After Alabama put up 33 or more points in each of its first four games of the season, Nick Saban lashed out at the media for criticizing his decision to hire Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator. Alabama was throwing the ball more this season than it ever has, but the Tide got more conservative against Ole Miss and ended up losing. Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron wonders if that had anything to do with Saban putting “handcuffs” on Kiffin.
Despite Sabana’s insistence that he has “been begging” his offensive coaches to open things up in recent years, McCarron indicated otherwise during his weekly appearance on Tuscaloosa’s Tide 99.1-FM radio show.
“I don’t know if that’s Lane doing that or if coach Saban is kind of putting the handcuffs on Lane like I’ve known Coach to do in the past on his offensive coordinator and we’re going to be very bland and run this play and do this and we’ll throw it on third down if we have to,” McCarron said, per Michael Casagrande of AL.com. “It’s going to be interesting to see how they bounce back against Arkansas this week and what kind of offense comes out this week.”
[Related: Fran Tarkenton unloads on AJ McCarron]
Alabama has thrown the ball effectively with senior quarterback Blake Sims this season, but they called more runs (44) than throws (33) against Ole Miss. Most of those passes were intended for Heisman Trophy candidate Amari Cooper, who finished with nine catches for 91 yards. McCarron felt Alabama was forcing the issue with Cooper a little too much.
“I understand Coop is an unbelievable player,” he said. “He was that for us when I was there, but when you target somebody so much … I think that was one of the best things we did while I was there. We spread the ball around to everybody. I mean, I think in numerous games … where we had almost everybody on offense catch the ball that was eligible to catch the ball. Teams could never really pinpoint and play their defenses to cover Coop and I think that’s one of the things they’re struggling with right now.”
McCarron went on to say that he feels the Tide lack a true later. Not surprisingly, Saban does not agree.
Saban: "I don't know how AJ would really know. But I don't see that as the case."
— Marc Torrence (@marctorrence) October 8, 2014
The Tide hadn’t really been tested before losing to the Rebels, and it showed. They wore down late in the game and were unable to make adjustments after heading into the locker room at halftime with a 14-3 lead. McCarron obviously feels that Saban and company became too one-dimensional in the second half, and he may be right.
Whether McCarron is right or wrong, I’m sure Saban doesn’t appreciate the criticism. It doesn’t matter how much he likes AJ, Saban does not take kindly to being called out.
H/T Dr. Saturday
