This article has some Xs and Os at least, for a basic presentation of Bama's D versus Clemson's offense.
Click here for link The Tide has three primary responses to spread offenses, each with a dozen variations. Bama's tactics are as thorough and modern against the spread as any in college football.
Cover 7 is Saban's version of cover 4 and serves as the Tide's two-deep-safety scheme. The Tide has a few ways to play this to get the safeties in run support. Most involve tight coverage on the outside and rely on good tackling from the safeties.
Cover 3 is what Saban is more famous for, even though Bama's made greater use of cover 7 over the last several years. Bama's take is to fashion this coverage around pattern matching, thus getting the best of traditional cover 3 and man coverage. That allows the defense to keep men in the box against spread teams.
Bama's favorite anti-spread blitz is probably the ubiquitous "fire zone, but with man coverage principles" that most teams use. The keys are the corners holding up on islands without safeties helping over the top.
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