Who cares, what more could we ask for - look at where our defense is ranked and that'll tell all you need to know. :thumb:
Tough to say. It's different, not sure which one if either is better than the other though. Saban was more into blitzes and heavy rushes, which when successful was absolutely unbeleivable, but it also put your DBs on a island one on one with the wideouts, leaing the potential to get burned. Pelini on the other hand, I find likes to disguise packages, and play a hybrid looking defense that seems to be a cross between a zone, and man-up. While this can confuse a QB and bait him into making bad decisions while leaving you LBs in good position to stop the run, it also at times leaves enough of a cushion for a team to casually take the ball down field small chunks at a time. I will say this, Pelini's D appears to be more scheme oriented. Guy just always seem to be in the right position at the right time to make the play. Sort of liek a read and react to what the offense is doing. From that point, it's up to the players to make the play. Saban's D seemed more like a controlled train wreck. Bodies flying everywhere, causing the other team to make mistakes (i.e. dropped passes from fear of being decapitated, throwing the ball into coverage to avoid the sack). In this sense Saban's D dictated the game to the offense. So it boils down to a choice: Pelini's will sit back, read what the opponent is doing, react to it and stop it. By design, it is successful against multiple types of offenses. Saban's D pure attack mode. Play on the other side of tthe ball, and force the other team to play your game instead of there's. I have absolutely no clue which one I prefer though. I like them both and would love to implement a scheme that draws from both philosophies.
It seemed like Saban's defense took the players a longer time to learn it than Pellini's. It took our guys 2-3 games to learn Pellini's schemes (and a painful 2-3 games it was), but it took Saban's teams around 3 years to fully grasp playing defense the way he wanted it done. Our '01 defense was prone to being beat every series (Hoofkin anyone?)
I think part of that was getting the right athletes in place. Pelini stepped into a dream job of sorts. He already has some of the best athletes in the country, he just had to teach them his style of D. Which so far is working out just fine IMO.
Nicks defense was a complicated pro-style defense that emphasized deception. It had a ton of different looks, option reads, disguised coverages, 100 blitz packages, and demanded a lot out of a player both physically and mentally. Fortunately Nick had the players that could do it in 2003, all had NFL shots and most are still playing. But not every college team has the 5-star manpower it takes to run this (not every NFL team has it either, apparently). This complicated, confusing defense is very effective against top pro quarterbacks and sophisticated NFL offenses. But it may be overkill for the average college quarterback. Pelini's defense seems to be more about having players in the right place to make the play, rather than on complicated shifts and disguised coverages. And it certainly took less time to implement than Nick's defense did. Three games and they had it last season. As effective as Nicks defense was, we regularly got caught in a blitz and burned on a big play. How many times did a back slip out of the backfield over the middle for a pass for big yardage? The complicated schemes often confused our own defensive backs as well as the quarterback. Pellini's defense doesn't seem to leave us as vulnerable to a defensive breakdown. Yet we still get in the blitzes and we disguise coverages adequately. I think it's a better college defense. Nick's defense may be better in the NFL, where he can always go out and get another experienced, talented pro player. But Pellini's defense can work even if there are a few second-tier players and green freshmen out there.
Very good analysis Nutriaitch and Red 55. It helps me understand a lot about the different philosophies. All I remember is QBs running for their lives with Saban's defense but I do remember getting burned from time to time. I agree, that I'm not sure which defensive philosophy I prefer. :thumb:
