ESPN: Best of the Saban era

Hard to argue w/that list. Maybe DJ Hall for various reasons.

My only disagreement is Leigh Tiffin, who missed too many kicks in my view. That said, he was THE kicker for half of Saban's tenure, and its not like his successors are in the Van Tiffin-Phillip Doyle class.

But I'd have gone with Shelley.

And Yeldon over a Heisman winner? Nope! Not yet.

No way TJ should be rated ahead of either Trent, Mark, or Eddie Lacy at this point in his career.

Also, IMO, I don't think DJ could have beaten out Norwood or Kenny Bell as a starter last season.

Other than that it looked ok.

Like most others, I think putting TJ there now is very premature. I'd say it should go to MI as he was a starter for a national title, SEC title, and Heisman winner. I'd say TR has more raw talent, but the "best" imho has to compare achievements, stats, and ability.

I do disagree with Smelley as the best FB/TE. If we're talking just H-back, then ok, but since it has TE lumped in there, Michael Williams was a rock for us and his blocking will be sorely missed. He wasn't much of a receiving threat but he had a few good moments: the nice play against UF from GMac (I think that was MW) and he had a TD against ND.

My only disagreement is Leigh Tiffin, who missed too many kicks in my view. That said, he was THE kicker for half of Saban's tenure, and its not like his successors are in the Van Tiffin-Phillip Doyle class.

But I'd have gone with Shelley.

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Have to say I disagree with you. Van tiffin was a big head case an mainly had "the kick" but over all not a great kicker. Leigh had a great senior year hitting 50 plus yarders and winning games. Shelley can't hit long ones while being money for short.

ESPN did what they always do and act like the current guy is the greatest of all time. No way does Yeldon deserve it, yet. That was a serious reach. Also, I don't like Kouandjo at LT. I'd put Smith at LT, Fluker at RT. (Kouandjo's really only played one year). And about Leigh Tiffin vs. Shelley.... for some reason, people can't seem to forget the 2006 and 2007 seasons for Tiffin. He was great his final two years. Shelley was extremely inconsistent and couldn't attempt a FG longer than 30 yards. If the game comes down to a 35 yard FG, you want Tiffin kicking it, not Shelley or Foster.

My list

QB- AJ McCarron
RB- Trent Richardson
RB- Mark Ingram
WR- Julio Jones
WR- Marquis Maze
TE- Collin Peek
LT- Andre Smith
LG- Mike Johnson
C- Antoine Caldwell
RG- Barrett Jones
RT- DJ Fluker

DE- Marcel Dareus
DT- Terrance Cody
DE- Jesse Williams
LB- Dont'a Hightower
LB- Courtney Upshaw
LB- Rolondo McClain
LB- CJ Moseley
CB- Dre Kirkpatrick
CB- Dee Milliner
S- Mark Barron
S- Rashad Johnson

P- Cody Mandell
K- Leigh Tiffin
RET- Javier Arenas


We've had some damn good players the last 6 years

Tiffin will apparently never be able to live down that 2006 game against Arkansas. Dude was clutch after his freshman year and during his senior season I expected us to make any kick within 55yds.

Anyways, pretty good list except I too would have left off DJ Hall. Hard to argue with Milliner and Kirkpatrick, but would have liked to see Arenas in there as someone other than a kick returner. Good to see Rashad remembered as well.

AlexD said:

Have to say I disagree with you. Van tiffin was a big head case an mainly had "the kick" but over all not a great kicker. Leigh had a great senior year hitting 50 plus yarders and winning games. Shelley can't hit long ones while being money for short.

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Not a great kicker?

He missed ZERO PATs in four years. He hit a 57-yarder against aTm, and his Iron Bowl kick was into the breeze.

Leigh almost single-handedly lost the 2006 Arky game. I can respectfully disagree regarding this ESPN list but not the slight on Van. FTR, I think Doyle was better than either but anyway.


And let's not pretend this is just an Arky game thing. He missed PATs in both the FL and TX games in 2009.

I have no issue with Yeldon. If the doesn't get hurt he could very easily become the best RB in Bama history in terms of statistics. Would I have put him there over MI and TR? No. TR is the better of the three, but it is close. Isn't great that we can even have this discussion about RBs?

At WR, I would have to replace DJ Hall with Amari Cooper. What he did in his freshman year at Bama was unheard of and the last to have a similar start is in the HOF (Ozzie Newsome). One thing is for sure, we don't win the NC this year without him. I know that WRs can often slack off in production but right now AC would have my vote instead of DJ Hall.

He missed ZERO PATs in four years. He hit a 57-yarder against aTm, and his Iron Bowl kick was into the breeze.

Leigh almost single-handedly lost the 2006 Arky game. I can respectfully disagree regarding this ESPN list but not the slight on Van. FTR, I think Doyle was better than either but anyway.

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Leigh broke his dads extra points record. Had a better field goal % and made more and I think is the schools leading scorer. Not saying Van is bad just that Leigh is better.

Alasippi said:

No way TJ should be rated ahead of either Trent, Mark, or Eddie Lacy at this point in his career.

Also, IMO, I don't think DJ could have beaten out Norwood or Kenny Bell as a starter last season.

Other than that it looked ok.

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First time I have to disagree with you sip, I think hall wouldn't have a problem beating Norwood and bell on the depth chart. Hall made some unbelievable catches and took over some games without much help. Tennessee one year I can remember, but I'd still take Cooper over all 3.

There's no way we can seriously compare Leigh to Shelley. Shelley is a platoon kicker basically.

I hate to say anything negative about Shelley, because he did his job extremely well...

But, he was 3/9 from 40-49 yards and he never attempted a 50 yarder. If you want to hold Leigh accountable for the Arkansas loss, then you have to think Alabama beats LSU if Shelley has range.

Leigh on the other hand was 5/7 of kicks from 50+. He was also 17/30, from 40-49 yards. That is not only a better percentage than Shelley, but we know Shelley wasn't attempting very many 45-49 yard kickers like Tiffin was. The other half of the kicking game, Foster is 8/15 from 40-49, and 3/10 from 50+. So, Leigh wasn't just better than Shelley at the long kick, which is a given, but he arguably a bit better than the other half of the platoon. Shelley has missed extra points, and while his percentages are high, Leigh was about a reliable, even without considering the fact that Leigh was attempting the long kick. Leigh also did his own kickoffs.

Leigh gets a bad rap because a coach misused him. Saban could have run Shelley out there over and over for the long kick, and he would have missed over and over and people wouldn't be here saying he was a great kicker. If someone put an injured QB out there, and he throws five INTs on a hurt arm, you can't base your view of his career on that bad day. Leigh had a mechanical flaw, that was not addressed and was completely ignored. There was no logical reason to keep sending him out without having confidence his flaw was fixed. You take a pitcher out of the game if he's throwing wild... it doesn't make him a bad pitcher.

Shelley was the guy you put in to shoot free throws

Tiffin was the guy you put in to shoot a game-winning 3 pointer

jps1983 said:

Michael Williams was a rock for us and his blocking will be sorely missed. He wasn't much of a receiving threat but he had a few good moments: the nice play against UF from GMac (I think that was MW) and he had a TD against ND.

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If you're talking about 2009 SEC Championship game then that was Colin Peek. You really need to have a TE and a H for the type of offense we run in order to have a real list of the best under Saban.

I have no idea how anyone could pick Shelly over Tiffin. Yes the Arkansas game was atrocious but he was a freshman in a big game. Tiffin did miss some extra points but I'm not going to say he wasn't as good because of a few missed extra points. He was pretty big in 09 for finishing drives when we had problems in the red zone, which was pretty much every time we were in the red zone.

beatthemtigers said:

First time I have to disagree with you sip, I think hall wouldn't have a problem beating Norwood and bell on the depth chart. Hall made some unbelievable catches and took over some games without much help. Tennessee one year I can remember, but I'd still take Cooper over all 3.

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I like Norwood more because he is so clutch in critical scenarios. DJ was outstanding there's no doubt but when the game's on the line Kevin steps up to the plate.
It's probably close to a toss up. You really can't go wrong with either

I think a lot of you let DJ's Senior year cloud your memory. Had he not willfully placed himself at the forefront of Saban's bad list, he'd be statistically the best WR in our school's history. He, at times, was our only receiving threat and still made plays weekly. He owns more UA records than any other receiver, but his desire to not conform to the new regime hurt him in the end...it also cost him in his future, as his resume lacked much (if any) endorsement from the staff as he was trying to make his way to the NFL...

Alasippi said:

I like Norwood more because he is so clutch in critical scenarios. DJ was outstanding there's no doubt but when the game's on the line Kevin steps up to the plate.
It's probably close to a toss up. You really can't go wrong with either

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Despite his issues DJ was a great receiver. As far as his one year in the Saban era unfortunately the only thing on the field I remember (other than his suspension for the ULM game) was the dropped TD pass against the boogs which might have won the game for us. For some reason I just had a hard time with his not making that catch.

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1958againbear said:

Despite his issues DJ was a great receiver. As far as his one year in the Saban era unfortunately the only thing on the field I remember (other than his suspension for the ULM game) was the dropped TD pass against the boogs which might have won the game for us. For some reason I just had a hard time with his not making that catch.

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He tore it up in the Tennessee game that year. Had like 3 TD catches before halftime or something.

Matt0424 said:

I think a lot of you let DJ's Senior year cloud your memory. Had he not willfully placed himself at the forefront of Saban's bad list, he'd be statistically the best WR in our school's history. He, at times, was our only receiving threat and still made plays weekly. He owns more UA records than any other receiver, but his desire to not conform to the new regime hurt him in the end...it also cost him in his future, as his resume lacked much (if any) endorsement from the staff as he was trying to make his way to the NFL...

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Agree. I've hated to see how things turned out for him. Of course he's responsible for his own mess. I'm not one looking to dump on Shula but I have to wonder if how things were for him under Shula contributed to the way things went after CNS arrived.

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