I was watching a old film of a 1971 Miami v. Baltimore game this morning. I was struck by the similarities between that team and what it appears Saban is trying to do with the current team. That D used almost all zone coverages and relied on smart safeties with great range. Miami won that game, in large part, b/c they were able to confuse Morral (who was still on Balt.) by disquising our zones and relying on our safeties to stop anything from getting deep. It has been stated several times that the safety position is the key to Saban's D. Saban also tends to use a great deal of deception in the secondary to confuse the opponents. Like Shula, Saban has a DB background and seems to spend a great deal of time coaching them up. The announcer also mentioned Shula's preference for rangy LBs. If I remember correctly most of our LBs were big guys (for their time). I know Shula also tried real hard to get Hendricks (The Stork) so at a minimum Shula wanted big LBs. The exception was Nick B. (who plays similar to ZT). We have, of course,seen that Saban also prefers big LBs.
BTW Shula took a team that was a league laughing-stock just two years earlier to three consecutive SB appearances. Here's hoping!
BTW Shula took a team that was a league laughing-stock just two years earlier to three consecutive SB appearances. Here's hoping!
