Things To Look For At A-Day From Lane Kiffin’s Offense
By Chris Hale
With the A-Day game quickly approaching, the excitement is starting to build for Tide fans to get that temporary scratch on the itch from football withdrawals. Fans will get their first look at the Tide’s offense under the direction of Lane Kiffin. As most already know, the game won’t provide a very good look at what is coming for the season in terms of plays since the coaching staff will keep things vanilla but it will be a great chance to get at look at the players. There will be weapons return from last year as well as some new ones coming in as well.
Fans get to look at the quarterback competition on Saturday, although that probably won’t be settled until fall practice well after former FSU QB Jacob Coker arrives on campus. All reports so far are that Blake Sims is having a great spring and a spectacular outing today at the scrimmage. Sims completed 24-39 for 288 yards and 2 touchdowns yesterday. Cooper Bateman put in stats of 16-31 for 16o yards and 1 touchdown pass.
No rushing attempts were passed out for T.J. Yeldon from the scrimmage. Altee Tenpenny led the rushers from the released stats with 15 carries for 39 yards and a TD. Tyren Jones added 10 carries for 34 yards and Kenyan Drake toted the ball for 4 carries on 19 yards. As of now, it seems your first team offensive line will look like this: Austin Shepherd RT, Leon Brown RG, Ryan Kelly C, Arie Kouandjio at LG and Brandon Greene at LT. Coach Saban said today during his comments after the scrimmage that freshman Cameron Robinson is challenging Brandon Greene for the left tackle spot.
Amari Cooper had yet another great day on the field during the scrimmage with 9 receptions for 97 yards and 1 touchdown. Chris Black added 6 catches for 89 yards and ArDarius Stewart added 66 yards on one carry and one touchdown. Freshman Cameron Sims has been receiving rave reviews from guys on the team as well. With the different schemes and blocks plus using them to stretch defenses out vertically and horizontally, look for Brian Vogler, O.J. Howard and Jalston Fowler to step up and contribute even more so that last season.
Photo Credit: Montgomery Advertiser
That covers the players on the offensive side of the ball. What about the offensive coordinator? As any Bama fan knows, the offense will still be based on Saban’s philosophy on the field but there will be that Kiffin influenced element. So what can we expect? SBNation.com did an article a short time ago and had a few breakdowns of plays that Kiffin has used. I’ve included some of those videos here below. More can be found by clicking the above link to the article.
"Here’s an instance of zone slice, in which the H-back moves back across the formation to hit the defensive end and open up a cutback lane for the runner. The design of the play is to pound the ball between the tackles with the H-back’s block, with the fake reverse action serving to hold defenders outside. In this instance the execution of the blocks is horrendous, but you anticipate that being more consistent in Tuscaloosa.Like Nussmeier, Kiffin has plenty of experience with creating lots of variety around base concepts like zone blocking or the main passing concepts. He’ll often use two-back formations, double tight-end sets, and H-backs to get there."
Here is another example of a run strategy from Coach Kiffin
"One potential problem for two-back zone schemes is that the lead blocker will often guide the defense to the ballcarrier, unless the running back has quick enough feet and effective enough fakes to threaten multiple creases before making his zone cut and blasting through the open hole.Here, Kiffin uses the typical backside block by the H-back to set up a cutback lane while using a fullback to lead into the playside, creating multiple cues and stress points for the defense. Washington manages to fill the main cracks created along the front but still get ripped by the back’s cut behind the right tackle’s seal block. It’s a great challenge for a defense to get tacklers to the ball when a run can strike along so many parts of the perimeter."
In that mentioned link, the article also breaks down a few passing plays as well. If you get a chance, take a look at it. It should be a fun season to sit back and watch to see the Lane Train pull out of the station. Be watching for another breakdown on the defensive side of the ball coming later in the week before A-Day.
—Author
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