(08-08-2018 06:31 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(08-08-2018 05:36 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 02:09 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  It's not even that. As much as a poster or two loves to wax-poetically about how DB didn't have a plan, he did. In the last 3 or 4 years of his tenure, DB constantly said how we wanted to control possession and win the TOP battle, slowing down the play. He also reworked the defense and simplified it. He didn't go into a ton of detail, but he did tell us the broad idea of what his plans included.
The problem wasn't that he did not communicate a plan, it was was that his plans weren't executed well.

I would disagree somewhat. Controlling Posession and winning TOP with offense is a defensive tactic - one that tends to keep scoring low. When your defense is unable to stop your opponent from scoring, using such a tactic does not put you in position to compete. There is a reason that coaches like Leach, Briles, and Sumlin have built very good careers even though they rarely had strong defenses... they had a strategy of scoring on offense and trying to dispossess their opponents on defense.
If you can score predictably, then controlling TOP can work well. That's what Hatfield's teams did when at their best, and that's what Jerry Berndt's strategy was. Outside of about 3-4 years, I don't think Bailiff's teams posed a serious scoring threat.
In the words of one coach (paraphrasing), "controlling possession is like taking a woman on a date, only to have her leave the bar with another man. You can say 'but I had 70% of possession', but you still go home alone".

I generally agree with I45. If you're going to adopt a conservative strategy, you need to base it around a sound defense and kicking game (by kicking game, I mean the entirety of special teams). Bailiff never seemed to emphasize either defense or special teams. That's why I say he didn't have a plan. If you have a plan that you can't possibly execute because you don't prepare to do the things you need to do to execute it, then you don't really have a plan.

Let's say it's 4th and 5 at midfield, late in a close game. Nick Saban punts and counts on Bama's defense to get him the ball back in better field position. Leach, Briles, and Sumlin go for it because they are more confident of picking up the first down and ultimately scoring than they are of holding the other team with their defense.

Bailiff punts, which means nothing more than giving up a 3 play, 80 yard drive, instead of a 2 play, 50 yard drive. That's not having a plan, because it's making a decision that cannot work.

Hat's teams controlled the clock by actually gaining yards( often top ten in rushing offense, at almost 300/game) Bailliff had a couple years at tghe 235-250 range, but mainly standing at the line of scrimmage doing nada

JL