Nick Saban Talks Changes In College Football
A lot has been said about Coach Smart's football philosophy during his time at Georgia. A defensive-minded coach, Smart has placed his football faith in the traditional settings of tough physical football.
44 wins, three SEC East Division titles, a Rose Bowl victory, and a trip to the national championship in just four seasons as UGA head coach would lead one to believe that whatever he's doing, it's working.
Two of those seasons ended in a heartbreaking loss at the hands of Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide. Tonight, on ESPN's pregame show Saban joined the set to talk a little football, and he had quite the quote for the coaches that still believe in the traditional styles of football.
"When you're a defensive-minded coach, growing up and running the ball and being conservative, playing great defense and winning games. And the game changed, when the RPO came and everybody spread it out, the game change. And if you don't make those changes you're not going to be able to make enough explosive plays."
It's not that those types of play calls aren't in the Georgia playbook though. As Smart said after the SEC Championship game, James Coley calls all of the "spread style" plays. The only difference is, they had the weapons to pull it off.
Those weapons included a mobile quarterback as well. Joe Burrow is the most accurate college quarterback ever this season, completing 79% of his passes, but he's able to extend plays with his feet.
Well, Georgia now has one of those guys in Jamie Newman, and as for the weapons, UGA will have one of the most talented group of young wide receivers in the country next season. So, the excuses for not having a modern offense are no more.
The National Champion has scored an average of 38.4 PPG in the Big Game, so even if you have a historic defense, you're going to have to score points to win late into the season.
Whether or not it was a shot across the bow at his former assistant turned rival, he's right. You have to score points - and score them in abundance - to win in today's game of college football.
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