New England Patriots: Alabama using Super Bowl champs’ film
The New England Patriots run one of the best offenses in the NFL, and now former tight ends coach Brian Daboll will try to implement similar schemes into his Alabama Crimson Tide offense.
The New England Patriots offense has the ability to change week to week. Former tight ends coach Brian Daboll is now the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama and he’ll look to mimic that versatility.
Daboll has been utilizing old Patriots film to help his Crimson Tide prepare this offseason, and it will be interesting to see the tactics used at the college level.
The system, full of option routes and multiple personnel packages, is complicated and it takes a lot of skill and intelligence to run it. Alabama may be the one team in college football that I believe is capable of running a New England-style system offensively.
"“Coach Daboll likes to show a lot of clips from back when he was with the Patriots to show us a lot of things that they did, show us exactly what he envisions us to do,” said running back Damien Harris."
Daboll is a great teacher, and because of that, he should be able to find success in this system at Alabama. His former players have noted just how brilliant he is at explaining every little detail to ensure team success.
"“He’s a fantastic X-and-O football coach,” said former NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme, who worked with Daboll when they were both with the Cleveland Browns. “I was lucky enough to have a pretty good background after playing for a while. But there were still many things I learned from him, the nuances of a defense and things that I thought were fantastic.”"
Alabama head coach Nick Saban is completely on board with Daboll’s ideas, and he provided an insight as to how they’re teaching the system to guys that are just one or two years out of high school.
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Nick Saban and Bill Belichick have a great relationship with one another, so the Patriots and Crimson Tide do as well. Both coaches have found success, and are the best in their level of play. Belichick also loves players that come out of Alabama, and I expect that to continue now with Daboll leading the offense. Currently, New England has just two Alabama players on their roster in Dont’a Hightower and Cyrus Jones, but there have been plenty more in the past.
Next: Patriots will cut Cyrus Jones before week 1
Alabama will begin their season on Saturday, September 2nd at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta against the Florida State Seminoles. As a Patriots fan, I’ll be watching before New England’s season begins the following Thursday, September 7th against the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium. I’m curious to see how well Alabama can work some of the Patriots schemes and plays into their own normal play calling.