Special Teams

[SUPERCOACH]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

[Marshal Dillon]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

[ALTideUp]

Our punter was the game MVP. 7 of 8 punts inside the 20 with no touchbacks.

This ^ right here

[Chechem]

   :A STOP SIGN:

[SUPERCOACH]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

I don't have access to Coach Saban's stat sheet, nor have I seen special teams stats tracked on any of the usual places.  Either he is telling the truth or he is lying.  I tend to believe him.



He did qualify his statement with "overall", which I took to mean that we may not have been 1st in every category but we were pretty close to the top on most of them.

[Marshal Dillon]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions.  

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

I don't have access to Coach Saban's stat sheet, nor have I seen special teams stats tracked on any of the usual places.  Either he is telling the truth or he is lying.  I tend to believe him.



He did qualify his statement with "overall", which I took to mean that we may not have been 1st in every category but we were pretty close to the top on most of them.

What we got from Saban on special teams was "coach speak." A sunny, upbeat assessment based on basically nothing. He knows special teams is under heavy criticism, even major sports announcers and Fnebaum are discussing it. You know computers so you can easily find several sites for SEC team stats. I'm a computer dummy & I found them, but not all stats are covered. The stat about Auburn & Alabama kickoffs is something closely followed by say CBS Sports for use by their announcers. Also, what do your OWN eyes tell you about Tide special teams? Do you think they are "good" or #1 "overall." That stat came from Coach Saban's imagination, call it whatever you want, there is no such stat. Please research it and let me know what you can find. I would be very interested in what anyone can find. Something from Benjamin Disraeli:

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

 

[pmull]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

My memory tells me our special teams were very good last year. Stats are hard to find on special teams but I found a few.

Cody Mandell was one of the best punters in the nation. He had a 47.1 avg and very few were returned. Christain Jones was excellent on punt returns. He had 23 returns for a 14 yd avg. As a team we averaged nearly 15 yds a return.

Going into last year we were all concerned about our place kicking. Cade Foster was perfect for most of the year. He hit all his extra points and ended up 12 of 17 in field goals. Granted he ended the season poorly.

Our kick off coverage was good last year. I can not find the stats to back it up but we consistently had high kickoffs that allowed our coverage to pin the opponent inside the 20.

My memory of our special team play in 2013 is much different than yours.

[SUPERCOACH]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

I don't have access to Coach Saban's stat sheet, nor have I seen special teams stats tracked on any of the usual places.  Either he is telling the truth or he is lying.  I tend to believe him.



He did qualify his statement with "overall", which I took to mean that we may not have been 1st in every category but we were pretty close to the top on most of them.

What we got from Sabn on special teams was "coach speak." A sunny, upbeat assessment based on basically nothing. He knows special teams is under heavy criticism, even major sports announcers and Fnebaum are discussing it. You know computers so you can easily find several sites for SEC team stats. I'm a computer dummy & I found them, but not all stats are covered. The stat about Auburn & Alabama kickoffs is something closely followed by say CBS Sports for use by their announcers. Also, what do your OWN eyes tell you about Tide special teams? Do you think they are "good" or #1 "overall." That stat came from Coach Saban's imagination, call it whatever you want, there is no such stat. Please research it and let me know what you can find. I would be very interested in what anyone can find. Something from Benjamin Disraeli:

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

 

You mean statistics like:

For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25.

To be clear though, I am not saying we are killing it on special teams this year.  What I am saying is that every year there are calls for CBW's head on a silver platter, and a lot of those years we do just fine on special teams overall.

All 3 phases of the game will usually have some bad plays throughout the game.  However, for some reason it seems we have always demanded perfection on every play from the special teams, which is quite unrealistic.  Again, this year we have played poorly on certain special teams the last couple of games.  There is no denying that.  But this call to fire the special teams coach every year is kind of like the boy who cried wolf.  Eventually the boy was right, but by then nobody was taking him seriously.

I did notice that Jones did a much better job with his ball security technique this last game.  No doubt some coach drilled it into his head last week, and because of what happened in the Ole Miss game he probably paid attention this time.  That is good coaching, but ultimately it is up to the players to listen to the coaching.

Now, this week the issues were just horrible decisions.  I don't know how a coach can anticipate that a guy who has been returning punts for several years is suddenly going to lose his mind and try to dive on a ball on the ground in the middle of 7 or 8 guys.  But now that it has happened, I have no doubt it will be covered in practice this week and will not happen again this year, if the players listen and pay attention.  Coach Saban made the point today that when they practice punt returns our punter generally doesn't punt it 25 yards into a pile of people.  They have practiced that, but he said they will probably spend some extra time on it this week if he can find a guy to make bad punts.

As far as I am concerned CNS can hire bozo the clown to coach special teams if that makes him happy.  CNS has shortcomings, but the good far outweighs the bad.

Just to clarify though, I am pretty sure you thought our special teams play was poor last year.  Am I remembering that correctly?  Since we all agree that this year has not been up to the standard, let's look at last years stats if we can find them.  I am interested to know if there really is a perennial problem on special teams or just perennial unwarranted criticism. 

[SUPERCOACH]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

My memory tells me our special teams were very good last year. Stats are hard to find on special teams but I found a few.

Cody Mandell was one of the best punters in the nation. He had a 47.1 avg and very few were returned. Christain Jones was excellent on punt returns. He had 23 returns for a 14 yd avg. As a team we averaged nearly 15 yds a return.

Going into last year we were all concerned about our place kicking. Cade Foster was perfect for most of the year. He hit all his extra points and ended up 12 of 17 in field goals. Granted he ended the season poorly.

Our kick off coverage was good last year. I can not find the stats to back it up but we consistently had high kickoffs that allowed our coverage to pin the opponent inside the 20.

My memory of our special team play in 2013 is much different than yours.

That is how I remember it as well.  It seems like I can also remember complaints and calls to fire the special teams coach last year too.

[Marshal Dillon]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

I don't have access to Coach Saban's stat sheet, nor have I seen special teams stats tracked on any of the usual places.  Either he is telling the truth or he is lying.  I tend to believe him.



He did qualify his statement with "overall", which I took to mean that we may not have been 1st in every category but we were pretty close to the top on most of them.

What we got from Sabn on special teams was "coach speak." A sunny, upbeat assessment based on basically nothing. He knows special teams is under heavy criticism, even major sports announcers and Fnebaum are discussing it. You know computers so you can easily find several sites for SEC team stats. I'm a computer dummy & I found them, but not all stats are covered. The stat about Auburn & Alabama kickoffs is something closely followed by say CBS Sports for use by their announcers. Also, what do your OWN eyes tell you about Tide special teams? Do you think they are "good" or #1 "overall." That stat came from Coach Saban's imagination, call it whatever you want, there is no such stat. Please research it and let me know what you can find. I would be very interested in what anyone can find. Something from Benjamin Disraeli:

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

 

You mean statistics like:

For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25.

To be clear though, I am not saying we are killing it on special teams this year.  What I am saying is that every year there are calls for CBW's head on a silver platter, and a lot of those years we do just fine on special teams overall.

All 3 phases of the game will usually have some bad plays throughout the game.  However, for some reason it seems we have always demanded perfection on every play from the special teams, which is quite unrealistic.  Again, this year we have played poorly on certain special teams the last couple of games.  There is no denying that.  But this call to fire the special teams coach every year is kind of like the boy who cried wolf.  Eventually the boy was right, but by then nobody was taking him seriously.

I did notice that Jones did a much better job with his ball security technique this last game.  No doubt some coach drilled it into his head last week, and because of what happened in the Ole Miss game he probably paid attention this time.  That is good coaching, but ultimately it is up to the players to listen to the coaching.

Now, this week the issues were just horrible decisions.  I don't know how a coach can anticipate that a guy who has been returning punts for several years is suddenly going to lose his mind and try to dive on a ball on the ground in the middle of 7 or 8 guys.  But now that it has happened, I have no doubt it will be covered in practice this week and will not happen again this year, if the players listen and pay attention.  Coach Saban made the point today that when they practice punt returns our punter generally doesn't punt it 25 yards into a pile of people.  They have practiced that, but he said they will probably spend some extra time on it this week if he can find a guy to make bad punts.

As far as I am concerned CNS can hire bozo the clown to coach special teams if that makes him happy.  CNS has shortcomings, but the good far outweighs the bad.

Just to clarify though, I am pretty sure you thought our special teams play was poor last year.  Am I remembering that correctly?  Since we all agree that this year has not been up to the standard, let's look at last years stats if we can find them.  I am interested to know if there really is a perennial problem on special teams are just perennial unwarranted criticism. 

I love how many of my fellow posters have tried to change the issue. I said that special teams for the last 6-7 years have been bad, not just last year as many of you want to focus on. We are talking about a pattern of special team snafus and screw-ups. How was our kicking game against Auburn in 2013? By the way the FG percentage of made FG's in 2013 was one of the lowest in the SEC. Kinda of important isn't it? Plus, there are no stats for penalties on kickoffs & punts, being penalized AFTER A TIMEOUT for something stupid like too many men on the field, having to call a timeout due to confusion on special teams, etc. However, I did find a site that offers a statistical analysis of all phases of the game (offense, defense, even positions like RB, etc.) with a ranking of each team for that year. The site is a statisticians dream, but it's pretty much over my head since I'm a liberal arts guy & gives me a headache, but it might be legit. I think smithgeneral is an engineer and SUPERCOACH knows computer stuff so they might be able to understand the inner working of these stats.

First, the good news. I think this is Saban's stat sheet. The site shows Alabama #1 in special teams in 2013. Now the bad news, here are the rankings for each year for Alabama since 2008:

2008:  56
2009:  49
2010:   5
2011:  72
2012:  28
2013:   1
2014:  114


I hope some folks will review this and give me an assessment of it with a detailed explanation of why they think it's a legit site or total bull. It reminds me somewhat of the Bill James Baseball Abstract from the 1980's.


Click here for link



 



 

[ricky023]

One thing I noticed on this list was Miss. ST.:
.213   58   Mississippi State   6-0   6   -.536   106   -.168   86   -.127   47   -.117   51   -.390   5   -.137   53
I know they are ranked #58. I don't know how to capture columns or rows. Still a baby in computer ware. That is what I have all my friends for. lol.
OLE MISS: 1.355   33   Mississippi   6-0   2   -.511   105   -.395   122   .212   7   -.269   22   -.350   9   .266   88
This is a good ranking I guess, not sure but I do no that auburn is ranked one place higher at 32 than ole Miss.
What does all this mean? I have to be honest I don't know but we are sure are a long ways down the totem pole. RTR!

[SUPERCOACH]

Are you happy with the special teams play of the last 6-7 years? Should we sign Bobby Williams to a 5 year contract since he is so good as a special teams coach?

Yes.  At the press conference today Coach Saban mentioned that overall last year we had the best special teams play in the SEC.  I was shocked to hear him say that, based on what I see posted on here every year.

I guess he must go by SEC stats and not CRS opinions. 

We clearly are making a lot of mistakes on special teams this year, and his point was that they spend the same amount of time on special teams in practice and the players receive the same coaching this year as last year.  But having the best special teams play in the SEC last year does not fit the narrative you hear on here year in and year out about needing to get rid of the special teams coach.

Did he happen to mention what he was basing his special teams stats on? Many of the problems we have are not on a stat sheet for the SEC. For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25%. Gigantic stat and a real indicator of your kick off team that's not on an SEC stat sheet. This means that 75% of our kicks could be returned, leading to good field position or even a TD. How about our FG kicking, you have eyes, were you satisfied with the FG kicking of Cade Foster? What about the punting game, how satisfied have you been with it for the last few years? This year we have real punter, but poor FG kicking has reared its ugly head again. Also, I checked some sites for Tide stats on special teams but never found Alabama ranked as the best. Please get back to me.


 

I don't have access to Coach Saban's stat sheet, nor have I seen special teams stats tracked on any of the usual places.  Either he is telling the truth or he is lying.  I tend to believe him.



He did qualify his statement with "overall", which I took to mean that we may not have been 1st in every category but we were pretty close to the top on most of them.

What we got from Sabn on special teams was "coach speak." A sunny, upbeat assessment based on basically nothing. He knows special teams is under heavy criticism, even major sports announcers and Fnebaum are discussing it. You know computers so you can easily find several sites for SEC team stats. I'm a computer dummy & I found them, but not all stats are covered. The stat about Auburn & Alabama kickoffs is something closely followed by say CBS Sports for use by their announcers. Also, what do your OWN eyes tell you about Tide special teams? Do you think they are "good" or #1 "overall." That stat came from Coach Saban's imagination, call it whatever you want, there is no such stat. Please research it and let me know what you can find. I would be very interested in what anyone can find. Something from Benjamin Disraeli:

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

 

You mean statistics like:

For example, during the Auburn game it was mentioned that 92% of Auburn kickoffs were not returned due to deep or out of the end zone kicks. Alabama's was 25.

To be clear though, I am not saying we are killing it on special teams this year.  What I am saying is that every year there are calls for CBW's head on a silver platter, and a lot of those years we do just fine on special teams overall.

All 3 phases of the game will usually have some bad plays throughout the game.  However, for some reason it seems we have always demanded perfection on every play from the special teams, which is quite unrealistic.  Again, this year we have played poorly on certain special teams the last couple of games.  There is no denying that.  But this call to fire the special teams coach every year is kind of like the boy who cried wolf.  Eventually the boy was right, but by then nobody was taking him seriously.

I did notice that Jones did a much better job with his ball security technique this last game.  No doubt some coach drilled it into his head last week, and because of what happened in the Ole Miss game he probably paid attention this time.  That is good coaching, but ultimately it is up to the players to listen to the coaching.

Now, this week the issues were just horrible decisions.  I don't know how a coach can anticipate that a guy who has been returning punts for several years is suddenly going to lose his mind and try to dive on a ball on the ground in the middle of 7 or 8 guys.  But now that it has happened, I have no doubt it will be covered in practice this week and will not happen again this year, if the players listen and pay attention.  Coach Saban made the point today that when they practice punt returns our punter generally doesn't punt it 25 yards into a pile of people.  They have practiced that, but he said they will probably spend some extra time on it this week if he can find a guy to make bad punts.

As far as I am concerned CNS can hire bozo the clown to coach special teams if that makes him happy.  CNS has shortcomings, but the good far outweighs the bad.

Just to clarify though, I am pretty sure you thought our special teams play was poor last year.  Am I remembering that correctly?  Since we all agree that this year has not been up to the standard, let's look at last years stats if we can find them.  I am interested to know if there really is a perennial problem on special teams are just perennial unwarranted criticism. 

I love how many of my fellow posters have tried to change the issue. I said that special teams for the last 6-7 years have been bad, not just last year as many of you want to focus on. We are talking about a pattern of special team snafus and screw-ups. How was our kicking game against Auburn in 2013? By the way the FG percentage of made FG's in 2013 was one of the lowest in the SEC. Kinda of important isn't it? Plus, there are no stats for penalties on kickoffs & punts, being penalized AFTER A TIMEOUT for something stupid like too many men on the field, having to call a timeout due to confusion on special teams, etc. However, I did find a site that offers a statistical analysis of all phases of the game (offense, defense, even positions like RB, etc.) with a ranking of each team for that year. The site is a statisticians dream, but it's pretty much over my head since I'm a liberal arts guy & gives me a headache, but it might be legit. I think smithgeneral is an engineer and SUPERCOACH knows computer stuff so they might be able to understand the inner working of these stats.

First, the good news. I think this is Saban's stat sheet. The site shows Alabama #1 in special teams in 2013. Now the bad news, here are the rankings for each year for Alabama since 2008:

2008:  56
2009:  49
2010:   5
2011:  72
2012:  28
2013:   1
2014:  114


I hope some folks will review this and give me an assessment of it with a detailed explanation of why they think it's a legit site or total bull. It reminds me somewhat of the Bill James Baseball Abstract from the 1980's.


Click here for link



 



 

That site has tons of stats.  I have no idea how they come up with that calculation, but it seems legit to me.

[SUPERCOACH]

We are not trying to change the subject to last year.  We are trying to change the subject to how you call for the special teams coach to be fired every year, when clearly last year was a good year. 

Saban said "best in the SEC", to which you said was "in his imagination".  He was being modest, as apparently we were #1 in the country.

Excluding this year, we have been better than approximately 73% of all the teams on that stat sheet during the time period you cited.

One other thing I find interesting is that our 2 best years, by far, are years that we did NOT win the national championship.  I think that means we are on track to win 2 national championships this year. 

[Marshal Dillon]

We are not trying to change the subject to last year.  We are trying to change the subject to how you call for the special teams coach to be fired every year, when clearly last year was a good year. 

Saban said "best in the SEC", to which you said was "in his imagination".  He was being modest, as apparently we were #1 in the country.

Excluding this year, we have been better than approximately 73% of all the teams on that stat sheet during the time period you cited.

One other thing I find interesting is that our 2 best years, by far, are years that we did NOT win the national championship.  I think that means we are on track to win 2 national championships this year. 

I noticed the same thing about the 2009 & 2011 teams. We had such tremendous defenses those 2 years I assumed they could overcome any errors on the field by special teams or the offense. Plus, we play in the SEC and being better than say UAB or Georgia Tech in special teams really doesn't mean much. I will get bcd to the stats, have to leave right now.


 

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