn't make the trip was the Fox broadcast. Granted, the network was obviously more familiar with the Longhorns, but there was a definite slant to the coverage and a lack of important analysis, like on how the hit by Crimson Tide linebacker Dallas Turner on quarterback Quinn Ewers, who left his feet as he threw, didn't appear to be illegal and worthy of a penalty.

Transfer Portal Impact

When Alabama lost to Louisiana Monroe in 2007, it was just one of numerous upsets that season, which was among the oddest that college football had ever seen. A popular theory as to why there were so many surprising results that season (like Appalachian State over Michigan) was the NCAA expanding to a 12-game regular-season schedule.

Everyone having a 12th game every year was largely considered a compromise and compensation move to help out smaller programs that couldn't benefit from the conference championships, and/or basically had no shot at being in the Bowl Championship Series.

We're only two weeks into the 2022 season, but already seeing a large number of upsets again. It's also already apparent that the transfer portal is a major contributing factor.

When BamaCentral did its early season preview series, that was the thing which immediately jumped out for every opponent (here's what we had for Louisiana Monroe) — how they all had key transfers.

Next week, Alabama left tackle Tyler Steen will face his old teammates at Vanderbilt, and we'll all learn the hard way whether he has any significant weaknesses. The following week, the Crimson Tide will have have to deal with linebacker Drew Sanders, for what could be a top-10 showdown at Arkansas.

Sanders is off to a hot start with the Razorbacks. Last week against South Carolina he had 11 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for a loss and two forced fumbles along with a pass defended. The junior was named the Bednarik Award Player of the Week for his all-around strong showing.

The Crimson Tide coaches were high on Sanders and didn't want to him to transfer, with Saban going so far as to say the former five-star prospect probably would have started this season had he stayed (in place of whom, though, is unclear). Alabama especially didn't want him to end up at another team in the division, but that's the reality of college football nowadays. LSU sure didn't want Eli Ricks playing with Alabama, either, and neither did Georgia with wide receiver Jermaine Burton.

Saban has already shown to be a master of the transfer portal, using it to add key players who can help extend the dynasty. However, it's also starting to make things tougher on the Crimson Tide as having more talented players dispersed throughout college football means that top-notch teams like Alabama can't afford to have sub-par games and still expect to win.

It was nearly a tough lesson for Alabama to learn last week at Texas.

“Alabama’s talent gap had been so significant, that even if they came out and played their C-game it wouldn’t matter,” former Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy said on the Paul Finebaum Show. “Now if they come out and play their C-game, teams can get them. It’s not that Bama has gotten worse. I think other teams have gotten better.”

5 Things That Got Our Attention This Week

1] All hail the Sun Belt

The conference has already notched wins against Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Notre Dame this season. Said Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton (yes, the former USC head coach), “In our mind, this is the premier Group of 5 conference. The only way you can earn respect is to walk into those traditional national powers and walk out with victories.”

Don't look now, but the eventual league champion could have a shot at a New Year's Six bowl.

2] The Candid Coaches series by CBS asked what's the best number of teams for Division I basketball? Out of the 100 men's head coaches and assistant coaches surveyed, 53.7 percent said they believe DI should remain the same size, 26.3 percent believe it should be reduced by 15-20 percent, 12.6 percent believe it should be cut by around 40 percent, and 7.4 percent say it should be reduced by 50 percent or more. Said one coach: “Leave the current number of D-I teams alone, but mandate a baseline of investment into the sports they sponsor. This will force schools to make real decisions and not just be D-I in name only."

3] The NCAA released the full job description for job opening of president:

"Extraordinary times call for a once-in-a-generation, transformational leader. One who believes in education, believes in intercollegiate athletics, and believes in themselves: part navigator, part unifier, part visionary. Change means opportunity. Opportunity for an innovative leader who wants purpose: being a champion of education."

Apparently the search committee is looking for Abraham Lincoln.

Here are the "sacred principles" listed:

The Primacy of the Academic Experience
Student-Athlete Well Being
Integrity & Sportsmanship
Institutional Control
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Gender Equity
Recruiting Standards
The Collegiate Student-Athlete Model

4] Only 11 NFL players who used Guardian Caps suffered a concussion during training camps, a drop of 50-plus percent from the average over the previous three years (23). Of the 11, six occurred because of contact to the face mask, which the Guardian Cap does not cover.

Granted, players hate the way it looks, but the outcry of wearing them all but vanished. During this year’s NFL training camps, the league required offensive linemen, defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers to wear “Guardian Caps” during practice.

Alabama starting wearing them last year.

5] Mississippi State has launched the HailState+ streaming platform. The subscription will cost $7.99 per month and include brand new videos, podcasts and written features.

No word yet if it includes Mike Leach reviews of movies and TV shows ...

Tide-bits

• We're looking forward to what happens when Julio Jones and Tom Brady start to click with Tampa Bay. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (who used to cover Alabama football in case you didn't know), tweeted a couple of weeks ago that Jones "clocked the fastest time of any player on his team during training camp practices." According to NFL Next Gen Stats, he had the seventh-fastest top speed (20.62) of anyone running a route during Week 1.

• Alabama graduate Rece Davis will emcee the NFF Annual Awards Dinner for a seventh time. Part of the ceremony on Dec. 6 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas will be the induction of the 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class which includes former Alabama All-American Sylvester Croom.

• Going back to Saban's former assistant coaches, former Crimson Tide quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa is off to a great start this season under Mike Locksley at Maryland. He's completed 78.45 percent of his passes and his passing efficiency rating of 180.62 is 13th in the nation. The Terrapins host SMU this weekend and then visit Michigan.

• Harris (foot) and cornerback Levi Wallace (ankle) both practiced and should play for the Steelers against the Patriots on Sunday. The FanNation site All Steelers also reported that Harris Expects to Take Less Snaps Moving Forward.

• We noted on Wednesday that Commanders rookie Brian Robinson Jr. was back at practice, working on his own as he's not allowed to participate in team drill until he's activated off the injured list. Check out what he did on Thursday:

Did You Notice?

• The kickoff time for the 2023 National Championship Game has been moved up 30 minutes to 7:30 p.m. ET. This year's title game will be played Jan. 9, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., and shown on ESPN.

• Clemson defensive tackle Bryan Bresee announced Thursday in an Instagram post that his sister Ella died. She was 15. Per SI’s All Clemson, Ella was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last year.

• Athlon's College Football Upset Watch for Week 3 does not include Alabama, which is favored by 50 points over Louisiana Monroe according to SI Sportsbook. The only SEC team mentioned is Ole Miss, saying about the Georgia Tech game, "We'll find out in a hurry whether or not Lane Kiffin's Rebels are going to be serious contenders in the always-competitive SEC West." Head coach Geoff Collins was Saban's first Director of Player Personnel at Alabama in 2007.

Christopher Walsh's notes column All Things CW appears every week on BamaCentral.