How Buttoned Up Is Saban? Bama’s Got A Lightning-Delay Plan

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Once every few years a team will play in weather so bad that lightning could lead to a delay in game action.  It doesn’t happen often — I myself have only attended one lightning-delayed game in a lifetime of going to games from Auburn to Wisconsin.

But when lightning strikes at Alabama, the Crimson Tide know what to do.

In a classic sign of just how meticulous Nick Saban is, he had his football team ready when his team’s rout of Missouri was delayed a few weeks back.  Center Barrett Jones has revealed that when the officials sent the team to their dressing rooms:

“We immediately jumped into our lightning-delay plan.  We really did.  We had a specific plan on how we manage that.  We had meetings.  We had it all set up.  We had it all ready.  It wasn’t us.  The coaches had a plan on how to handle it…

We treated it like halftime.  I’ll just say we had a plan.”

Now, in fairness, Saban and his coaches might have cooked up the lightning-delay plan the week of that specific game because forecasts had called for severe weather in Columbia.  This might not be 100% proof that Bama’s coach is prepared for everything.  (After all, the Tide didn’t look too prepared for Jordan Jefferson and the option in last year’s Game of the Century I with LSU.)

But if you ask a Bama fan about Saban’s lightning-delay plan you’ll probably be told that he knew he’d need one on that day.  How come?  “Who do you think controls the weather?”