Alabama heads into the College Football Playoff as heavy favorites. Much of that has to do with the Crimson Tide’s top-ranked defense.
Opponents have struggled to get anything going against Nick Saban’s team all season. But little do we forget, the Alabama offense has to go up against this staunch defense on a regular basis.
With the Tide’s defense playing historically good football, they’ve tended to overshadow the offense, which ranks 13th nationally in scoring. Though that’s solid, it still can’t be fun trying to run plays in practice, especially with a perfectionist head coach like Nick Saban. And as one Alabama defensive player admitted, the unit’s goal at this point is to get Saban irritated at offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin.
“Coach Kiffin, he gets real competitive so he tries to scheme us a little bit, but feel like we do a good job,” Allen said. “As a defense you try to get Coach Saban mad at him and try to get him yelled at in practice.”
How often are the Alabama defenders successful in getting Kiffin yelled at?
“Oh all the time,” (Defensive end Jonathan) Allen said with a smile. “All the time and we love it. I’m sure you guys have seen those on the TV, that’s exactly how it is in practice.”
Here’s what Allen is referring to, just in case you haven’t seen Saban go nuclear on his OC:
Just think about this clip for a moment. It’s a game against Western Kentucky when Alabama is up by 28. Can you imagine what Saban does to Kiffin in the days leading up to a game against LSU, or even a playoff game? Yikes.
With all of the abuse Kiffin takes, it’s actually become possible to feel for the Miley Cyrus of college football. It’s hard to blame him if he decides the Houston head coaching position or the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator gig would be better options.
