Joe Medley: Cue shock as Nick Saban ‘not sure’ of Tide depth

Another Nick Saban appearance at SEC Media Days came and went Wednesday, another chance to pick through his words and find that one quote that’s bound to draw overreaction. Nice little poke at the retired Steve Spurrier coach, and yes. We will miss the days of Alabama’s 10th-year coach having to respond to Spurrier barbs in Hoover.

Nice tribute to retiring CBS commentator Vern Lundquist, and very deserved for a career-achievement guy who gets far too much grief from fans.

Saban twice used the moment to speak out for flood victims in his native West Virginia, where high school teams lost equipment and won’t have seasons without help.

Then came football talk. In between joking that he won’t say anything that hasn’t been written and his traditional thank-the-media finish, Saban actually said something that might scare Alabama fans.

This Alabama team (gasp) might have moments of vulnerability against certain teams this season.

“We lost some really, really good players, and we lost a lot of depth on defense, which will be a good challenge for us to replace, especially up front,” he said. “The diversity in players that we had on last year's team was almost perfect for what you need in this day and age of football with the spread, with no huddle. You need a lot of depth, you need a lot of athletic guys that can make plays in space, can rush the passer.

“And when you play some of the power teams in our conference, you need some bigger, more physical guys to stand in there. We kind of had all of those parts.”

Then came the thunder clap.

“I'm not sure we have all those parts this year,” he said, “but certainly we're working to try to develop them.”

Cue the overreaction, but let’s wallow in it a minute.

Saban comes from the NFL school of situational substitutions on defense. He’s a college coach, though, and that’s where spread-and-pace offenses became the great equalizer.

Even Saban — the guy who wins recruiting national championships only slightly more often than he wins national championships — finds himself short on depth for all occasions at times. As Alabama prepares to enter fall camp, Saban seems to size this team up as short in that area.

That leads to scary visions of gassed defensive linemen. You know, in case Alabama runs into Johnny Manziel or Cam Newton in 2016.

OK, so there is Joshua Dobbs, who nearly beat Alabama in 2015. And Trevor Knight, who beat Alabama in the 2014 Sugar Bowl.

Chad Kelly got it done against last year’s Alabama defense, and who knows? Auburn finds that quarterback every three years or so.

Saban has learned, however reluctantly, that his preferred way doesn’t work against every opponent. He adjusted, and he’s proven he can stock a roster with enough of the right pieces to face every kind of SEC team.

Then again, not even Saban can do it every year. It’s just that hard to do.

Before anyone overreacts, Saban also mentioned the potential to develop the needed depth. There’s a lot of time between now and the Sept. 3 opener against USC.

What makes Saban feel “not sure” in July made him sure last fall, in time enough to avert a hope-killing second loss. He’s done it enough to call it a pattern, and here’s betting the pattern holds in 2016.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Joe Medley: Cue shock as Nick Saban ‘not sure’ of Tide depth."