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The shuffling began in the summer. Or was that shoveling? You decide.

Former Alabama star Dre Kirkpatrick started it. The Cincinnati Bengals’ rookie cornerback raised eyebrows in mid-June with a revelation to reporters who cover that NFL team.

"I never backpedaled," he said. “We were always press man, Cover 2. It was never just sit there and reading the receiver on his route.”

A recent story posted on SmartFootball.com brought more attention to Kirkpatrick's claim. This week, Kirkpatrick backpedaled somewhat on that original statement.

“I did backpedal,” Kirkpatrick said. “People just took it the wrong way. We played man-to-man mostly at Alabama, and it is what it is.”

And backpedaling out of the bump-and-run is crazy?

“Exactly,” Kirkpatrick said. “They understood basically what I was trying to say.”

ORIGIN OF
THE SHUFFLE?

The so-called “Saban Shuffle” originated when Nick Saban was Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns in 1992, according to SmartFootball.com. The Browns signed 32-year-old star Everson Walls, whose 40-yard dash time had dropped to 4.8 seconds. Ownership made it clear that Walls would start. Walls, who is tied for 12th on the NFL’s all-time list with 57 career interceptions, still was considered a great player, but he could not backpedal, so the story goes that Saban started teaching a three-step shuffle.
What he was trying to say is that Alabama cornerbacks are taught how to turn their hips and move their feet in bump-and-run coverage that is the rule far more than the exception with coach Nick Saban.

“He teaches the shuffle,” Kirkpatrick said.

First-year Alabama cornerback Deion Belue says he struggled only with that one technique this year in his transition from junior college.

"Just the part of just shuffling,” he said. “I'm not used to doing that.”

Some football insiders call this technique the “Saban Shuffle.”

Saban says there is no such thing. There definitely is a shuffle. It just might not be so unique. Former Alabama defensive coordinator Bill Oliver said he taught cornerbacks a similar technique of running at a 45-degree angle but called it the “tilt.”

But first, let’s get this straight: Are Alabama defensive backs taught to backpedal?


Definitely, Saban said.

“They all can backpedal,” he said. “If you come to practice every day, they backpedal in individual, they backpedal sometimes when they're playing.”

Sometimes? Not often.

“We play our corners up on people a lot, so sometimes they bail off, sometimes they play bump-and-run, sometimes they get off and backpedal,” Saban said. “I just think that we're just not philosophically into playing a lot of soft coverage where you line up 7, 8, 9 yards off a guy and give them a lot of easy throws in front.”

One more thing.

“I can backpedal,” said Saban, who was a defensive back at Kent State. “I could backpedal when I played, and I can still backpedal. And cover. Somebody.”

Now, how about that special move he teaches his cornerbacks as an alternative to backpedaling?

“There is no ‘Saban Shuffle,’” Saban said, grinning. “That's just how you play bump-and-run. It's getting your second step on the ground so your feet are together.”

Time for a physiology lesson.

“I don't want to give you a clinic here, but I don’t see anybody in any athletic sport playing without balance and body control,” Saban said. “If you keep your feet wider than your shoulders, you don’t have very good balance and body control, and you certainly can’t take the next step. …

“This is not really anything that has anything to do with me. It's just fundamental, basic movement. I'm sure there's phys-ed teachers trying to teach this in the first grade, so I'm sorry Deion Belue didn't get somebody to get to him before I did.”

Indeed, Oliver says he was teaching this technique in the 1960s at Auburn – before Saban played college football – and at Alabama in the 1970s and ’90s.

“I’m 12 years older than Nick,” Oliver said. “He didn’t invent this stuff.”

It’s worth noting that Oliver was Alabama defensive backs coach Jeremy Pruitt’s position coach (1995-96 at Alabama).

Oliver, who one season had star cornerback Antonio Langham in aggressive man-to-man coverage while his teammates played a zone, wasn’t big on backpedaling.

“That’s the worst position you can put a man in,” he said. “When your navel is facing north and the receiver’s navel is facing south, you’ve got to make a complete turn to be able to run with a guy in transition.”

Alabama led the nation in pass defense last season and ranks 10th so far this season (152.3 yards per game). It takes elite athletes to play effective, aggressive bump-and-run without getting burned. Saban has them now. Others don’t. And elite players at Alabama have Saban essentially as a position coach.

“I had a great teacher with Coach Saban, a great mentor,” said Kirkpatrick, who has been sidelined with an injury he suffered before training camp started.

So do the Bengals have him backpedaling?

“They let me switch it up a little bit,” Kirkpatrick said. “I’m kind of stuck on the same technique, but the coaches tweaked it a little bit.”

There’s a reason why backpedaling might be valued more in the NFL.

“You’ve got the 5-yard rule where you can’t put your hands on them,” Oliver said.

Saban-talks-to-Milliner-Belue-Dixon-Almond.JPG
Alabama coach Nick Saban talks to cornerbacks Dee Milliner (28), Deion Belue (13) and Travell Dixon during a preseason practice. Dixon has transferred to Washington. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)
In the first quarter of Alabama’s season-opening 41-14 victory over Michigan, junior cornerback Dee Milliner lined up in bump-and-run coverage on Roy Roundtree. Milliner made contact at the line of scrimmage and then, 10 yards down the field, bumped the wide receiver out of bounds. It wasn’t a penalty because the ball was not yet in the air. Milliner then intercepted a pass and returned it 35 yards to set up the Tide’s third touchdown.

In the second quarter, Belue was not playing bump-and-run on a second-and-7 play from Michigan’s 28-yard line. He was backpedaling when he was beat by Jeremy Gallon on a 71-yard catch.

Undoubtedly it was a learning experience for Belue, who intercepted a pass in the next game. What is it like playing cornerback for Saban?

“You've always got to be at your best,” he said. “You cannot take a day off. It's just part of the way he coaches, and it just makes you better.”