I notice most 3-4 base teams, like Saban, have a 4th man on the line 99% of the time. His nickel is a 4-2-5 as well usually.
Re: Joe Lee…I definitely remember him. He was one of the only guys at the time who coached from the sideline. He ran multiple fronts during his most successful days at Miss State (98,99,00). He called it 3-3-5 but he would use 4 down some and double eagle front a lot as well. He had the number one defense during one of those years. Great athletes made him look good too. He had some NFL corners at that time and some NFL linemen so his man and man free coverage on every down could work then. After 2000 when the replacement juco players didn’t pan out on the line and in the secondary his defenses sucked.
His base defense secondary looked like this: 2 corners, one free safety, 2 DOG safeties which were hybrid olb/safety types. The Dog safeties played right on the los 99% of the time and at least one rushed the backfield almost every down.
Pretty cool that defense originated with him pretty much. I think why it was so popular with spread coaches was because when the spread started getting popular in the early 2000’s he probably stopped them as well as anybody.