Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper may be the best wide receiver in the country. As most good teams do, Alabama counted on its best offensive player to lead the way in a game Saturday. Cooper had a record-setting day with 224 receiving yards, a career high and new Alabama school record, in Alabama’s road victory at Tennessee. Alabama had 286 passing yards in the entire game, which led to some to question whether or not Nick Saban put a little too much faith in Cooper on offense.
“Well, you know that’s kind of like saying you get 26 outs in the game throwing fastballs, so you should throw a change-up and then the guy hits it out of the park,” Saban said after the game [via Al.com] when asked about Alabama potentially relying too much on Cooper. “I mean, should you play to your strengths or not?”
This has to be frustrating for Saban. Even in victory, Saban will be challenged about how it happened. A couple of weeks ago Saban got annoyed with criticism over Alabama’s 14-13 victory over Arkansas. Now he has to defend giving perhaps the best offensive player in college football the ball.
Saban is not blind to the fact Alabama needs to have a supporting cast around Cooper. Other players need to be involved if Alabama is going to make a run for a spot in the SEC Championship Game, and perhaps the College Football Playoff. This will not stop Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin from putting the fate of a game in the hands of Cooper. Nor should it.
“We need to get some other guys involved, and I think that’d be great,” Saban said. “But as long as (Cooper) is getting open and as long as we’re throwing him the ball, I don’t think we should tell the quarterback don’t throw it to him.”
I’d throw it to him too. Wouldn’t you?
