Nick Saban says this conference can chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful.
“I think we had 33 guys drafted out of the first 99 in our conference,” Saban said Tuesday of the SEC. “Some people say that guys in the SEC have more injury history.
“I think it’s the nature of the league, but I also think it’s the reason a lot of guys are getting drafted from our league. … It’s physical. It’s more bigger guys. It’s more better athletes. It’s more NFL-like in terms of what players are going to be expected to do at the next level. I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
That’s what he told Eddie Lacy.
Saban said he told Lacy that if he could be a first-round pick if he came back to Alabama and played injury-free this fall. Otherwise, he probably would be drafted early in the second round.
“I told him … ‘I’ll support whatever decision you make. You’ve been here for four years, you’re very close to graduation, and you have a short shelf-life as a player,’” Saban said. “When you’re a running back in the NFL it’s the shortest shelf-life of any position. So I kind of get it, I get where you’re at.’ We were on board with that one.”
Now you know why ‘Bama has eighteen tailbacks on its roster.
Get The Picture 
It’s more bigger guy’s. It’s more better athlete’s. Ok, coach get over to the admission’s office and sign up for an English class, then it will be more gooder when you talk to the player’s or media. “I’m just sayin” GATA “GO DAWGS”
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You know, people blast Saban for being heartless but kids still want to play for him. Why? Because he’s a realist and he tells them the truth. If somebody’s not going to get to play, he tells them so and runs them off. Maybe that’s why tailbacks want to be on his roster in the first place, even if everybody knows that there are going to be eighteen of them. And winning certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
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He is a successful pragmatist in a self-promotion world.
I prefer CMR’s ‘values’, and so do many recruits and their families, but that doesn’t have as broad a pull as the allure of success’ pinnacle and the personally expedient (is ‘personally expedient’ superfluously redundant again?).
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Biggest reason they want to play for him is because he wins.
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The “short shelf life” issue is reportedly why Lacy fell behind other RBs in the draft, some teams felt he had taken too many shots. I don’t know if that is true or not but Lacy did play for a long time in the SEC and made some very physical runs. He would have been my choice as a RB much earlier, he may only have 5 years in the tank but he is the type of back who will succeed in the NFL if he avoids major injury. One of my favorite Alabama RBs, wish he had not been available last year in Atlanta.
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+1. I think we’re going to look back on that game as the one Rodney Garner lost.
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War is tough son, and a lot of young men have to die, or even worse get demoted to second string, for the glory of the Tide. Are you sure you want to give that up for mere money.
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A few thoughts here
1)The 18 running backs almost certainly biases his remarks. while he generally speaks practically, its hard for me to think he would be as comfortable with Lacy’s departure if he did not have a TON of guys auditioning for ONE SPOT!
2)In some senses, Lacy’s talent was perfectly timed, and his departure is perfectly timed. Bama had a veteran line that was probably about as good as an OL will ever be in 2012. Lacy is NOT a special talent, and I would be shocked if he does well in the NFL. That said, his skills matched up very well with what Bama had (OL talent) and lacked (WR talent).
While the talking heads of college football looked at McCarron’s numbers and wanted to declare that he had gone from “game manager” to “superstar”, Nick Saban’s actions in the SEC championship game CLEARLY REFUTED that theory when he took the ball out of McCarron’s hands. Lacy was the perfect back to execute that strategy with and Yeldon was a necessary sidekick. In 2013, they have a LOT more talent at WR, and Saban will almost certainly be forced to take more risk on offense. Lacy would NOT have been the IDEAL back for that strategy anyway. That said, he has “reset” the clock on that strategy by having Derrick Henry. As much as we all think Kamara made a mistake by not looking at the depth chart more closely, perhaps they don’t go with two complementary backs (i.e., yeldon/henry) and they go with two similar backs (yeldon/kamara).
3)Whether or not Garner was effective will bear itself out in the fullness of time. It’s hard to argue out DL played very well in 2012, and that game was a low point. that said, i wonder what Grantham could have done to “take chances” stopping the run once it was clear Saban was “taking the ball out of Mccarron’s hands”. Obviously, the risk is that you give up a long pass, but I would argue EVERYONE in the building was waiting for the play action bomb to Cooper that they scored on. The reality is that our secondary did not have a great night. Rambo and Shawn Williams did NOT tackle well in the SEC CG.
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And those are some good thoughts, thanks for sharing. I wonder what the “right” number of RBs is, or if there is a right number. We have all seen remarkable runs of injuries where you get down to the 5th, 6th, or even 7th layer of tailbacks, but in “normal” times it seems having over 10 (including fullbacks) is excessive because they just don’t get the reps to stay sharp….or motivated. Usually you have a couple of walk-ons and redshirts that take the brunt of the practice contact on the scout team. By any definition Alabama seems to be on overload and you just have to question some of the latter signees’s decisions. Both CMR and Saban use a similar strategy of multiple tailbacks from what I see, and both are effective.
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“While the talking heads of college football looked at McCarron’s numbers and wanted to declare that he had gone from “game manager” to “superstar”, Nick Saban’s actions in the SEC championship game CLEARLY REFUTED that theory when he took the ball out of McCarron’s hands.”
I really don’t understand why everybody characterizes that game strategy as “taking the game out of McCarron’s hands.” Presumably, you mean that to have a negative connotation–that the coach had such a lack of confidence in his QB that he wanted to start calling plays that minimized the QB’s opportunities to cock it up. People (especially on this blog) seem to think that Saban’s run-game strategy was an indictment of McCarron’s skills and abilities as a QB.
They pounded the ball b/c it was incredibly successful, and we were powerless to stop it. It also meant that our defense couldn’t capitalize on its greatest strength (pass rush). How is that taking the game out of McCarron’s hands? If you’re having that much success, why would you bother passing? Even if you had Tom Brady at QB, it would be stupid to pass the ball when you’re collecting 350 yds rushing. When your running game is that dominant, it is just as explosive and productive as a high-performing passing game. So, why in the hell would you pass?! Having balance just for the sake of having balance?
I can certainly understand it if people have the opinion that Murray is a superior QB. What I don’t understand is how anybody can act like McCarron is not a great, big-game QB.
We don’t have to be haters on this blog. We can admire an opponent’s players w/o loving our dawgs any less. Mdcgtp, I guess this ranting post isn’t so much a response to you personally. I’m more just responding to what I see as a cloud of negativity around McCarron on this blog. For the life of me, I just don’t see how anybody could think McCarron is anything short of excellent.
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Good post.
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