Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said he knows what he\u2019s up against with the Georgia defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisciplined, sound, multiple in what they do, excellent third-down package, coverage schemes are different than most people,\u201d Grubb said this week, asked what challenges the Bulldogs\u2019 defense poses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand how to travel in nickel and get people in different structures for their coverage, and I think that\u2019s a huge part of what they do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re physical up front, they get vertical and they do a great job. They are well-coached, they have good players and they play hard, it will be a huge test.\u201d<\/p>\n
The No. 6-ranked Crimson Tide (5-0, 3-0 SEC) plays host to No. 2-ranked Georgia (5-0, 3-0) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.<\/p>\n
The matchup of the Tide\u2019s offense against the Bulldogs\u2019 defense has been much anticipated, as Grubb looks to move the ball against Glenn Schumann\u2019s defensive calls.<\/p>\n
Grubb has added a twist to the Alabama offense with the utilization of the \u201cI-formation,\u201d hoping to complicate Georgia defenders\u2019 assignments while adding more preparation to the Bulldogs\u2019 preparations this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something all the way back to the spring we put some time and effort into,\u201d Grubb said. \u201cTalking to our defensive staff, the run fits are different, the linebackers\u2019 vision on what their keys are can be different. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about (number) 12 (Keelon Russell) being under center and handing off the football in I-formation versus being in Gun Zone reads, it\u2019s another element of things that defenses have to look at and respect and work hard at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alabama is averaging 186.4 yards per game rushing this season \u2014 up from 104.1 yards per game last season.<\/p>\n
Georgia ranks third in the nation in run defense, yielding 57.4 yards per game on the ground.<\/p>\n
Grubb said it\u2019s important the Crimson Tide win at the line of scrimmage to give Russell an opportunity to make plays out of different formations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Keelon to be able to be able to do those things and operate under center and utilize the boot (-leg) game as well,\u201d Grubb said, \u201chas been a big-time plus for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some excitement when guys see that (I-formation) and they get juiced up running the football like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Grubb knows how well Kirby Smart\u2019s defense will be prepared.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorgia does what they do well, it\u2019s a scheme that all the players have been in for a number of years,\u201d Grubb said. \u201cWhen you see defenses that have been coached so well for so long, it\u2019s players and coaches understanding the system and being able to execute it. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo all the way back to spring, when they are trying to get young players involved, there\u2019s players on the roster that are like, \u2018hey this is how we do this,\u2019 \u201c he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s confidence in how they execute, and I think that\u2019s one of the biggest things, you just know they\u2019ll be in team run (drills) twice a week executing those things and taking a lot of pride in how they stop the run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Grubb believes Alabama has the power to determine the outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s executing the things we do well with our confidence,\u201d Grubb said, \u201cand try to knock them off the ball, that\u2019s the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said he knows what he\u2019s up against with the Georgia defense. \u201cDisciplined, sound,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[19201,1607,2662,154084,136481,10313,399,398,396,397,7702,99],"class_list":["post-877660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-alabama-football","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-east-carolina","tag-ecu","tag-fbc","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sec","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}