By By Chandler Myers
Tuesday afternoon I was reading a post on al.com by Gentry Estes about a column on ESPN’s Web site that interested me.
It seems that Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban is possibly having a heavy influence on defenses in college and pro football.
Here’s a tidbit of what I read:
A theme is developing since this year's national title for Alabama: People throughout football are lining up to try to emulate Tide coach Nick Saban.
Just for starters, there's Georgia's new defense to go along with new overall coaching approaches at Florida State and Tennessee. Yes, Saban's influence will be seen all over the place during this upcoming football season.
Perhaps even in the NFL …
This interesting online post from ESPN.com's Tim Graham reports that the Buffalo Bills may be plotting to switch to Saban's 3-4 defense under new head coach Chan Gailey and coordinator George Edwards, who previously worked under Saban in Miami.
The Bills may also wish to draft former Tide middle linebacker Rolando McClain because he is accustomed to conducting that kind of orchestra.
The ESPN post goes on to describe aspect of Saban's defense, asking Scouts Inc. analyst Steve Muench for his take ..
"I feel like they are very aggressive on most first and second downs with the strong safety playing a big role in run support. But they also hedge their bets by dropping into Cover 1 or Cover 3 in an effort to take away the big play off play-action. Alabama, like other 3-4 teams, can walk an outside linebacker up to the line of scrimmage, effectively giving it a four-man front.
Chandler Myers is sports editor of the Atmore Advance. He can be reached at 368-2123 or by e-mail at sports@atmoreadvance.com