Speaker 1: Welcome to the Solid Verbal.
Speaker 2: Coll that for me, I'm a man, I'm forty.
Speaker 1: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 1: be happy. You want to be happy for day Edith
Speaker 1: State is that woo woom? And Dan and Tye.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to a bonus National Championship Solid Verbal. My
Speaker 3: name is ty Hildenbrandt. Joining me as always is Dan Rubinstein.
Speaker 3: Hopefully you had a chance to listen to our longer
Speaker 3: drawing out, dripping moist Belove You College Football National Championship
Speaker 3: Game previous show that we also published in tandem with
Speaker 3: this one.
Speaker 1: Twenty eighteen Tie Working Blue.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: But one of the things that you know we did
Speaker 3: last year and had a lot of fun with, is
Speaker 3: we brought in some friends, some much much smarter friends,
Speaker 3: if I don't say so myself, to analyze all the
Speaker 3: different aspects of the football game. We don't know everything
Speaker 3: is to know about schemes, your defense of personnel, or
Speaker 3: any of that jazz really, so we brought in some
Speaker 3: friends to do it. Well, I am going to go
Speaker 3: on record right now and I'm gonna say I Well,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be too controversial, I promise you, Okay,
Speaker 3: One of, if not the most requested guests that we
Speaker 3: get asked about here on the program is our good
Speaker 3: friend Chris B. Brown sometimes we call it Chrispy Brown
Speaker 3: from smartfootball dot Com. Chris is a bit of a
Speaker 3: savant when it comes to all things schemes and philosophy. Philosophy.
Speaker 1: Sure, so I sat down with Chris in the Espimination
Speaker 1: or I guess Box Media Studios and talked about I
Speaker 1: know I'm shattering the illusion, but the fact that ties
Speaker 1: not in the interview because he could barely speak. It's
Speaker 1: probably for the best, no, philosophically, because you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of overlap between Nick Saban and Kirby Smart
Speaker 1: and melt Tucker obviously, and you know, Jeremy Pruitt was
Speaker 1: at Georgia, so he is familiar with Georgia personnel and
Speaker 1: just what they're trying to do defensively, how they prepare
Speaker 1: for different offenses, and you know, how do you have
Speaker 1: time for wrinkles and what is it that you know,
Speaker 1: offenses try to do and succeed in doing against these defenses,
Speaker 1: And just generally speaking, you know, how quarterbacks operate with
Speaker 1: different levels of experience and what like levels of the
Speaker 1: playbook are available to them what they are or are
Speaker 1: not asked to do, so it's a it's a cool
Speaker 1: look if you really want to nerd out, which we
Speaker 1: are always willing to do, especially with teams as good
Speaker 1: as Georgia and Alabama. So basically sat down with Chris
Speaker 1: for a while to get his thoughts on sort of
Speaker 1: the push and pull of this matchup.
Speaker 3: Don't forget if you haven't listened to our longer preview show,
Speaker 3: you can do so right now. Just check your podcast
Speaker 3: feed or going out to Solidverble dot com or our
Speaker 3: Facebook or Twitter pages where you can find all of
Speaker 3: our other stuff as well. If you are going to
Speaker 3: be in Atlanta one more time, look us up on
Speaker 3: all of our social media channels. We've not only got
Speaker 3: a big live show going down in the heart of
Speaker 3: downtown Atlanta on Saturday evening, but we've also got a
Speaker 3: whole lot of fun stuff coming up on Saturday morning
Speaker 3: throughout College Football Media Day as we talk to players
Speaker 3: and coaches, medium members, all sorts of folks who might
Speaker 3: have a better idea than us about what's going to
Speaker 3: happen in this game on Monday. In the meantime, though,
Speaker 3: Dan did a great job with our friend Chris from
Speaker 3: smart Football. Let's have a listen, all right.
Speaker 1: We are now joined by Chris B. Brown Smart Football Zone.
Speaker 1: You've seen them, grant Land, you've seen them, Espianation. You
Speaker 1: should buy his books. What are the name of your books?
Speaker 1: It's the Art of Smart Football.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very creative titles, The Art of Smart Football and
Speaker 4: the Essential Smart Football.
Speaker 2: Will there be a new book eventually once.
Speaker 4: And there will eventually be more writing, but no guarantees
Speaker 4: on timetables for any of it.
Speaker 1: You should go to smart football, and he goes to smartpe. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, you should go to smart
Speaker 1: football and read all sorts of things about scheme and
Speaker 1: coaching philosophies and what players do well. And if you're
Speaker 1: college football or even an NFL nerd, you should go
Speaker 1: to smart football dot com.
Speaker 2: Yes, sounds good to me.
Speaker 1: Oh man, what a commercial.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So we have Alabama Georgia in the National Championship Game,
Speaker 1: two teams that are I think pretty familiar with each
Speaker 1: other because of the head coaching styles and the assistant
Speaker 1: coaches involved in the game, and the sort of scheme styles,
Speaker 1: especially on defense. And I think that's where we'll focus
Speaker 1: but not exclusively lay. How would you describe I guess,
Speaker 1: big picture, the defense that Alabama runs, especially since and
Speaker 1: I imagine they're not identical to Georgia's defense, even with
Speaker 1: mel Tucker the former secondary coach Alabama and Kirby Smart
Speaker 1: the former coordinator. But big picture, what do these defenses,
Speaker 1: or specifically Alabama's defense try to do each week?
Speaker 4: Well, they try to do in terms of each season
Speaker 4: every defense ever known to man. I mean, someone pointed
Speaker 4: out if you look at Nick Sabans Miami Dolphins defensive playbook,
Speaker 4: which I think Kirby spent some time with the Dolphins
Speaker 4: as well, it's something like fourteen hundred.
Speaker 2: Pages of defense.
Speaker 4: And and that was before Sabin and Kirby started evolving
Speaker 4: what they were doing in response to the spread offense
Speaker 4: and read options and run pass options and all this
Speaker 4: stuff they've added in the last few years as the
Speaker 4: SEC in particulars move. So Saban wants to go in
Speaker 4: there and have the ability to do anything on any
Speaker 4: week and tailor it to an opponent. It's very comes
Speaker 4: from his Bill Belichick point of view, which is we're
Speaker 4: going to carry a lot of defense. We're going to
Speaker 4: carry a lot of scheme because every opponent's different and
Speaker 4: we want the answers, and you know, Saban loves to
Speaker 4: have time and really think about it and figure it out.
Speaker 2: And you saw that. I think against Clemson they had
Speaker 2: a month put.
Speaker 4: Together a very very detailed report and figured out everything
Speaker 4: they that had heard him in previous years, and with
Speaker 4: particular focus on the quarterback run game, and they shut
Speaker 4: it down and he was able to take pieces of
Speaker 4: the scheme that they've been working on all year and
Speaker 4: then apply it in a very specific way to whatever
Speaker 4: the offense is doing. And I think that's really the
Speaker 4: philosophy that Saban brings, which Kirby and Meltucker and others
Speaker 4: are now doing at Georgia, which is, we have a
Speaker 4: lot and then we'll look at specially what your tendencies are,
Speaker 4: what you like to do, what your personnelity is, and
Speaker 4: then we've got we may have a coverage. Like the
Speaker 4: coverage that Saban likes is that everybody runs a version
Speaker 4: of quarters, which is a you can do it. It can
Speaker 4: make more of a zone, more of a Manda Man.
Speaker 4: Why Saban runs it's really a Manda Man scheme. A
Speaker 4: lot of rules about where people go.
Speaker 1: And Carter's broadly speaking is the field is divided into
Speaker 1: four pieces.
Speaker 2: Yes, sort of.
Speaker 4: So basically you've got corner, your cornerbacks, and your safeties
Speaker 4: aligned across the field, and they're actually reading the offensive
Speaker 4: receivers and eligible receivers.
Speaker 2: To figure out whether who locks onto who man demand.
Speaker 4: Basically, it's not a true what Saban calls country zone
Speaker 4: where you just drop to a spot and try to
Speaker 4: watch the quarterback size. But within that they've got fifty
Speaker 4: calls and when they see an opponent and they know
Speaker 4: that when they're in this formation, we make this call,
Speaker 4: and then they shift or if they're in a information
Speaker 4: or they are a running lined up in a different place,
Speaker 4: they'll call a different call within that same cover. So
Speaker 4: the point of it is is that it is extremely
Speaker 4: adaptable to whatever the offense does. He wants to figure
Speaker 4: out what you do well and take it away, and
Speaker 4: everybody says they're going to do that, but Saban really
Speaker 4: has ability to do it and within that scheme because
Speaker 4: he's got.
Speaker 2: Answers for everything.
Speaker 4: And and and I think the other credit to Saban
Speaker 4: over the years is he's very pragmatic.
Speaker 2: And you've seen that on offense, and I think.
Speaker 4: That the corollary applies on defense, where teams are hurting
Speaker 4: him with raid option stuff or mobile quarterbacks, Well he's
Speaker 4: got he's going to focus on that and try to
Speaker 4: take it away. So that's what's and then you then
Speaker 4: you layer on amazing technique plus amazing talent. Uh and
Speaker 4: and you know, you watch the defensive line and they're
Speaker 4: in their rush lanes or tackle like pulls and blocks
Speaker 4: down and that defensive end is filling and it's it's
Speaker 4: just textbook stuff and it's just it's really fun to
Speaker 4: watch when you really really get down to it, because
Speaker 4: they're just so good.
Speaker 2: So that's why they're so good.
Speaker 4: As you got top talent, they have a schematic answer
Speaker 4: forever what you want to do. They've scouted the hell
Speaker 4: out of you with their thousand analysts or whoever. Then
Speaker 4: and then you're not gonna get them out of position.
Speaker 4: And that's a recipe for being really, really good. And
Speaker 4: whether that's really good at Alabama, really good at Georgia,
Speaker 4: and that's why they're able to you know, there's talk
Speaker 4: about you know, Saban struggled with mobile quarterbacks, and some
Speaker 4: true to that just because of the numbers disadvantage, but
Speaker 4: they basically good go on defense against everybody, right.
Speaker 1: And the teams that they have struggled against tend to
Speaker 1: take chances and throw the ball downfield, you know, horizontally.
Speaker 1: It's very difficult to beat this type of defense, the
Speaker 1: style of defense, especially when the talent can tackle in
Speaker 1: the open field. Is there something about that specific tendency
Speaker 1: that it's guys like you know, Chad Kelly and Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson and Johnny Manziel who are succeeding going downfield with
Speaker 1: this defense, or is it a matter of when you
Speaker 1: have an excellent quarterback, you can just beat just about everybody.
Speaker 2: A little bit of both.
Speaker 4: So I think in order to beat a Nick Saban defense,
Speaker 4: and I think, frankly or.
Speaker 1: Any defense if you have an excellent right, but.
Speaker 4: In particularly these defenses. But you know, say Georgia had
Speaker 4: a great defens this year. I think Baker Mayfield was
Speaker 4: able to do a lot of things. I think maybe
Speaker 4: people already give them enough credit for you know, having
Speaker 4: you know, points three and a half times George's average
Speaker 4: and more than doubling the yardage average against George's defense.
Speaker 4: But that helps because you have great players make great plays.
Speaker 4: They're gonna they're gonna challenge everything. Big part of the
Speaker 4: Velosi is that you know they're not going to give up.
Speaker 4: You know, ten hitch routes just give you free access.
Speaker 4: You know Saban always you know, he coaches the secondary.
Speaker 4: It talks about you to play in practice, you do
Speaker 4: these like one on one receiver drills. He's like I said,
Speaker 4: there and watch him in the quarterback plays off and
Speaker 4: they complete eighty ninety percent of the passes and put
Speaker 4: them up in press and it's like that percentage goes
Speaker 4: down to twenty percent. Now, the things you give up
Speaker 4: is potentially you invite them to take those shots downfield right,
Speaker 4: you know, and maybe you get a matchup and all that.
Speaker 4: You don't have a bunch of secondary players playing really deep.
Speaker 4: You know, he figures one he's gonna put a lot
Speaker 4: of pressure on you. You're not gonna have to do that.
Speaker 4: You're not going to do that consistently enough gets you
Speaker 4: three and outs and then wear you down.
Speaker 2: On the other side.
Speaker 4: The other thing is they try to take away the
Speaker 4: short stuff, not just by pressing you, but they're so
Speaker 4: good at matching your route. So what's the most popular
Speaker 4: route in college football, the shallow cross.
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of teams.
Speaker 4: You watch them run the shallow cross, and all of
Speaker 4: a sudden, the guy pops out on the other side
Speaker 4: and he's wide open. Watch I mean, and you can
Speaker 4: look at their playbooks. It's very well designed and it's
Speaker 4: playing in there. You can't cover a shallow cross all
Speaker 4: game by having the guy lined up over the receiver,
Speaker 4: just chase him across the field, even in a man
Speaker 4: to man coverage. So what they call cut the crosser,
Speaker 4: so they you'll see the safety on the other side,
Speaker 4: if he sees a cross will come in.
Speaker 2: He'll come down and cut that guy. So then that guy.
Speaker 4: That's where you see those guys catch the ball and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden they turn and then they
Speaker 4: just get upended by some safety and then this show
Speaker 4: cross doesn't happen as much. So they're just very good
Speaker 4: at matching all the things offenses want to do to
Speaker 4: get those horizontal short throws, which, particularly in college, I mean,
Speaker 4: how many quarterbacks when you don't have the great ones,
Speaker 4: you make a living on short throws, screens, bubbles, screens,
Speaker 4: and shallow crosses to get your quarterback the ball so
Speaker 4: he can put the ball in space, put the ball
Speaker 4: in play. If you have an NFL guy or a
Speaker 4: guy with NFL tools, whether or not he's a true
Speaker 4: NFL talent, then you have to throw the ball in
Speaker 4: some different places.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that people love to talk about with Nick Saban
Speaker 1: because he's had so much success in college recently, is
Speaker 1: could he do it at Wyoming? Could he do it
Speaker 1: at Cincinnati? Could he do it with lesser talent you know,
Speaker 1: you know cal or Minnesota or even like Texts A
Speaker 1: and M, which has not had the success even in
Speaker 1: the same division, even recruiting. Well, how much of what
Speaker 1: he does is because he has the tools and let
Speaker 1: me make clear players or not tools, but the talent
Speaker 1: to say, oh, you can play three different positions on
Speaker 1: the defensive line, Oh your corner is hurt. This safety
Speaker 1: can come down and play corner. And so he has
Speaker 1: the depth and he has rare versatility. Could it work
Speaker 1: with you know, at Iowa something like that where you
Speaker 1: don't have you know, stars everywhere, or Michigan State or
Speaker 1: Michigan State, Yeah, which he didn't. He didn't go eleven
Speaker 1: and one, twelve and oh every year at Michigan State.
Speaker 4: No, no, so look, I mean you need good players,
Speaker 4: and obviously a big part of their system is having
Speaker 4: the depth, particularly on the defensive line, where you can
Speaker 4: roll guys in and out. I think you've seen a
Speaker 4: schematic shift from from from save in the last couple
Speaker 4: of years as they stopped having those like first round cornerbacks.
Speaker 4: They played a lot more sort of cover one pure
Speaker 4: man de man. You know, they've moved to those cover
Speaker 4: seven quarters concepts with a little more help and some
Speaker 4: different concepts. So yeah, I mean, if you've got great players,
Speaker 4: that makes a big difference. If you've got you know,
Speaker 4: what was that play against Texas A and M last
Speaker 4: year where it was his name like jumped over the
Speaker 4: lineman and the running back and hit Trevor Knight in
Speaker 4: the chest?
Speaker 2: I mean that helps, yeah.
Speaker 4: So But but on the other hand, and Saban likes
Speaker 4: to tell the story, it was one of his first
Speaker 4: games in Michigan State. They played one of those Tom
Speaker 4: Osborne Nebraska teams and they got beat and you just
Speaker 4: come from the NFL Cleveland Brown's I guess like fifty
Speaker 4: five to three or some you know, same thing, and
Speaker 4: he and he said he was actually sitting there on
Speaker 4: the fourth court was like this was a mistake, Like
Speaker 4: coming back to college was a mistake. Yeah, and then
Speaker 4: Tom Osborn kind of came across the building and I
Speaker 4: don't have a quotas at you, but something lean across
Speaker 4: is like not as bad as you think you are,
Speaker 4: Meaning that Tom I was were knew we had a
Speaker 4: prety darn good team that year, right, So on that
Speaker 4: day Saban had a lot of great schemes. He'd worked
Speaker 4: with Bill Belichick for years, his defensive coordinator, and but
Speaker 4: Tom Osborn had some pretty good schemes too, and Nebraska
Speaker 4: was was awesome. So yeah, talent wins the day. But
Speaker 4: it's a it's a great scheme. It's ah. They teach
Speaker 4: it really well. They have really good teachers.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 4: I think one thing you see with Nick Staban is
Speaker 4: he coaches the coaches, right. I mean he drills them
Speaker 4: even you know, whether it's Lane Kiff and talking about
Speaker 4: all the mind numbing meetings about coin flips and procedures
Speaker 4: and stuff. Because he's everything is down to a t.
Speaker 4: I think you'd have success every everywhere it was. It
Speaker 4: also goes back to the point I made earlier about
Speaker 4: the volume. I think when you've got the system they
Speaker 4: have where they're guys coming in every year and there's
Speaker 4: a ton of competition to just get on the field,
Speaker 4: you know, he may not be able to get and
Speaker 4: then maybe you've got to play the guy that you
Speaker 4: can play who maybe is talented, but maybe not as
Speaker 4: his acumen for football acumen isn't quit as high. Maybe
Speaker 4: he wouldn't be able to carry all that defense, so we'd
Speaker 4: have to simplify it and maybe do some different things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I look at a guy like Gary Patterson, a TCU,
Speaker 4: which certain elements of what he does are similar to
Speaker 4: what parts of what Saban does, so particularly all that
Speaker 4: you know against spread teams, Saban basically plays a four
Speaker 4: two five, so it's similar, but it's the teaching is
Speaker 4: much more simplified than all the various aggustments to Staveman has.
Speaker 2: So maybe he have to just that, But okay, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't think he'd go to Wyoming and go too
Speaker 4: and two and nine or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Think you'd do Okay, Yes, I think that's the case
Speaker 1: as well. Both of these defensive coordinators, these coaching staffs
Speaker 1: have two very different offenses to prepare for. In that
Speaker 1: Georgia had Oklahoma and Baker Mayfield and Lincoln Riley spreading
Speaker 1: it out last week, and Alabama had Clemson Kelly Bryant,
Speaker 1: and you know that that sort of more open spread.
Speaker 1: Look that even if they're running power, you know, the
Speaker 1: receivers are out wide, they're doing a lot of horizontal stuff.
Speaker 1: And now they're preparing for still two different types of offenses.
Speaker 1: Georgia is preparing for, I think, a little more open
Speaker 1: up an offense with what Jalen Hurts can do with
Speaker 1: the ball, and Alabama is preparing for and I don't
Speaker 1: want to say pro style, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: say more traditional, but Jake From's understander a little bit
Speaker 1: more and he's not going to run for one hundred yards,
Speaker 1: we don't think. So whose job do you envy less
Speaker 1: in preparing for this week?
Speaker 2: Defensively, Yeah, it's a hard question. I put it this way.
Speaker 4: I think the offense is actually very very similar, with
Speaker 4: the exception of the styles of quarterback or one hundred
Speaker 4: percent different, right, And I think from there they're both
Speaker 4: very multiformational. They both Alabama basically to stop using the
Speaker 4: under center with Hurts, but they could do that, but
Speaker 4: a lot of the stuff that Georgia doesn't understand. They'll
Speaker 4: do it from spread, they'll do it from condensed. They
Speaker 4: both use a lot of tight ends. They both have
Speaker 4: unbelievable stables of running backs, unbelievable players there, and they
Speaker 4: have skill on the outside. Alabama probably is a little
Speaker 4: more though they throw it less, so that that is
Speaker 4: the big difference. I do think it's you know, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't know that either offensive coordinator totally scares.
Speaker 2: You in this game.
Speaker 4: I think the Alabama offensive corner is a little more
Speaker 4: of an unknown factor, you know, Dable being in the NFL,
Speaker 4: and then I think he's brought in to do more
Speaker 4: passing game stuff that you haven't really seen.
Speaker 2: Maybe you see that when the other guy gets in
Speaker 2: one day.
Speaker 4: But with Hurts, I think it looks very similar to
Speaker 4: what they've been doing the last couple of years, which
Speaker 4: is basically trying to run a spread option system. They're
Speaker 4: kind of going to play three carne monte with with
Speaker 4: Hurts and those amazing running backs, which is a challenge.
Speaker 4: But they're not particularly explosive in the passing game. They
Speaker 4: take some shots, but they're not always efficient at converting them.
Speaker 4: And I think what you'll see from Alabama will look
Speaker 4: a lot like what it did a gets Clemson, which
Speaker 4: is just trying to grind it out. Maybe maybe some
Speaker 4: of those running backs step out of a few tackles
Speaker 4: and run a long way, but otherwise it's, you know,
Speaker 4: they're going to try to wear you down. It's basically
Speaker 4: a version of what they look like in the late
Speaker 4: two thousands, from more pro style, where they're going to
Speaker 4: grind it out, maybe take some shots.
Speaker 2: They just do it from a different look.
Speaker 4: George is interesting, and I think Jim Cheney is probably
Speaker 4: the most interesting man other than the players in the game,
Speaker 4: you know, and he's bounced around a lot, you know,
Speaker 4: interesting long career. Obviously, people talk about, you know, coach
Speaker 4: Drew Brees. Back in the day, it was with Joe Tiller,
Speaker 4: but then he went to the NFL with Scott Lenahan
Speaker 4: and Greg Olsen who is with at Purdue, and then
Speaker 4: he he ran Lane Kiffin's offense for a year at
Speaker 4: Tennessee and then and then.
Speaker 2: You know it with billiam.
Speaker 4: Oyle and yah, yeah, and so which is interesting and
Speaker 4: that that if you think about it, you know, no
Speaker 4: one looks at Jim as, you know, some kind of
Speaker 4: offensive guru in a sense, I think that's kind of
Speaker 4: refreshing in the age where everybody's got to be an
Speaker 4: offense in guru.
Speaker 2: And I've got my system. He's very amolleable.
Speaker 4: He run Joe Taylor system, he ran Lane Kiffin's system,
Speaker 4: he ran a pro style system. Obviously, defensive coaches generally
Speaker 4: like him, and Kirby hired him after facing him at
Speaker 4: Tennessee and at Arkansas. So clearly Kirby thought, this is
Speaker 4: a guy who's given us some problems, and we'll run
Speaker 4: something more traditional, releast sensibly more traditional, and he's clearly
Speaker 4: done a great job with from though obviously the challenge
Speaker 4: against Alabama will be so different than what it was
Speaker 4: against Oklahoma's defense. They do a really good job of
Speaker 4: moving formations, they move guys around, they make it defend gaps.
Speaker 2: You saw that against Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: I mean, Oklahoma was a little undisciplined and just made
Speaker 4: some mental errors they shouldn't have made, but they also
Speaker 4: presented them a lot of looks that got him out
Speaker 4: of position.
Speaker 2: And I think.
Speaker 4: That will be an interesting challenge for for Saban because
Speaker 4: you know, when he prepare for Clemson. I think the
Speaker 4: scouting import on Clemson they're in eleven personnel with that
Speaker 4: sort of hybrid tight end HVAC ninety eight percent of
Speaker 4: the time. That will not be the case against Georgia.
Speaker 4: They will be in a bunch of different formations. They'll
Speaker 4: they'll do four wides, you know, two tight ends, full backs,
Speaker 4: they'll move different things around and which is gonna put
Speaker 4: more burden on the players to get them lined up right.
Speaker 2: And they're really going to search for we can run stretch,
Speaker 2: we could run this.
Speaker 4: They obviously showed some wildcat against Oklahoma, so that'll be interesting.
Speaker 4: I think the knock on a Cheney is that maybe
Speaker 4: something can get a little too cute or hey, it's working.
Speaker 4: Why don't we just keep handing it off to those guys,
Speaker 4: which was the case in the first half against Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: Why are we going four wides here to sort of
Speaker 4: trick them with a run play?
Speaker 2: Why don't you just run at them?
Speaker 4: So the other thing being the other element is that,
Speaker 4: and Kirby's talked about this a lot, which is you know,
Speaker 4: Alabama's known as a three four defense. Interestingly, they play
Speaker 4: a three to four defense against traditional sets, So they
Speaker 4: were three four defense and they used to play LSU.
Speaker 2: Back in the day with tight arnifles.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when they started playing more spread teams, they were
Speaker 4: a four down team, which maybe is backwards what you
Speaker 4: would think, but it's because of how they nickel packets
Speaker 4: would work. And then eventually the last few years they
Speaker 4: they've continued to recruit to a three four, but they
Speaker 4: because he got much more spread, they basically were in
Speaker 4: the four, two five sixty seventy percent of the time.
Speaker 4: I think Kirby will use some of that knowledge to
Speaker 4: try to find ways and figure out what personal groups
Speaker 4: that they want to go against where they think they're
Speaker 4: you know, a little more weakness.
Speaker 1: Almost like an NBA style, like find that the advantageous match.
Speaker 4: Up exactly exactly and also, you know, who are the
Speaker 4: guys who worried about an alibamus defense other than all
Speaker 4: of them, right, But then try to figure out where
Speaker 4: where can we put those guys like Mika Fitzpatrick and
Speaker 4: those people to where they can hurt us the least.
Speaker 2: So I think I think it'll be really interesting. Now.
Speaker 4: You know, you'll find out pretty quickly can Alabama or
Speaker 4: George's offensive line hold up and if they can turn
Speaker 4: around and hand the ball to those running backs and
Speaker 4: they can get in the second level and do some damage,
Speaker 4: I think that'll be interesting.
Speaker 2: But if it, they're going to have to throw a little.
Speaker 4: Bit and it will not look like it did against
Speaker 4: you know, Oklahoma, much more challenged, much more tight window throws.
Speaker 4: So that that's going to be the big challenge because
Speaker 4: I think you know, say we talked about cover seven
Speaker 4: and they're on these two shell and all this stuff.
Speaker 4: I think this is a game he's going to try
Speaker 4: to put guys in the box and try to stuff
Speaker 4: the run. I think Kirby will do something similar, but
Speaker 4: it'll look a little different because Alabama comes at it
Speaker 4: in a different way. They've got to be more options sound,
Speaker 4: that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And in a game like this, when coaches are so
Speaker 1: familiar with each other, we'll say, you know, mel Tucker
Speaker 1: go into an offensive meeting and say, I know this
Speaker 1: Alabama defense. Here's X, Y and Z, Like, will there
Speaker 1: be that sort of crossover? I know this is probably
Speaker 1: unique to each and every program when there's familiarity, but
Speaker 1: when you do have that understanding of a scheme and
Speaker 1: it's a huge game like this, will you have that crossover?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think though on the short week,
Speaker 4: I think you won't see a ton of that. I
Speaker 4: also think, you know, as I said, the fourteen hundred
Speaker 4: page playbook, it's like, oh, he could do any of
Speaker 4: these four hundred things. I think the real experience is
Speaker 4: bal teams practiced against the same defense they'll be facing
Speaker 4: all through spring, yes, all through the fall, so they
Speaker 4: should have a pretty good familiarity with it. They got
Speaker 4: to learn the personnel, they got to learn where the
Speaker 4: matchups are. But uh, it should it shouldn't be a
Speaker 4: deep reserv difficult to find a deep reservoir of ideas
Speaker 4: about things that that that could work. And then I
Speaker 4: think it's really going to be what does that first
Speaker 4: quarter look like in terms of both teams feeling each
Speaker 4: other out, what's their plan? I mean, we saw that
Speaker 4: with Georgia where they came out against Oklahoma and try
Speaker 4: to do some no huddle and do different things. And
Speaker 4: it'll be really interesting, particularly from George's perpective, what do
Speaker 4: they think they can do to get some some some advantage. Sure,
Speaker 4: I think I think Alabama you're going to get what
Speaker 4: you get, especially with hurts because They're gonna try to
Speaker 4: emplize what he does well, put the ball in the
Speaker 4: hands of the running backs, do some option stuff, try
Speaker 4: to keep those guys sound, and then maybe try to
Speaker 4: you know, I do think Nick will maybe have dialed
Speaker 4: up some some kind of shot plays or maybe even
Speaker 4: some trick plays early on to kind of get an advantage,
Speaker 4: which I think could be huge in this game. But otherwise,
Speaker 4: I do think Alabama's it'll be a little more of
Speaker 4: status quo because the quarterback does what he does. He's
Speaker 4: he's very good at what he does. He doesn't make
Speaker 4: many mistakes, which is I.
Speaker 1: Don't think Jalen Hurts has thrown an interception against like
Speaker 1: a winning record team this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah he does. I mean he'll throw it away.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he may not fit it in there, right,
Speaker 4: He'll throw it away and then live to play another
Speaker 4: down and then kick punt and play defense and then
Speaker 4: wait around for the you know the defense you know,
Speaker 4: Deron Pain that intercepted or something crazy, and then then
Speaker 4: have a ten yard drive for a touchdown. But so
Speaker 4: that'll be interesting to see. Sure, I think it's going
Speaker 4: to be a grinded out game. I think there's a
Speaker 4: chance maybe some big plays in special teams. But think
Speaker 4: it'll look a lot like the Clemson game did.
Speaker 1: Fair and you mentioned Jalen Hurts. We haven't really talked
Speaker 1: about Jake From and you know, he's another wild card
Speaker 1: with Jim Chaney. What is Jim Chaney going to do?
Speaker 1: What is he going to do with Jake From? Who
Speaker 1: is a true freshman sort of at this point this
Speaker 1: will be what his fourteenth game or something. But Jake
Speaker 1: From as a freshman, you hear a lot of times
Speaker 1: that coordinators or coaches or media will say, well, they're
Speaker 1: pairing down the playbook. They're you know, they're not. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have the full playbook at his at his disposal.
Speaker 1: What does that mean big picture? It is sort of
Speaker 1: like they're not giving him three progressions on every pass play.
Speaker 1: They're not giving him a lot of pre snap responsibilities
Speaker 1: and adjusting protections and stuff like that, or he's not
Speaker 1: making anticipatory throws. Typically, What does it mean to be
Speaker 1: a true freshman quarterback with a sort of limited playbook?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it depends on the quarterback. It depends
Speaker 4: on the opponent, which I think a big thing with
Speaker 4: Alabama is just not trying to put the guy in
Speaker 4: a position where he can make the critical mistake and
Speaker 4: sort of get overwhelmed, and also to keep him up
Speaker 4: right a little bit, whereas maybe a more experienced guy
Speaker 4: you let him de Shaun Watson, let him deal with
Speaker 4: the pressure and maybe you can withstand some of the
Speaker 4: physical beating. And then it depends on what your offensive
Speaker 4: scheme is and how much you expect the quarterback to
Speaker 4: do anyway. You run an air raid, you want to
Speaker 4: spread offense, you run a pro sell offense.
Speaker 2: I think it's all the above things you said.
Speaker 4: I think all coaches, and I think particularly Cheney I
Speaker 4: think is known for this is you try to get
Speaker 4: quarterbacks some easy throws early to get that confidence up.
Speaker 2: Even saw that a little bit against Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: I mean the first play of the game was a
Speaker 4: five yard hitch, and then the second drive of the game,
Speaker 4: when they scored a touchdown, it was play action, dump
Speaker 4: into the running bag, play action, hit the tight end
Speaker 4: on across to try to get those kind of confidence
Speaker 4: building throws. I mean, there was years and years and
Speaker 4: years where Southern col back in the Pete Carroll days,
Speaker 4: I mean the first or second play of air every
Speaker 4: game was a bootleg to the tight end. Yes, So
Speaker 4: you try to build those things in to get the
Speaker 4: confidence up to where they can have some comfort level
Speaker 4: and just play football and do.
Speaker 2: The things that they do well.
Speaker 4: You probably put a little more emphasis on making sure
Speaker 4: that he's comfortable with everything in the game plan, because
Speaker 4: a more experienced guy say, we're running this, this is
Speaker 4: what's going to work, and you'll figure it out, whereas
Speaker 4: a young guy, it's like, do you not feel good
Speaker 4: about this because we don't want to do like exactly,
Speaker 4: and then all the pre snap stuff, and I don't
Speaker 4: know exactly how much burden they've given from in terms
Speaker 4: of you know, I'm sure he has the ability to
Speaker 4: say there's a lot of people over here to the right,
Speaker 4: I'm going to run it left, but beyond that, probably
Speaker 4: not a lot. The past protection stuff is probably you
Speaker 4: don't want to give him a ton of responsibility for that,
Speaker 4: especially gets an Alabama defense. They can bring guys some
Speaker 4: different places in the skies well, so they probably don't
Speaker 4: want to call a lot of true dropback passes anyway.
Speaker 4: So everything will probably at least for the first quarter
Speaker 4: or two, a lot of play action, a lot of
Speaker 4: you know, maybe some RPO stuff where they do a
Speaker 4: little bit of it. We're just you know, throw a
Speaker 4: hitch route or running the ball off. So I mean,
Speaker 4: it's not rocket science. It's just it's just putting the
Speaker 4: guy in position to do things that are simple, and
Speaker 4: hopefully you're doing enough other things that they have to
Speaker 4: defend them. It's tough if Alabama is stuff in the
Speaker 4: running backs and you're like, it's third nine, we got
Speaker 4: to go make a play and you can only run
Speaker 4: the draw play so many times. But again, you saw
Speaker 4: that against Oklahoma they ran draws on third down. They
Speaker 4: did some of those things, but then when they had
Speaker 4: a few critical downs, he was able to make throws.
Speaker 4: And the guy's talented, so you know, if he can
Speaker 4: get the confident he can make some throws.
Speaker 1: What's easier to adjust in? You know Nick Saban was
Speaker 1: talking about he wasn't super pumped that they only had
Speaker 1: a week before a game like this. Typically there's ten, twelve,
Speaker 1: thirteen days whatever. What is which side of the all?
Speaker 1: I suppose is easier to say they've seen twelve, thirteen,
Speaker 1: fourteen games of us. We need to add wrinkles here
Speaker 1: there wherever? Is it easier on offense to sort of
Speaker 1: add in new things or is it easier on defense
Speaker 1: when you talk about you know, Nick Saban and I'm
Speaker 1: sure on a different level, Kirby Smart they are throwing
Speaker 1: in new packages for this specific offense they're facing. Is
Speaker 1: it easier on offense or is it easier on defense
Speaker 1: to say we're changing twenty three percent of what we're
Speaker 1: going to do for this game.
Speaker 2: I don't know that you can generalize.
Speaker 4: I think it really depends on the opponent and who
Speaker 4: you're going to play, and obviously what their strengths are.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you were playing Oklahoma, you'd be more
Speaker 4: worried about defending Baker Mayfield and all the wrinkles they do.
Speaker 4: A different team might be different. I also think this game,
Speaker 4: where there's so much familiarity about the defensive schemes, I
Speaker 4: think Nick Saban can walk over to the offensive court
Speaker 4: and be like, here's what they're going to do, especially
Speaker 4: against our offense, right. I mean, you know, I think
Speaker 4: Kirby and Hurts didn't quite overlap, but they did a
Speaker 4: lot of the things that they were doing now like
Speaker 4: versions of them, and they just evolved a little bit.
Speaker 2: So I think that's why I.
Speaker 4: Said Jim Cheney is probably the most important guy. Is
Speaker 4: because I think Saban would like to have more time
Speaker 4: to break down every single one of his games the
Speaker 4: last couple of years, and particularly against you know, Auburn
Speaker 4: with Kevin Steele as defensive coordinator. Like teams will overlap
Speaker 4: to get a better flavor because they do a lot
Speaker 4: of things. They got a lot of talent, and also
Speaker 4: Saban's over prepare so surely just wants more time no
Speaker 4: matter what. So in this game, I think it's harder
Speaker 4: on the defenses. I don't know that that's the case
Speaker 4: in every game, though.
Speaker 1: I think it's very easy to sort of fill in
Speaker 1: the blank by saying Alabama will win this game if
Speaker 1: because Alabama is Alabama, and you know what an Alabama
Speaker 1: win will probably look like in this game, that they'll
Speaker 1: just be successful enough on offense and they will probably
Speaker 1: succeed more stifling on defense than not. What does a
Speaker 1: Georgia win in this game look like to you?
Speaker 2: I think it looks exactly the same. It's just flip
Speaker 2: in the script.
Speaker 4: I mean, the thing Kirby has done in two years,
Speaker 4: and I actually was not one of the people in
Speaker 4: detriment to me, is that thought this is a slam
Speaker 4: dung higher and he's going to come men and set
Speaker 4: the world on fire and and certainly improve upon what
Speaker 4: Mark Rick had done.
Speaker 2: I thought Rick is a good coach. He's obviously is.
Speaker 4: You know, Jim Cheney was an interesting offensive coordinating but
Speaker 4: you weren't like, oh, man, I'm so excited that Jim Cheney's.
Speaker 2: Offensive quarter and got him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like like you know, Georgia is gonna have a
Speaker 4: great offense now, it's like so, but he's built a bully.
Speaker 4: I mean that is when they you know that the
Speaker 4: SEC Championship game, I mean they beat up Auburn. I
Speaker 4: mean after getting blown off the field and making a
Speaker 4: lot of mistakes in that first game and looking a
Speaker 4: little shaky, they they beat up Auburn, and Auburn beat
Speaker 4: up a lot of teams this year. That was ultimately
Speaker 4: at least the you know, in the second half against Oklahoma,
Speaker 4: I mean, the physicality started taking over and you know,
Speaker 4: they played a lot of man coverage and the.
Speaker 2: Receivers weren't getting open.
Speaker 4: And you know, even some of those guys like Mark
Speaker 4: Andrews and people who are really good players just were
Speaker 4: not dealing with the physicality, not just in the defensive
Speaker 4: an offensive line, so that was a big factor, but
Speaker 4: everywhere and then certainly trying to tackle those running backs
Speaker 4: and dealing with tight ends and everybody else.
Speaker 2: So I think it's very similar.
Speaker 4: I think probably there Georgia may require that extra oomph
Speaker 4: of of a key special teams you know, touchdown or
Speaker 4: some you know field position, that kind of thing that
Speaker 4: will'll flip the difference. I mean, I don't think it's
Speaker 4: gonna be a game that people are gonna look at
Speaker 4: and be.
Speaker 2: Like, man, that was super exciting.
Speaker 4: I think it's gonna be a little bit like those
Speaker 4: old school Alabama LSU games where it was like, man,
Speaker 4: that was a that was a war, and then you're
Speaker 4: gonna five years are gonna be like, look at all
Speaker 4: the NFL talent out there, and then you're gonna think
Speaker 4: about what a great punt happened in the third quarter.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's gonna be one of those kind of games. Now,
Speaker 2: not to.
Speaker 1: Say this is that exciting for you.
Speaker 2: Mostly.
Speaker 4: Like I mean, you know, this is gonna be the
Speaker 4: kind of game that's gonna be more fun to watch after.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'll see the little oh the left guard did
Speaker 1: this kick here?
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'm like most people. We watched
Speaker 4: the game, it's like, all right, what was going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the TV show.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4: You saw that with like that that coaches the coaches
Speaker 4: room for the ESPN that first game, it was like
Speaker 4: they were plugged in, locked in. Second game, they'd also
Speaker 4: been there for a long time, but it was like, well,
Speaker 4: you know, there's a punts and stuff. Yeah, it looks
Speaker 4: like the energy level was a little different. So it's uh,
Speaker 4: but you know, look, it's going to be a really
Speaker 4: interesting game. I mean, it's I still think, you know,
Speaker 4: Kirby's ahead of schedule, so I think that's that's probably
Speaker 4: the key takeaway for Georgia. And then what what Alabama
Speaker 4: was able to do here in a year out of
Speaker 4: sort of just on precedent, well precedented.
Speaker 2: But in modern current modern, very unprecedent.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Chris B. Brown Smart football dot
Speaker 1: Com go buy his books. I promise you you will
Speaker 1: read them in like a day and a half. They
Speaker 1: are They're an easy read in the best possible way.
Speaker 4: Written like a kindergartener, written like you like a first grader.
Speaker 1: Pictures, there's diagrams, Everything's good. Chris, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for your time.
Speaker 2: That's my pleasure. All right.
Speaker 3: Again, that is Chris B. Brown from smart football dot Com.
Speaker 3: If you're not familiar with any of Chris's fine fine work,
Speaker 3: going out to smart football dot com. Check them out,
Speaker 3: look them up. Final question before we part, Wait, I'm ready.
Speaker 3: Did anything that he told you change your mind? Because
Speaker 3: you know, we just recorded a longer pre R show
Speaker 3: just you and I and we're releasing this one second,
Speaker 3: So now you know A plus B does it still
Speaker 3: equal Alabama for you?
Speaker 1: So it still equals Alabama to me though, I was
Speaker 1: when he talked about the idea of his wild card
Speaker 1: being Jim Cheney and sort of Jim Cheney sort of
Speaker 1: flies beneath the surface of like he's not somebody in
Speaker 1: the way. They're like, oh, he's an offensive guru. He's
Speaker 1: a young genius. You know that we see all the
Speaker 1: time now because everybody has to be a genius. But
Speaker 1: the fact is, Kirby Smart played against Jim Cheney a
Speaker 1: ton when he was at Alabama, when he was at Arkansas,
Speaker 1: when he was at Tennessee, and usually Charlie weis notwithstanding,
Speaker 1: when you play against somebody and I think the acumen
Speaker 1: of Kirby Smart isn't really questioned when he plays against
Speaker 1: and sees the wrinkles and sees the ways that Jim
Speaker 1: Cheney runs an offense and goes out and gets him
Speaker 1: specifically to run his offense. I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: that Chris that spoke volumes to him about how much
Speaker 1: Kirby Smart respected what Jim Cheney is able to do
Speaker 1: and that he is an X factor in this game.
Speaker 1: What will he do? How much does he trust Jake
Speaker 1: from how much does he attack Alabama if they have
Speaker 1: fourth and two on the Alabama forty four in the
Speaker 1: second half? Are they punting? Are they going that kind
Speaker 1: of thing? The wild card aspect of what Jim Chaney
Speaker 1: will do in this game was I thought, struck a
Speaker 1: chord with me?
Speaker 3: All right again, big thanks to our guest Daniel. I
Speaker 3: will see you yeah in Atlanta in a few short hours.
Speaker 1: Bring warm clothing, Tye for that.
Speaker 3: Gentleman over there, Dan Rubinstein for myself, tie he'll de brand.
Speaker 3: Thanks again for tuning in. We'll catch you all very soon.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, stay Sader, peace
Speaker 4: Kains