Look, I don't want to get confrontational with you. I wasn't pulling shit out of my ass, nor was I making excuses for our program. I was only pointing out that Alabama has a large number of support staff within its program. They don't have actual coaching responsibilities, nor are they counted against the staff total. Their primary focus is breaking down film and scouting. See page 56 of Bama's media guide linked below for a list of the support staff.
AJ McCarron mentioned one of these guys after the Michigan game:
He also showed that maturity this summer in breaking down film of all 2012 Crimson Tide opponents.
McCarron said he worked with Jeff Norrid, a graduate assistant football analyst. "He helps me a bunch," McCarron said. "He knows everything there is about defense. Through the summer we broke down each opponent, week-by-week, but probably in the past two or two-and-a-half weeks, we've watched a ton of film on Michigan. Then we are up here at least three to fours hours a day, an hour before practice and then after practice.
http://alabama.scout.com/2/1215351.html
Similarly, Barrett Jones referenced film study that was prepared for Bama but didn't mention anyone specific by name:
"They're good because they are so simple," Jones said, "but, also, they're simple. We knew if we had certain shifts, they would get into certain formations that we felt like we would have good runs against. We were right -- every play, almost. This is not a flaw in Notre Dame. We watched a lot of film. We had a lot of time to figure out what they did in certain formations."
I am fairly confident, but happy to be proven wrong, no other program in college football has a similar number of "analysts" in their program who have such responsibilities. That's the only point I was trying to make. Bama is on another level when it comes to game preparation, especially in circumstances where they are given substantial amount of lead time to integrate and implement counter strategy for opposing teams' tendencies (i.e. 4-5 weeks).
You don't constantly have to always be a dick about this kind of stuff. Seriously, you don't.
