The 42-year old Sarkisian joins a Crimson Tide offensive staff led by offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, also a former USC head coach.
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We’re talking a 52-6 drubbing of USC on Saturday. He adds a dimension with his athleticism and his ability to run that I think is very effective, and I think that that actually opened up the running game.
“When the first quarter was over, I was wondering to myself, ‘Was this a good plan, or a bad plan?'” Saban said of his hopes to start Barrett or Cooper Bateman and feature Hurts in spot duty, beginning with the third series, when he promptly fumbled. “So my focus with our team right now is what can we do better?”
Then on Monday, Saban said the Tide’s two tackles, Cam Robinson and Jonah Williams, played well vs. the Trojans.
Alabama also has four graduate assistants in Doug Belk, Rob Ezell, Alex Mortensen and Brian Niedermeyer, and three strength and conditioning assistants in ex-Tide players Josh Chapman, Wilson Love and Kindal Moorehead. Kiffin had a few head coaching jobs but never stuck at any of them, with his most notable stop coming at USC.
“We played a very good team today, and they played up to their potential”, Helton said after the game. Obviously, judging by Saban’s comments, he didn’t think they played well as a whole. “We don’t want to get any dumb penalties or anything like that from doing the talking”. Look, I’m happy that we won.
Blake Barnett started the game under center for the Tide (1-0).
That’s not to say that every one of Saban’s gambles has worked.
It all made it an impossible task for a first-time starter at quarterback, and an offense struggling to find an identity, especially when star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster finished with just one catch. Lose, but bounce back against conference rivals, and the loss gets thrown well into the depths of the rear-view mirror. During the game against USC, senior defensive end Dalvin Tomlinson and junior Cam Sims were both forced to the sidelines with injuries. And that’s how we broke a couple of those runs.
Saban can fiddle with his quarterback position in a home game against Western Kentucky on Saturday, but that’s all the kicking-the-tires time allowed.
“Cam has got a bruised shoulder”, Saban said.
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Hired by USC before the 2014 season after a five-year run at Washington, Sarkisian went 9-4 in his first campaign before off-field problems derailed his career.
