Nick Saban goes in depth on best formation for short-yardage packages

There were times when Alabama faced short-yardage situations Saturday against Mississippi State where the team elected to not take the snap under center. The decision to work out of the shotgun or pistol formation on those plays was explained to the media after the game by Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban.

“I watch games on TV and everybody’s in the gun,” Saban said. “Some people never get under center. When we’re in the gun, we clap. Players get in a rhythm. When you get under center, you have to go on voice command. It was pretty loud out there on a couple of those occasions. I think we had some things that we wanted to do in short yardage with the quarterback under but I think we’re a little apprehensive about using verbal cadence.”

The Crimson Tide ran multiple plays out of the shotgun on short-yardage situations to varying success. However, they did score a touchdown on a 2-yard run by Jase McClellan at the end of the second quarter.

Saban than used a surprising example to demonstrate how formations have changed in football over the years: the 1993 film The Program starring James Caan, Hallie Berry and Omar Epps.

“When I played, everybody was in an I formation and the quarterback was under center,” Saban said. “We watched a movie last night called The Program, which was like 30 years ago, which I played 30 years before that. That’s the only formation there was in the whole game. It was the I formation, quarterback under center. So now the quarterbacks never under center.”

It was an interesting offensive performance Saturday night for the Crimson Tide against the Bulldogs. The team scored 40 points on its way to a 40-17 victory, but managed only 357 yards of offense. The team rushed for 193 yards with Jalen Milroe leading the way with 63 yards and two touchdown runs.

Saban wrapped up his answer on the short-yardage situations by pointing out while they need to get but, there overall success on the ground was quite good Saturday.

“You got to worry about getting the snap and you got to worry about voice command,” Saban said. “But I do think there is a place in short-yardage situations [for] a quarterback being under center and not handing the ball off five yards deep in the backfield. But you can’t allow penetration like we did either. So it still comes down to executing. All them other plays that we ran in the game that made — how many yards did we have rushing? 193. We’re in the gun every time.”