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Nick Saban focused on improving Alabama football’s third-down defense, mental errors
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 63,543 
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban stirred behind the podium like it was an October, midseason news conference instead of the first press opportunity of Alabama’s spring practice, which opened Friday afternoon.
He picked apart questions like he does during a non-conference opponent week in September. In reality, it was Day 1!
On one particularly relevant topic, Saban both defended and critiqued his defense. Saban came up as a defensive coach, and it’s considered his specialty. Asked about what information he gleaned by studying last year’s film of the Crimson Tide’s defense, Saban played the role of big brother. You know how in most families it’s OK for you to pick on your sibling but no one else can? That’s what Saban did. First, he stood up for the defense, and then he provoked it.
“I know everybody complains about the defense, but we were like first in the SEC in points allowed, and we were 13th in the country in points allowed,” Saban said. “So I think what people visualize as good defense is a little bit different now than it used to be.”
That’s certainly true. Great defense today can’t be viewed through the prism of great defense a decade ago. In 2011, Alabama’s defense was otherworldly. That group allowed 8.2 points per game and 183.6 yards per game. In 2020, the best scoring defense (Marshall) allowed 13 points per game and the top total defense (Army) allowed 275.3 yards per game. Alabama’s 2020 defense allowed 19.4. points and 352.2 yards.
Saban is correct that his defense led the SEC in scoring defense, but it ranked 32nd nationally in total defense, the lowest ranking of the Saban era. The goal, however, is to keep the other team from scoring, so the efficiency may not have been the best, but the end result worked.
It’s hard to imagine that privately Saban is pleased. By the rankings, his defense has gotten progressively worse since finishing ranked first nationally in 2017. From 16th in 2018, 21st in 2019 and 32nd in 2020. So what has been the primary concern? Saban put his finger on one particular area.
“I think the single thing that we have to improve on, that was the worst that it’s been since we’ve been here, is third down,” Saban said. “Getting off the field on third down was an issue for us a year ago.”
Alabama third-down defense
2020
41.50
77
2019
35.68
35
2018
34.23
24
2017
34.58
30
2016
30.67
8
2015
28.63
7
He picked apart questions like he does during a non-conference opponent week in September. In reality, it was Day 1!
On one particularly relevant topic, Saban both defended and critiqued his defense. Saban came up as a defensive coach, and it’s considered his specialty. Asked about what information he gleaned by studying last year’s film of the Crimson Tide’s defense, Saban played the role of big brother. You know how in most families it’s OK for you to pick on your sibling but no one else can? That’s what Saban did. First, he stood up for the defense, and then he provoked it.
“I know everybody complains about the defense, but we were like first in the SEC in points allowed, and we were 13th in the country in points allowed,” Saban said. “So I think what people visualize as good defense is a little bit different now than it used to be.”
That’s certainly true. Great defense today can’t be viewed through the prism of great defense a decade ago. In 2011, Alabama’s defense was otherworldly. That group allowed 8.2 points per game and 183.6 yards per game. In 2020, the best scoring defense (Marshall) allowed 13 points per game and the top total defense (Army) allowed 275.3 yards per game. Alabama’s 2020 defense allowed 19.4. points and 352.2 yards.
Saban is correct that his defense led the SEC in scoring defense, but it ranked 32nd nationally in total defense, the lowest ranking of the Saban era. The goal, however, is to keep the other team from scoring, so the efficiency may not have been the best, but the end result worked.
It’s hard to imagine that privately Saban is pleased. By the rankings, his defense has gotten progressively worse since finishing ranked first nationally in 2017. From 16th in 2018, 21st in 2019 and 32nd in 2020. So what has been the primary concern? Saban put his finger on one particular area.
“I think the single thing that we have to improve on, that was the worst that it’s been since we’ve been here, is third down,” Saban said. “Getting off the field on third down was an issue for us a year ago.”
Alabama third-down defense
2020
41.50
77
2019
35.68
35
2018
34.23
24
2017
34.58
30
2016
30.67
8
2015
28.63
7
Comments
It’s something that Saban and his defensive coaching staff are working to figure out.
“Whether it’s a combination of how we pressure, how we cover, whatever, Some of that starts with even when it was second-and-long, we did a really poor job of making it third-and-long,” Saban said. “It would become third-and-very manageable for the offense. This whole idea of getting off the field and not giving the other team more opportunities to have chances to make plays, I think that’s the single most obvious thing that we need to improve on.”
Different things tend to factor into that. Run defense is one. Allowing too many big plays is another, Saban said. But he reiterated that it’s not 2008 anymore.
“But if you make a comparison to years past, especially the last couple years, and I’m not taking up for the guys, because we need to get a lot better on defense, is people are not giving up eight points a game anymore,” Saban said. “I’ve talked a lot about how people take advantage of the rules that we have in college football and how they favor the offense and how it’s very difficult to play really good defense now.”
The SEC prided itself for years as the conference that played defense. When the Big 12 was lighting up scoreboards, SEC fans simply replied with a similar refrain: “The SEC plays defense.”
Things have changed.
In 2020, only one SEC team (Texas A&M) finished as top 10 total defense. Only four finished in the top 50. Meanwhile, the conference’s offenses had three in the top 10 and six in the top 50. Saban remains a defensive-minded coach, but he’s not a fool. He will keep his offense’s foot on the pedal, but he wants his defense to be able to hit the breaks with regularity too.
“We keep tweaking; we keep working,” Saban said. “I think we have a little more experience coming back on defense, which will probably help us. I see a lot more players out there that last year at this time, we had seven or eight new guys and four out of five in the secondary. Now we only lost one guy in the back end and one linebacker and one down guy. We have a lot of guys that have a lot of playing time, so they should be a lot more confident. Between third down and mental errors that created big plays, I think those are the two things that we are really focused on.”