By Cameron Soran
Nick Saban’s success as defensively-minded head coach at Alabama is almost unparalleled. An official record of 218-62-1. Eleven SEC West titles. And, of course, six national championships. But perhaps what is equally impressive about his tenure at Alabama that his defenses have been consistently regarded as, if not the best, then at least top-5 in the country for ten straight seasons. It seems that no matter how many of players he loses to the draft or graduation, there is almost no drop off for the Alabama defense from one season to the next. And by all accounts, his defensive system has essentially remained unchanged during that time. So, I think it is a worthwhile measure to at least figure out what they are doing down in Tuscaloosa.
Before we begin, I want to make a few notes. First, I will not be covering every coverage or check Nick Saban has at his disposal in this article. For one thing, many of his individual coverage concepts are for highly specialized situations, such as calls for when the offense lines up with 3 wide receivers to one side and 1 tight end to the other. I may cover those at another time, but this article is intended about 90% of what you will see Alabama run on Saturdays. For another, Saban runs certain coverage checks depending on his game plan that will vary from week to week. Not being affiliated with – let alone a member of – Alabama’s defensive staff, there is simply no way for me to gain access to all of that information.
Next, I should define a few terms that I will be using when breaking down pass coverages.
First is the term Apex, which is the first underneath defender inside the cornerback. This can be the nickel, a linebacker, safety that has rotated down, etc. The point is that the Apex is generally responsible for the #2 receiver (second eligible receiver – TE or WR – from the outside in). I use the term Apex[1] because a lot of the same coverages will be the same regardless of who is playing the Apex position, whether it be a linebacker, safety, Star, or Money[2].
[1] I should acknowledge that many coaches use the term Alley for what I will be describing as Apex. The term Alley, however, confers a run fit responsibility that may or may not apply depending on the coverage called. This will lead to situations where the coach explains, for example, that the Alley player is force-contain and the safety is the Alley. To avoid this “Who’s On First?” type confusion, therefore, I will instead be calling this individual the Apex.
[2] Star is Saban’s term for the nickel player who will replace the Sam and align over the slot receiver. If there are two slot receivers, then the Star will align to the one on the wide side of the field in 2×2. Saban is big on word association, and since he’s replacing the Sam, his name starts with the same letter (i.e., “S”). The Money is Saban’s term for his dime player who will take one of the linebacker spots. The Money will align in a linebacker spot to the #4, which will be: (i) to the 3-man side in all 3×1 sets; (ii) to the tight end when offense is in a 2×2 set and 11 personnel; and (iii) to the boundary slot receiver when the offense is in a 2×2 set and 10 personnel. This means that unlike most linebacker-type roles, which tend to send the Mike to the strength of the offense, the Money will rotate to both the strong and weak sides: wherever the #4 is aligned.
