Nick Saban, of all people, was worried.
He had resurrected the University of Alabama’s proud football program from a deep downswing. He was routinely conquering college football with fearsome rushing attacks and hard-hitting defenses. Forget the governor: There was no more commanding figure in the state than the football taskmaster in Tuscaloosa.
But by the middle of the 2010s, Saban was fretting over the speedy, run-pass-option-loaded offenses that were taking hold across the sport and flummoxing his defenses.
“We were struggling with sort of this new age of football,” Saban said in October. “So that’s when we started to figure out that, hey, if you can’t beat them, you better join them.