Nick Saban explains how Alabama approaches balancing run vs. pass offensively

Over the years, Alabama head coach Nick Saban has spent plenty of time deciding on the best way to run an offense in games. That includes finding the proper balance within a game between running the ball and passing the ball.

As Saban explained during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, it’s great if an offense can find some kind of balanced approach. However, it’s not the only thing that should go into the team’s gameplan.

“I think that ideally, you would like to have a balanced attack,” Nick Saban said. “The whole philosophy behind that is the run game is gonna help the pass game. The pass game is gonna help the run game. So, if you have that balance, that’s gonna be a good thing.”

That is the ideal for most coaches. If you run the ball well, a defense is forced to load the box to stop it, opening passing lanes and vice versa. However, as Nick Saban explained, the reality is you need to take what you’re given by a defense.

“But I do agree with you that you really have to take what the defense gives you. You don’t want to run negative plays into bad looks. So, the more you can eliminate that through having the right call, whether it’s run to pass or run to run, that obviously helps a lot.”

In other words, it’s important not to force the ball for the sake of being balanced. If the defense is letting you throw over a crowded box, then don’t stop. Running into the box for the sake of running it doesn’t necessarily make sense. Then, at the same time as that, Nick Saban knows that it’s important to play into the offense’s strengths when calling plays.

“But I also think you need to feature the players you have. On defense, you have to play a system because it has to adapt to a lot of things, a lot of different offensive things that you’re gonna see. But on offense, you have to do what the players you have can do and feature the talent you have,” Saban said.

“If that requires passing the ball a lot because that’s the kind of team you have. Then, to me, that’s what you should do. If you have a big ole offensive line and people are gonna play nickel defense all the time and they’re small and you can run it, then that’s what your team can do. That’s what you should do. So, on offense, you have to feature the talent that you have.”

Nick Saban on speeding up the tempo

There are some people who think that Alabama’s offense could be more effective this season if the Crimson Tide sped up the tempo. However, Nick Saban thinks that the bigger problem comes down to the execution of the offense.

“I think when you go up-tempo, you only get a rhythm if the up-tempo is helping you have successful plays. But the successful plays still come from execution,” Saban said.

“What is your footwork? What is your hand placement? How does the back press the hole? What’s the quarterback read? I mean, it’s a whole myriad of things. Do we block the right guys on the perimeter? All these things make plays successful. So when you have successful plays and you can stack them back-to-back, and you go with tempo, I think that really puts the defense on their heels. When you go up-tempo and the play doesn’t work — that doesn’t help. So, it still all comes back to fundamental execution. When everybody fundamentally executes, then you have a much better chance to have successful plays and have consistency in what you’re doing. So if you can go fast and do that, I think it can put the defense on its heels. But the first thing you gotta do is execute.”