Alabama Football Entering New Chapter With Brian Daboll
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Football Enters a New Chapter with Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach Brian Daboll.
The high was 47 degrees in Welland, Ontario Monday, or 8.3 degrees for those true to Celsius. Such warmth in February is a major problem in that part of North America. It messes up the ice fishing. It can make the popular pastime downright deadly.
Searching the Welland Tribune for Brian Daboll articles came up empty. An “Alabama Football” search in the newspaper archives showed the most recent article was from 2013, about Dee Milliner and the New York Jets.
If you have ever made a drive in summer up Interstate 90 from Cleveland, thru Erie, and into Buffalo, you saw western New York state has some commonalities with Alabama. When it is not under four feet of snow, the rural terrain is similar to Alabama.
Stop at a truck stop most anywhere between Fredonia and Hamburg and you could be in Gordo or Reform or dozens of other small Alabama towns. Athol Springs is not far from Hamburg, nestled on the edge of Lake Erie.
In this part of the country, they love ice fishing, ice hockey, the Buffalo Sabres, the Buffalo Bills, The New York Yankees, and the Toronto Blue Jays, pretty much in that order.
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They don’t have much interest in college football. It is a place where you can find people who have never heard of an Iron Bowl.
It is a world away from Alabama football and it is the home of Brian Daboll. Brian Daboll was born in Welland, Ontario and went to high school and played football in Athol Springs, NY.
This little geography review tells us nothing about Daboll the man. Will he find Tuscaloosa and Alabama hospitable? Does he have any affinity for the history into which he will soon step? Can he fathom how painful losses are to Crimson Tide fans?
Good questions perhaps, but questions yet without answers. Better to focus on what we know. The Brian Daboll chapter of Alabama offensive football will play out from a Nick Saban script.
Will Daboll inject some wrinkles? Certainly, as Jim McElwain did with the pistol formation and Lane Kiffin did with the jet sweep. Whatever the formation, whatever the scheme, it will be the Nick Saban system.
Many fans are hoping more power running, maybe even a return to a blocking fullback to bust holes in opponent’s lines. Even a cursory look at the Tide 2017 roster shows the backfield and offensive line should be up to the task.
The big unanswered question is can Brian Daboll mold the Tide’s young quarterbacks. As announced today, he is the OC and the Quarterbacks coach.
For those hoping the A-Day game will illuminate the Tide’s new offense, let me disabuse you of that notion. The spring game will repetitively show everyone maybe 35% of the Tide’s 2017 offense. Saban will be sure to give Jimbo no real clues.
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Can Brian Daboll achieve what McElwain and Kiffin did shaping Greg McElroy, A.J. McCarron, and Jake Coker into National Championship winning quarterbacks? Nick Saban clearly believes he can and that should be enough for Alabama fans.