Saban on base defense: "Half the teams in the NFL play a 3-4, and half play a 4-3..."

Nick Saban says he's still committed to the 3-4 defense, even though Tide uses it less and less

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"Half the teams in the NFL play a 3-4, and half play a 4-3, so why wouldn't it be good to learn both?" Alabama coach says in response to rivals' negative recruiting. 

“Most people out there in recruiting go tell the recruits – and this is something I've not been able to figure out – if they're a defensive end or an outside linebacker, that we play a 3-4 and that's a bad thing for them,” Saban said. “Well, we only play it 20 percent of the time, so I don't know how anybody could. ...

“Half the teams in the NFL play a 3-4, and half play a 4-3, so why wouldn't it be good to learn both? I've not been able to figure that one out. There are some things that are not logical to me. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, so that's probably not a surprise to any of you.”

Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, who seldom is allowed to speak to the news media, was made available Friday for a mandatory BCS Championship Game press conference in which he shed some interesting light on why Alabama does what it does.

Why call the base a 3-4 if much more often the Tide lines up in a 4-3? “Well, you've got to base out of something,” Smart said.

Nice read from al.com's Don Kausler.

Does it come as any surprise that rivals use negative recruiting against Alabama? At the end of the day, what else have they got?