can someone please break this down (Saban's defense against Texas in MNC)

The same defense that almost let a true freshman QB get within 1 score of Bama in the fourth quarter?

...would require a long diary and many hours in which to do it.

Basically, Saban ran his dime package ("money" and "star" are the two extra DBs replacing Sam and Will) and was able to defend the Texas run using the 4-man DL and a solitary Mike--a 5-man box.  He was able to do this by essentially using both DTs as 2-techniques (head-up on the OGs) and having the Mike read the Center's block.  (By the way, the 2-technique idea was something GERG mentioned during the M Coaches' Clinic as very effective against zone teams.)

This tactic works against the Big 12 spreads b/c they are largely passing spreads with a very simple run game (only a few schemes).  This makes the run reads easy and it also makes it simple for a defensive coach (not to mention one as gifted in the powers of the Dark Side as Saban) to scheme the offense's run package with only 5 defenders.

There is no way Saban would play this way against us or someone like Oregon or the Tebow version of Florida b/c there aren't enough hats in the box to defend the myriad of run schemes and options the offense presents. 

However, I'm sure Mad Nick would come up with something to defend us--somewhat in an opposite philosophy.  That it, he would find some way to defend our 4 WRs (if we're in the same 2x2 that Texas employed, and also our base formation) with only 4 DBs and commit 7 to the box.