How Saban is preparing his defense for Michigan

If they were serious, they wouldn't have the grad assistant breaking down the tape.  Actually I have no idea how these things work.

Really though Borges is just going to repeatedly throw bubble screens through the game to confound them

While a thorough review of Borges' game film might reveal some situational tendencies, the most relevant game film will most certainly be our final four or five games last year.  

I expect we'll see a pretty different offense from the one we saw last year (until the ohio game) because Borges was just settling into a comfort level with the spread and being okay using it more the large majority of snaps.

This year, we'll see the same looks, but we'll be passing more out of them.  And, you can bet Saban's primary goal will be taking away the run.  He'll believe forcing us to pass will give him the best chance of success.  And I think the only way we beat 'Bama is if we're able to get some big plays from the passing game.

There's no denying that Saban's going to have a damn good gameplan coming into Jerryworld. What Michigan is going to have to capitalize on most is Alabama's defensive inexperience.

I don't want to take away from how talented their defense will still be, but it won't be as good as last year's, especially not in the first game of the year when they may not have gelled yet. If all those guys were returning after the BCS title game (Kirkpatrick, Hightower, etc.), I would already have written this game off as a loss, to be perfectly honest.

Plus, given that Richardson's gone, Lacy is out of spring practice, and Bama hasn't had a legitimate WR threat since Julio Jones, I think there's a pretty good chance our defense can hang with their offense. Just need to pray BWC finally lives up to his potential, gets into their backfield and makes life miserable for McCarron.

Still, getting past that defense is going to be a tall order to fill. I still have to lean towards Bama in this, because its Nick Fucking Saban, but we absolutely have a chance.

Breaking down all that film wont do any good.  This Borges offense is different from anything he's done before.

analysis/paralysis.  I can't imagine you could develop a defensive scheme that could adapt to any/all plays called in the last 25 years.  Even the majority of plays with different teams and personnel across 25 years.  Today's Borges isn't the same guy he was 25 years ago.  With limited time to coach and teach in college, it just seems crazy to think you have the time and the players to install such a thing.  So, have at it Nicky boy!

I think Saban and Smart will focus on keeping Denard from running, that being said if Denard can use his quicks to scramble and move the pocket around the field (see Illinois, Nebraska, tsiO), he can create mismatches for the WRs and hopefully hit Hopkins or Toussaint in stride on some check downs to keep the chains moving.

Video from 1986 Portland State?  Borges has been an offensive coordinator all 26 of those years (over 300 games).  There are just over 170 days to the game.  That kid has a lot of work to do.

Yes, there probably is some breaking in of the new grad asst., but this comment from Saban is just coach-speak for how serious he is taking the U-M game. 

Saban is doing exactly what Hoke does, worry about what he knows best. Saban thinks defense, Hoke thinks defensive line.

Saban has had the tremendous luxury to win most of his games by just running the ball and playing amazing defense.

Hopefully with catching their LB corps that's inexperienced and our game being this early in the season they make some mistakes and get Denarded.

With the software out there now (ie HUDL) breaking down all that film is fairly easy. The filtering you can do with HUDL is remarkable.