After a lot of thought on Cristobal, this is the conclusion I reached about each key guy:
RT Shepherd: Went from being a decent backup to being a real force. If we're going to criticize coaches for guys who don't develop, we have to praise them when one of their players exceeds expectations.
RG Steen: Was expected to have a strong year, and did.
LG A.Kouandjio: Top-level recruit who is playing on bad knees, which is no one's fault. It's obviously genetic, as Cyrus had a touch of the same problem. Where I fault the coaches here is not going back to Kellen Williams after the midpoint of the season, or using Lindsay here after Kelly came back, or trying Leon Brown, Alphonse Taylor or Grant Hill. This is a Saban thing more than a Cristobal thing, though, because it has happened all over the field -- i.e., Barron playing against AU with one shoulder while Will Lowery was available.
LT C.Kouandjio: Obviously injuries played a part, and probably not a small one. You can tell from his combine numbers that it wasn't just about his knees, though (BP numbers, etc.). I think part of it was trying to protect his draft spot, maybe some basic maturity issues. But there was an awful big dropoff here from his first couple of years on campus, and whether that was due to Cristobal, or something internal with Cyrus, I don't know. Again, I fault the coaches for not giving him some bench time to think it over if they thought it was a want-to thing, but this is more complicated than the situation with his brother. The backup LT was a true freshman, Grant Hill, or Leon Brown, who was in the doghouse himself early in the year. And if the coaches were hesitant to simply bench Arie for Kellen, a guy that nearly won the LG job out of spring himself, fat chance on sitting the only LT they really had.
And now, we have the center conundrum. Kelly started the season poorly, got hurt, then after he came back he played his toosh off. He was as good as Shepherd or Steen post-injury. Now, why was he out there at the start? Even though Kelly isn't the biggest guy, he is clearly more athletic than Lindsay, and probably any other lineman on the team. But I think the answer here revolved around line calls. Lindsay was more aggressive, stronger and did better going downhill than Kelly did. But Kelly was better in pass pro and the line-call issue is something that is very hard for anyone to get a clear understanding of while watching on TV or from the stands. Sometimes, one of the guards looks to have gotten blown up, and it's the center's fault for making the wrong call and/or failing to help trap block. How many of Arie's whiffs were Lindsay's or Kelly's fault? It's impossible to say. Where Cristobal fits into that is whether he's (1) picking the right people, (2) giving them proper technical coaching and (3) making sure he's giving them a mental game plan they can execute. If he failed No. 3, at least off the bat, then things would play out the way they appeared to, with a lot of early struggles, followed by a gradual improvement throughout the year. The remaining soft spots could be blamed on the injuries to Kelly, the brothers Kouandjio and finally Steen in the bowl game.
Summary: Cristobal started rough and got better.
