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| Alabama's defense was all over the field...harassing Gator QB Chris Leak |
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 On Location: Tuscaloosa, Ala.
October 1, 2005
By Ira Schoffel for MCSPOLL.com
.As part of his analyst work for a national radio network, Master Coach John Robinson attended the much-anticipated Southeastern Conference matchup between the Florida Gators and Alabama Crimson Tide this past Saturday. Though the game was over early, with the Tide jumping out to a 17-0 first-quarter lead and cruising to a 31-3 victory, the game should provide some insight about what the season might hold for both teams.
For Florida fans, the biggest question is whether this game is a sign of bad things to come for Urban Meyer’s spread-option attack. Though skeptics have said that the offense won’t work against SEC-caliber athletes, Robinson said it’s too early to make such a judgment.
He said that, in general, it takes a new coaching staff about one year to completely install a new offense and to raise their players’ comfort levels with the system.
But Robinson said he does have doubts about whether the Gators will be effective if they don’t start having quarterback Chris Leak run the option more often. Former Utah quarterback Alex Smith ran for than more than 600 yards in this offense last season; through five games, Leak has a net total of 1 rushing yard.
“I think that offense can be good, but it can’t be great without the option,” Robinson said. “And they ran the option two or three times Saturday and made some yards. But it just doesn’t seem like something they want to do with him.
“If they don’t run the option with that quarterback, then a lot of the value of that offense is diminished. It becomes just a passing offense.”
Robinson said that factor was compounded on Saturday by the fact that Leak wasn’t as accurate as usual. And, of course, much of the credit for that should go to Alabama’s defense, which constantly pressured Leak and smothered the Gators’ receivers.
Robinson said that Florida’s receivers failed to create any separation against the Tide defensive backs, and that only added to Leak’s frustrations.
“In the NFL, the quarterbacks will throw the ball if a guy’s open by a tenth of an inch,” Robinson said. “In college, it intimidates a quarterback a little bit.
“He was throwing 70 percent coming in there, so you’ve got to give him some credit. But he didn’t have a good day. It looked a little like Tom Brady this weekend – the ball didn’t go where it was supposed to all the time, and guys have that from time to time.”
It’s not time for Florida fans to panic just yet, however. Robinson said he has every confidence that Meyer’s staff will make whatever adjustments are necessary in rapid fashion.
“They’re good offensive thinkers,” Robinson said. “I think they’ll come back from what they did and be better. It’s going to be a while, and they’ve got to decide what they’ll be willing to do with Leak and what they won’t – those are decisions that will have to be made. But it will be a year before they’ll be running the offense they want – and they have the athletes to get it done.”
After throttling Florida, Alabama’s defense now ranks sixth nationally in total defense, and Robinson said that’s no fluke. Watching the Crimson Tide up close, Robinson said he couldn’t help but think about the success the New England Patriots have had with smaller, quicker linebackers and by clogging the passing lanes with extra defensive backs.
“It’s a little bit like what some of the things that New England has done,” Robinson said. “That mixture of five defensive backs – playing nickel on first down – I think Alabama did a lot of those kinds of things. And all of those people played really fast and matched up well with that spread offense. Alabama has put together a defense with extreme speed. Both defensive ends were fast. All of those linebackers and DBs are indistinguishable.
“If that spread offense gets you all spread out and you don’t handle it very well or you don’t respond in space, then they get an advantage. But it seemed to me that whenever the ball started somewhere, the Alabama linebackers – who were playing way off – reacted and (flew) right to the ball. And both corners gave all the wide receivers all they could handle. I just thought it was a defense that was matched to stop that offense.”
For Alabama, the only negative from the game will be the loss of star receiver Tyrone Prothro, who went down with a broken leg after playing so brilliantly.
“He seemed to be so dynamic,” Robinson said. “I think it will hurt them. He looked like he was going to be a real spark for them. But the other guy – Keith Brown – ran right by the Florida guys too. Kenneth Darby and Brown and Prothro all looked faster than the guys from Florida.”
If there is a bright side, Robinson said, it’s that the Tide don’t run an offense that depends heavily on game-breaking receivers.
“They’re going to be a conservative offensive team,” Robinson said. “They’re not going to be a wild, wide-open team. They’ll take their shots – like in that game, they took three or four shots and hit three of ’em. I think it hurts them, but the essence of what they are is more old-fashioned play-action pass, run the ball, control the ball. And I think their defense will give them that chance to play that kind of game.”
Though Robinson coached against Alabama when he was at Southern Cal, Saturday’s game marked the first time he has watched a Southeastern Conference game in person.
And he loved it.
“It was fabulous,” Robinson said. “I never saw a negative thing. I didn’t hear people booing anybody. They weren’t throwing bottles at anybody. It just seemed like it was about as good an environment as you could have. I remember playing Alabama years ago and thinking how classy they were. All of our SC fans were saying how classy the fans were at Alabama.
“But this game had just about everything you could want.”
Two days later, Robinson said he was still emotionally affected by the crowd’s reaction to Prothro’s injury.
“It was like Achilles being killed on the battle field – everybody rallied,” Robinson said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard an audience respond the way they responded to him and his injury. That was emotional to me when he came off the field and how loud the cheering was.”
NEXT WEEK....  On Location with John Robinson - Georgia at Tennessee
Photos courtesy of the University of Alabama Intercollegiate Athletics.
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