I'm leaning toward agreeing with you at this point on next year being the most complete team.
Second scrimmage stats
- Thread starter rgw
- Start date
Cooper is my favorite it's just very obvious that he is an all time great from watching briefly. His route running, hands, speed, acceleration, jumping, and high pointing ability have all shown out during his freshman season alone.
If he hadnt hurt his ankle during the year he could've potentially shattered all the receiving records. He also Didnt play much at the beginning of the year until deandrew white tore his acl. A full season at the production he consistently showed the second half of last year will be the greatest receiving year for a bama player ever.
He's from Georgia. He's got a charity that he set up that's for young sick children. Sounds likes a good guy.
I agree. If you look at the defense as a whole we return Stinson who started all last year, Pagan who rotated with Square, Ivory who rotated with Williams, Mosley, Depriest, Hubbard, Dickson started. Belue started, Haha Clinton Dix started almost every game. The only two spots that are somewhat new are opposite CB to Belue and replacing Lester with Collins who has tons more athleticism. We have more players that played a ton of minutes last year that I didn't even mention. Lets face it our offense isn't average with Nussmeier and AJ running it. I agree with JBama_in_PCOLA that this team will be the most rounded team we've fielded since the Saban era.
Only thing I'm afraid of is nosetackle. I know he played on two bad ankles last year at the but it does kind of scare me though he did make a big stop in the UGA game and LSU game. Just a small worry though.
Hate to harp on the obvious, but the secondary remains the big concern here. OL seems to be coming together nicely, but I'm afraid we're in for a long battle at DB, especially at corner.
Real concern I have here is the schedule set-up, with three viable passing attacks in the opening month. Logan Thomas at VT is sporadic as they come, but he's got the big-time arm to make all of the throws, and could find some real success against a questionable pass defense. And then, obviously, you have Manziel, and Ole Miss with Bo Wallace and company coming back will be one of the better passing attacks in the conference this year. And then you add to that the fact that all three of those games are either at a neutral site or one the road, and that's a fairly scary thought.
Guess it goes without saying now, but given the early schedule we need the offense and the pass rush to come out of the gate strong. Going to be baptism by fire for the young defensive backs.
Real concern I have here is the schedule set-up, with three viable passing attacks in the opening month. Logan Thomas at VT is sporadic as they come, but he's got the big-time arm to make all of the throws, and could find some real success against a questionable pass defense. And then, obviously, you have Manziel, and Ole Miss with Bo Wallace and company coming back will be one of the better passing attacks in the conference this year. And then you add to that the fact that all three of those games are either at a neutral site or one the road, and that's a fairly scary thought.
Guess it goes without saying now, but given the early schedule we need the offense and the pass rush to come out of the gate strong. Going to be baptism by fire for the young defensive backs.
Last edited:
Also, I'll add to the above that I think it's fairly clear now that one of the absolutely critical pieces this year will be John Fulton. I don't think there is much of a chance he'll really turn into a star player given the fact that he's basically going to have to miss the entire offseason program due to the turf toe injury, but when fairly healthy he's a viable corner in this league who can be a quality contributor and an overall asset to the defense.
If we can consistently keep him, Belue, and Geno at corner throughout the year, that's a passable, even if not oustanding, trio to put on the field. If one of those guys goes down, though, I think we're going to be really hurting. Not sure who wins the #4 CB job at this point, but regardless of who it is, I'm not sure it will be a legitimate contributor in this league right now. Whoever wins that job is going to have to make a lot of progress between now and September.
If we can consistently keep him, Belue, and Geno at corner throughout the year, that's a passable, even if not oustanding, trio to put on the field. If one of those guys goes down, though, I think we're going to be really hurting. Not sure who wins the #4 CB job at this point, but regardless of who it is, I'm not sure it will be a legitimate contributor in this league right now. Whoever wins that job is going to have to make a lot of progress between now and September.
I don't think there is much to worry about there, provided that Ivory and Lake can stay healthy. Truth of the matter was we didn't really have a true nose last year in Jesse, and we still held up fine.
Biggest alleviating factor here is that you just don't see many smashmouth, interior running games anymore. LSU is really about the only one on the regular season schedule this year, and that was largely true last year as well. Virginia Tech might fit that bill a bit in the opener, but even that's questionable, and while Arkansas and Kentucky might try it, they don't have the personnel to be able to pull it off against our defense. Otherwise, teams like A&M, Ole Miss, MSU, and Auburn will be trying to spread us out, and we'll spend nearly all afternoon in the four-man front anyway.
Seeing this types of numbers for almost all the scrimmages. Im a little worried about our defense but we should be ok. But on the other hand he should score ALOT i mean ALOT of points this year on offense.
Ivory and Lake will be fine. The fact they're pushing each other to start is great because both were going to play a lot anyway. I think the biggest concern on the DL is the depth at DE. There is a reason Dickson has been splitting time between OLB and DE. If you listen to the reports we have two returning contributors (Stinson and Pagan), one lineman who contributed lightly last year but should be good (Fanning), and a young lineman who has exploded in the S&C (Tomlinson). 4 DEs would work for most schools but not in Saban's defense where he likes to spell guys and put them in specialized roles. Nose tackle is right near where it always seems to be depth wise: two guys who can contribute. DE is a little below the usual 5-6 guys who can contribute.
That is why I never got the opposing fans who were saying after the 4 knockout game players were kicked off, "oh well he found his four extra scholarships!" Because frankly, if Saban was going to pick who he wanted to kick off the team then it certainly wouldn't have been Pettway who with Tomlinson coming into his own would have solidified the DE rotations in April instead of waiting until the Fall to see if a Freshman can help.
That is why I never got the opposing fans who were saying after the 4 knockout game players were kicked off, "oh well he found his four extra scholarships!" Because frankly, if Saban was going to pick who he wanted to kick off the team then it certainly wouldn't have been Pettway who with Tomlinson coming into his own would have solidified the DE rotations in April instead of waiting until the Fall to see if a Freshman can help.
Latest threads
-
Game One of Alabama-Texas A&M Alabama Series Moved to Friday as Part of Doubleheader- Started by Diamond Tide
- Replies: 0
-
Bama Game Thread: Bama Gymnastics - NCAA Championship Semi-finals (ESPN2 | 4/18 @ 8pm CT)- Started by BamaNation
- Replies: 29
-
No. 1 Visits Tuscaloosa for Second Straight Week as Alabama Hosts Top-Ranked Texas A&M
- Started by Diamond Tide
- Replies: 0
-
-
I'm Declaring the Emperor has no clothes (NCAA rules implosion)
- Started by BamaNation
- Replies: 33
-
Home-and-Home Series Wraps Up as Alabama Welcomes UAB on Tuesday
- Started by Diamond Tide
- Replies: 1