Nick Saban rejected the notion that Alabama is going to return to a "ball-control" offense after the Crimson Tide lost to Clemson in the national title game.
During a fiery rant, Saban said what transpired in the only defeat of the 2016 campaign won't push Alabama to adopt a conservative approach under new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. In the 35-31 loss, the Tide had a nine-minute time of possession deficit and squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter -- throwing the ball 16 times and running it in 13 other instances during the second half.
Five defensive players were on the field for more than 100 snaps.
"We didn't block them," Saban said. "We didn't execute very well. We didn't throw the ball accurately when we had open people and a couple of times we dropped it. I think it was more a lack of execution than it was something schematically that we were doing. And that's on us as coaches. That's not to blame anybody but us for not having the players well-prepared. The defense also needs to get themselves off the field on third downs so they don't play as many plays. It's a combination of things.
"But I do think we could have executed a lot better in that particular game," Saban continued. "And I think most players would probably tell you that on both sides of the ball -- not to take anything away from Clemson. But it is what it is. But as we always do, we're going to self-assess what we did through quality control, what we did well, what we need to improve on and visit people, try to get better and the things we need to do better.
"But philosophically, I don't know where you came up with where we go to ball control. That's not what we do. The New England Patriots threw the ball over 60-something percent of the time, which is more than we threw it. So, where does that assumption come from or do you do what everybody else in the media does -- create some shit and throw it on the wall and see what sticks, which is what I see happening everywhere? And the people who scream the loudest kind of get the attention and then we pass some rule that everybody has to live with or some law and the consequences mess up a lot of other things. Do it all the time. We're doing it right now."
Saban then went off on a tangent, raising concerns about high school coaches being prohibited from working summer camps, although the NCAA rule to which he was referring was unclear.
Eventually, he got back to his original point.
"It'll mess everything up," Saban said. "It's the way it goes. It's the way it goes in the world of politics and the way it goes. The same thing with you. 'We're going to be more conservative and ball-control offense.' I never said that. No one in this building ever said that. So where did you come up with that? Did you have a dream about it or what? If we caught some passes in the national championship game -- we had guys open -- we wouldn't have had to control the ball. We would have had to score more touchdowns."