Report card: Alabama puts up sorry semester as season ends [by JessN]

[JessN]

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Report card: Alabama puts up sorry semester as season ends
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Nov. 25, 2007

The 2007 college football regular season is over, so it’s time to revisit our midseason position-by-position look at the state of the program. It doesn’t promise to be good reading.

For the full story, click here.

[BAMAFAN IN NY]

Thanks for all your articles this season--- I have learned a lot from reading them.

ROLL TIDE FOREVER!!!

[CoachThomas]

I agree with your report card. By the end of spring the will be a lot of new faces at the top of the depth chart. Be good or be gone.

[CrimsonEyeshade]

You, on the other hand, had a fine season.
And your stuff grew more authoritative with each game.

Take the rest of the year off. On second thought . . .

[TruCrimson]

Good read Jess, & our O was suppose to be the strong point of this team this season, but hey.... we are going to be alright!!! RTR!!!

[TiderinMiss]

	Quote:	TruCrimson
	Good read Jess, & our O was suppose to be the strong point of this team this season, but hey.... we are going to be alright!!! RTR!!!

It's amazing, isn't it?

Our "O" was supposed to be the strong unit that carries us through the past two seasons, yet, our defense, even though depleted with graduation, always finda a way to keep us in games and keep our W-L record from being worse.

The past coaching regime was much worse than I thought.

Much worse...

[trenda]

	Quote:	TiderinMiss
	The past coaching regime was much worse than I thought. Much worse...

Not defending the past coaching staff at all; BUT . . .

Our current troubles are not the fault of just the past coaching regime.

Go back to the Franchione staff. That guy wasn't used to having to recruit his own players -- notice his record at aTm after five seasons. In 2000-3, our recruiting was suffering from the effects of the NCAA investigation that lingered forever. The Price staff was so new to this area that they hardly even made any inroads at all in their short stay here. Plus, Pappy Price was so full of his newfound celebrity that I'm sure recruiting was the last thing on his mind. By the time Shula took over, the effects of the NCAA investigation, the NCAA sanctions, poor recruiting by Fran and Price, plus just the overall stench from the whole NCAA mess and the coaching merry-go-round (from DuBose on) took it's toll on the program overall.

Shula didn't really do our program any favors with the lack of conditioning and discipline as well as his inability to recruit key positions. But he was also fighting an uphill battle the whole way.

Our program is essentially still digging it's way out of the mess from the DuBose staff and has taken the wrong step (with coaching hires, including DuBose) every step of the way. Until now; but there's no way that Saban can get this thing going - consistently - in one or two seasons. It's going to be a long, long climb back up to where our fanbase thinks Bama should be. Not saying we can't win games; but to get back to being a solid football program on a level of LSU, Auburn, FL, it's going to take a lot of work.

[CrimsonEyeshade]

Good perspective trenda.

Each coach contributes. Layer after layer after layer. Not all of it was bad. But much of it turned out that way.

The university handed Nick Saban $4,000,000. But it also handed him a shovel.

[GrayTide]

Excellent post Jess we appreciate your hard work putting these analysis together. What does it say when the two players who played their hearts out and never quit were both walk ons? I truly appreciate the efforts of Darren Mustin and Rashad Johnson IMO they gave all they had. I am disappointed with the outcome this season but I still am excited about having CNS as our head coach. I do believe next season maybe somewhat of a roller coaster but I foresee no quit in the 2008 team.

[UAME]

	Quote:	JessN
	Alabama’s dominance of Tennessee out of the I-formation may have given coaches false confidence that Alabama could run that as its base.

Jess, I don’t have any real arsenal of facts to challenge you on this, but I will say that I know that, earlier this month, Coach Saban chastised a caller on his radio show for asking why we didn’t use the I-formation more. I posted in another thread that Saban basically said that we didn’t have the proper players to use the I-, and that it was a formation that placed too many of our best playmakers on the sidelines. I know we used the I- multiple times against Auburn, and I was puzzled by that, knowing what Saban had said.

	Quote:	JessN
	Alabama came within one play of beating Georgia, could have beaten Florida State with a little more effort on offense, and lost winnable games against LSU, Mississippi State, Louisiana-Monroe and Auburn. No one blew Alabama out, and no one could take Alabama for granted.

This is certainly the place to look to find peace. We competed with the best in our conference, week-in and week-out. It is comforting to know that we weathered such a strong storm with nothing much above a house of cards on defense. Once Saban is able to accumulate talent on that side of the ball, we will be on much more solid ground. As I read this, though, my solace is based once again in close games and moral victories, which is very much a carry-over from the Shula era. That leads me to this:

	Quote:	JessN
	The 0-4 finish in the final four games will be a bitter taste that stays with Alabama for some time.

I hope you are right about this, and I hope that the bitter taste lingers more with the coaches and players than it does with the fans. I will admit that losing has lost a little sting for me over the years, I suppose because we’ve done so much of it. The biggest battle that remains in front of us is for the TEAM to regain the udder disdain for losing that used to permeate our entire program. We have leaned on the crutch of sanctions and turmoil for so many years that it has become something we are carrying with us in our trunk. Even though we are competing, we have not regained the WILL TO WIN that used to define who we were. “Playing close” should never be a point of satisfaction at Alabama.

One thing I have realized is something that Saban mentioned as soon as he got here: we have to stop TALKING about championships. We've had Saban on a timeclock to win a MNC since day 1. He mentioned that the players were talking about it for 2007 when he arrived. The problem with that is probably the biggest reason for the collapse that we saw this year: as soon as we lost to LSU and all reasonable chances for a trip to Atlanta were dashed, this team mailed it in. If they weren't playing for a championship, they had little or nothing to play for. We've got to regain the pride of beating your opponent on every play, regardless of what the situation is in the game or in the season. Let's all pray we get back there.

[Alanbama27]

Jess, I agree with your assessment but frankly (and I'm not piling on here), I would have given JPW a D- or even an F for the second half of the season. With the exception of UT, his play was in a word BAD!

With that said, I am a glass half full guy and I am going to look at this year as totally a TRANSITION YEAR. The problem is that next year is likely to be a TRANSITION YEAR too. We will be transitioning at many if not MOST positions. I look for Coach Saban to literally NOT invite a bunch of people back and see us as playing many, many VERY young players all over the place. I am looking forward to National Signing Day but have lost a bit of hope for landing Julio. We just laid too many eggs to hope for him to still join us...especially with our QB play in question and exactly WHO will be our starting QB next year. It is my opinion that JPW will play in his last game in whatever Bowl we go to.

Finally, I do not necessarily blame the Auburn loss on JPW, but he is the leader of the "O" and it wasn't Auburn's "D" that stopped us...it was our inability to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

[JessN]

	Quote:	Alanbama27
	Jess, I agree with your assessment but frankly (and I'm not piling on here), I would have given JPW a D- or even an F for the second half of the season. With the exception of UT, his play was in a word BAD!

Alan,

Re-read it. He did get a D- for the second half. You might be looking at the scores for the first half. I put the ones from the first-half report card in there for comparison's sake. I think he went C+/D- without checking my notes.

[cbi1972]

	Quote:	UAME
	Jess, I don’t have any real arsenal of facts to challenge you on this, but I will say that I know that, earlier this month, Coach Saban chastised a caller on his radio show for asking why we didn’t use the I-formation more. I posted in another thread that Saban basically said that we didn’t have the proper players to use the I-, and that it was a formation that placed too many of our best playmakers on the sidelines. I know we used the I- multiple times against Auburn, and I was puzzled by that, knowing what Saban had said.

It seems that we wanted to get a power running game going with Glen Coffee against Auburn. Coffee and two offensive linemen had not been available since the Ole Miss game, but their return allowed us to do a little bit more there. I believe that Alabama's gameplan was more conservative against Auburn, possibly because poor quarterback decisions have been biting us lately. I know I was thinking "Here we go again" when an Auburn defender came from JPW's blind side, just knowing that it would mean a fumble and touchdown for the other team. He got the ball off, just barely, but I still don't know that he ever saw the guy coming.

	Quote:	JessN
	Alabama’s 2008 season will be remembered as a thoroughly frustrating exercise.

It's too early to tell