Alabama Football: Tide puts emphasis on turnovers

Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE

Throughout the Nick Saban tenure, the Crimson Tide has lived and died by the turnover.

In Saban’s debut year, he was robbed of an overtime period with former employer LSU, thanks to a John Parker Wilson fumble that gave the Tigers the ball on the 4-yard-line. That trend was amplified the following week as the Tide lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions in an upset loss to Louisiana-Monroe that has left a scar that remains fresh on the fanbase.

Just two years later, Alabama rode turnovers to a national championship. Mark Barron had a key interception in the third quarter that paved the way for an Alabama field goal on the way to a comeback win that kept the Tide in the national championship hunt, not to mention the defensive plays made by Eryk Anders and Marcel Dareus that won the Tide its 13th national championship.

The ups-and-downs of the 2010 season can be attributed to turnovers, also. Alabama rode fourth-quarter interceptions by Robert Lester and Dre Kirkpatrick to avoid an upset at the hands of Arkansas, but then let turnovers overcome it two weeks later against South Carolina and later against LSU.

More recently, the Tide used pick-6’s against Arkansas and Florida to turn close-games into one-sided victories.

With the trend in place, emphasis is now being placed on turnovers and forcing them.

“Like I said after the (Western Kentucky) game, we have done the same kind of emphasis, done the same things to try to get turnovers, and we did all last year,” head coach Nick Saban said. “I think that we want to continue to emphasize it because I think this is always something that has a significant impact on the outcomes of games and ball security is important for us and getting turnovers is important as well.”

Alabama capitalized on this specific aspect of the gameplan this week, forcing three fumbles and another interception against the Hilltoppers.

“Coach preached to us about winning the turnover margin,” linebacker Nico Johnson said. “He feels like if we win the turnover margin, then at least three points or a touchdown could come out of each one. If we do that then we should be successful.”

Success in the turnover margin thus far, currently 2nd in the country with a 7-1 mark, is the accumulation of a lengthy offseason program.

“We actually visited in the offseason to see how they were the great turnover teams – whether they were in the NFL or in college – what some of the things they were doing to emphasize getting turnovers,” Saban said. “We have been doing that for over a year now, last year we didn’t get them, this year we have gotten a few.”

Johnson added, “We want to be able to knock the ball instead of ripping the ball out, because I think last year or the year before last year we were like 118th out of a lot of people in turnovers, so we want to come in this year just knocking the ball off people and having fun and creating turnovers.”

Alabama will take its ball-hawking defense to Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks have shown they have an issue with turnovers. The Hogs turned the ball over three times in their win over Jacksonville State and twice in their loss to Louisiana-Monroe while forcing only one turnover per game.

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