EUGENE — When Alabama coach Nick Saban was asked about the increasing speed of college football offenses six years ago, he wondered aloud whether such speed might endanger the safety of players.
“Is this,” he ended his answer with, “what we want football to be?"
If the hurry-up, which Oregon helped make mainstream under former coach Chip Kelly, exasperated Saban then, he was endorsing it soon after. The Crimson Tide averaged 72.5 plays en route to its 2015 national championship — eight more per game than it had three years earlier when it rolled to its previous title.