There has been a changing of the guard at Alabama already this football season.
Gone is offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jim McElwain and in his place comes Doug Nussmeier, formerly of Michigan State, the St. Louis Rams, Fresno State and the Washington Huskies.
It is a change that has head coach Nick Saban smiling about the possibilities after the first couple of days of fall practice. Saban, Nussmeier and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart met with the media Sunday afternoon and as you might expect, the relationship between Nussmeier and Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron was one of the hot topics.
“I think he is a bright guy and a guy that a lot of people on our staff know. He has called plays in circumstances here with us, whether it’s a scrimmage or an A-Day game,” said Saban of his new offensive coordinator.
“He’s got a lot of positive energy and a lot of good ideas that we’ve implemented into our offense. I think the players respond well to him. The players like him. I think the adjustments that we’ve made in the passing game are going to be beneficial to our offensive team being more explosive and creating more balance. I’m excited to have him.”
Saban knows what he has in McCarron, but he is pleased also with the early work ethic shown between backups Phillip Ely and Alec Morris.
“They’ve showed good carry over and have made strides on their own in being able to manage and execute and do things a little better. That’s been an encouraging part of the first practices that we’ve had,” he said. “We just have to keep putting them in situations and keep getting them the knowledge and experience that’s going to help them make the decisions and the judgments that they need to make to play winning football at the position. We want to continue to help them improve fundamentally so they can execute it. That’s been encouraging.”
Nussmeier, no stranger to having good quarterbacks to work with, is happy to join Saban’s staff and to add McCarron to the list of quarterbacks he has coached, such as Marc Bulger, Drew Stanton, Jeff Smoker and Jake Locker.
“I just want to say how fortunate I feel to be here, to be a part of the Alabama history and tradition. This is a special place,” he said. “And to get the opportunity to work with this coaching staff, especially with Coach Saban and this offensive staff, it’s been a really great opportunity and really looking forward to the season.
“After two days in, our guys are working extremely hard. Obviously we’ve got a long way to go, but their attitude, their willingness to work and the way they’ve come and the energy they’ve brought the first two days has been really, really good. Now we’ve got to continue to get better, but I’m very excited about where we started.”
Nussmeier goes into this job with his eyes wide open.
“Really when you look at coaching I think any expectation that you have you put on yourself. I know this, for me personally, I’m going to be my harshest critic. I know at times there are days where this is a great profession and something that you get up in the morning and you really look forward to going to work, and there are days you get up and you got punched in the gut and you’ve got to get yourself back up and go to work again.
“I think that is all the expectation you put on yourself. Obviously, Coach Saban, the expectation he has for his team and everybody within this organization is very high, and that’s why this program here has achieved at the level it has, so for me it’s a great opportunity to be a part of that,” Nussmeier said.
The new offensive coordinator knows that the relationship between a quarterbacks coach and his quarterbacks is unique.
“I think it is a unique thing to playing the position and coaching the position. When you talk about trust and you talk about communication, those are two things we talk a lot about. One of the things I tell our quarterbacks is, ‘I can’t help you if you’re not honest with me.’ Having the background of playing the position gives me a little perspective there from what they’re seeing.
“The biggest thing is when there’s a mistake made, in order to correct it we have to have the proper feedback, so we can go through and decipher was it a poor read or was it just a throw that got away, all those things. That comes with time, and I think our guys, the quarterbacks that we have here, have done a great job as far as that goes to date. ”
In McCarron, Nussmeier inherits a quarterback who had the reputation as a “game-manager” not a “game-changer.” At least that was the fans perspective, but not the coaches. During the season McCarron seldom made the big, flashy play because with Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy, Marquis Maze and Brad Smelley around he didn’t have to. But that changed in the BCS National Championship Game against LSU when McCarron went 20-for-34 for 234 yards to lead Alabama to the national title.
“We knew that he [McCarron] was going to have to play well because we knew that we were going to throw the ball,” Saban said of his quarterback after that win. “He showed great leadership and poise in making good decisions.”
All of which are qualities that Nussmeier appreciates in his newest quarterback.
“You see in any sport, when players believe and they have confidence and they have swagger, it usually leads to success. The biggest thing I think is when you look throughout a season at playing the position of quarterback,” he said. “You can’t get too high and you can’t get too low because there are going to be days that it doesn’t go exactly the way you want it to and those are the days you can’t get too low and when you do have a great game you can’t get too high cause you can come back to reality really fast. To try and keep an even keel is another thing we spend a lot of time talking about in the room.
“AJ’s attitude, his willingness to work, like I’ve said before, when you look at his body of work from where he started the beginning of last season and where he ended and then where he started spring ball and where he finished it and where he started fall camp, I think he continues to get better and better every day. He works extremely hard. He’s very conscientious, and I’m really excited about what the future holds for him. I think he has a very, very high ceiling.”