Quote of the Week...from Nick Saban

Everybody thinks when I say a guy is a good game manager, that's a negative, but I think it's a real positive.  You have the ball in your hand every time when you're a quarterback.  Whether you're handing it off or throwing it to somebody, I think that's extremely important.       ---Nick Saban.

I have never been a sports fan of personal statistics, opting more to root for or against specific teams in the games I follow.  With football on the college and professional levels, I think a lot of people place undue emphasis on quarterback passing statistics like yards/game and touchdown passes...I happen to know from watching the sport over the years that some of the so-called "great" passing performances happened in large part because the team found itself considerably behind in a game and had to desperately resort to a lot of passing in order to catch up.  When the great Miami Dolphins teams of the early 1970s went about winning all those games...including three straight Super Bowl appearances, two championships and one undefeated season...they played a "game management" offense under the quarterbacking direction of Bob Griese and Earl Morrall (who QBed most of the regular season wins when they went undefeated in '72).  The goal was never to rack up stats, but rather lead the team to victory through a mixture of rushing and passing using plays designed to stay one step ahead of the defense...that requires some brains, not just to learn all the schemes but also to be able to make last-second changes in view of what the defense might be presenting on a particular play.  Coach Saban's latest star quarterback at Alabama, Tua Tagovailoa, has just been selected by the Miami Dolphins in the first round to be their quarterback of the future.  Tua suffered a fractured hip during the 2019 season that has completely healed...the main concern with him is how he takes chances extending plays while running with the football, which is how he got his hip injury.  Back in Saban's past when he coached the Dolphins, he had a chance to pick up Drew Brees as his own quarterback of the future...but Brees did not pass the Dolphins' medical exam and went on to a Hall of Fame career at New Orleans as one of the great game-managing quarterbacks of all time.  If Tua wants a similar glory-filled NFL career he needs to study the great game managers in NFL history like Brees and Tom Brady and move away from the "rushing quarterback" model that others like Robert Griffin, Jr. and Cam Newton have followed to temporary stardom and ultimately injury-riddled careers.  If you want your offense to run, then give the ball to your running back...