EDIT: With DeBoer’s long-time OC, Ryan Grubb, finally on campus, it seemed prescient to republish this piece Brent wrote a year ago, since there is a much more coherent scheme, and working rapport, between that tandem. Here’s what lies in store for ‘Bama’s offense. — RBR
A few months ago (or maybe a lifetime), Nick Saban retired and Alabama found itself with a brand new coach for the first time since 2007. With that always comes change. For most programs, a new coach brings fresh excitement and new hope since it almost always means the previous coach was failing.
For Alabama fans, though, there’s some trepidation to go along with cautious optimism. Nick Saban is the greatest to ever do it, and there’s no one in the world going to match him – likely ever. However, there’s definitely room for optimism for not just maintaining, but also improvement from prior seasons. Alabama’s offensive scheme took a major step back in 2021 after Steve Sarkisian left and really lacked luster the last three seasons.
So, while hiring Kalen DeBoer may not overall be a 1 for 1 replacement for Saban’s entire 17-year career, there’s a very strong chance that one of the most accomplished offensive minds in the league the last 5 years could improve Alabama’s offense above where it has been since the 2020 season ended.
DeBoer’s results are pretty well known: Washington had one of the top offenses in the country with a QB that passed for nearly 5000 yards, a running back with over 1200, and the QB and all three receivers were drafted in the top part of the NFL draft.
Before that, he took Fresno State to a 9-3 record, and before that, he increased Indiana up by 5 points per game in the one season he served as offensive coordinator.
Now, DeBoer is the head coach and, technically, Nick Sheridan is the offensive coordinator. However, Sheridan has been a position coach for DeBoer at both Indiana and Washington and was his own OC for a couple of seasons after DeBoer left Indiana, so for the most part, Sheridan’s scheme is DeBoer’s scheme. And much of the assumption going into year 1 at Alabama is that this will be the DeBoer offense.
With that, let’s take a look at just what this scheme actually is. And in case you missed it earlier this spring, here is my counterpart article breaking down Alabama’s new defensive scheme under DC Kane Wommack.
First, check out the article below from the Athletic from a year ago.
This is a much better article than my defensive-minded self can really articulate in an article about offensive schemes, plus they did a lot of work of linking in video examples.
The Huskies’ offensive innovation lies in their efficiency and simplicity. The operation is built on one core philosophy: creating space to exploit the one-on-one advantage. It is able do that schematically in three distinct ways:
1. Creating horizontal stretches on underneath defenders
2. Creating vertical stretches on deep defenders
3. Mastering individual route technique
Sound familiar? It’s because it should remind you a lot of the core of the Lane Kiffin offense when Alabama first made that conversion back in 2014. Take the easy horizontal yards or the big downfield yards. Focusing on anything else is an inefficiency.
Take that a step further, and you might start thinking about the same concept in the Nate Oats offense on the basketball court: Either get the layup or shoot the three, but stop wasting time with the midrange.
Ultimately, DeBoer’s scheme is similar to the concepts of the Air Raid, and his WR coach, JaMarcus Shephard spent a good bit of time with Mike Leach in the past. DeBoer himself is something of an anomaly of a coach with no real traceable lineage to any specific lineage of coaching trees. He spent most of his early years with Sioux Falls, an FCS school who had a single coach from 1983-2004, and that coach had no other coaching experience outside of Sioux. DeBoer didn’t really coach with known coaching tree until he joined Jeff Tedford at Fresno State in 2017 – after pretty well forging most of his own concepts the prior 20 years.
But back to the Air Raid (which, I am FAR from from an expert on), the #1 staple concept for DeBoer’s offense is the curl/flat. Again, check out the article linked above for their first picture.
It’s a simple concept that’s been in every play book since the forward pass became useful, but it is run as often and precisely in this offense as the inside zone run has been for offenses in the 2010s. Use the middle curl or a boundary curl to trap certain defenders and get a sideline fade with your best receiver isolated. And if that gets covered, then the cheap, easy curl keeps things moving.
The other most common concept is the many variations of a high-low post, particular from a trips set. The deep post and an underneath post effectively do two things: it forces a safety to choose… Or if an extra safety is dedicated, then it clears off the backside of the field horizontally for a flat or some other gimme route to take advantage of it.
Now take those two concepts as the two main route combos to build an entire offense out of, doing them from any given spot on the field and with a huge variation of playactions, motions, and moving blockers, and you have a dangerously complex offense that, in theory, is quite simple to execute.
Now, that’s all well and good, but “Air Raid” and “Alabama Fan” don’t exactly go together, so the other part of this puzzle is the run game. Sure, Washington threw for a billion yards, but their running back also rushed for over 1200. Turns out, being good at offense gets a lot of touches and stats for everyone.
In any case, the approach to the run game is going to be different than we’ve been used to as Alabama fans. Runs are not filler plays – that’s for the curl flats. Instead, they’re called much more judiciously. Often married in with jet motion or out of inverted veer looks, DeBoer loves attacking just off-tackle with the running back, and isn’t scared to go all out with pulling linemen to gain advantage wherever the scheme decides to attack. Power sweeps and counter plays are common, often looking like 2002 NFL West Coast style rushing attack, just out of the spread formation and baked in jet motion.
Again, the inside zone, or really most forms of zone runs, are few and far between. Instead, pulling blockers and gap blocking dominate, and it’s often used more situationally, rather than the go-to first and 10 play.
So, where does this leave Alabama? Obviously, things won’t be quite the same, as DeBoer’s long time OC, Ryan Grubb, is off to the pros, and new OC Nick Sheridan has very little track record.
Plus, DeBoer has consistently gone on record to say that he wants his offense to suit the players he has, and not the other way around. So while we have a few years of a quasi-Air Raid to his track record, who really knows if that’s what he’s going to go for at Alabama.
Still, I definitely see a lot of room for certain players in Alabama’s offense to benefit.
First and foremost, QB Jalen Milroe will be given every opportunity to put up huge numbers. Milroe’s got better accuracy and rushing ability than Michael Penix did at UW, though he’ll have to prove his pocket presence can dramatically improve. Still, he’ll get a lot more chances to make the downfield sideline throws on quick reads, rather than the long, drawn out crossing route and levels concepts from Tommy Rees’s offense where he struggled with the patience for.
RB Jam Miller should also really benefit, as he had a limited role last year doing almost exactly what Dillon Johnson did full-time for the Huskies: take the sweep handoffs and hit the hole hard and fast.
At WR, someone will have to step up as the guy to win 1v1s down the sideline. Bernard, Prentice, and Law all have the speed and ability to be the underneath YAC guys, but who can master the downfield? Personally, I think It’s going to be Prentice to take over that role, and he’ll be the leader of the group.
Finally, a lot of DeBoer’s situational 3rd and 4th down plays are designed to get the TE lost and wide open, so I also expect a big uptick in production from CJ Dippre.
On the other hand, expect Milroe’s rushing stats to go down quite dramatically. Much of the passing game is built upon a quick one-read throw, so there should be a lot less time for scrambling around.
All in all, it’ll likely be an adjustment for Alabama fans, as the running game will no longer be the staple of the offense. It’ll likely be a more efficient running game, but it won’t be what drives the offense. Alabama’s had seasons like that over the last few years, but it’s never been the intentional focus like it may be over the next few years.
Still, this is a marriage of the most successful scheme in college football with the most successful program and collection of talent in the country – chances are, something is going to turn out well.
