If We Had Played FSU For The National Title--Would We Have Won?

tide96 said:

I guess all of the fans that had Oklahoma are fools. Sure we would have had a good chance, but we will never know.

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That is a fair point, but I believe that Bama's problem, at least partially, in the late season was attitude not ability.
If Bama had been playing for a third national championship in a row, I believe you would have seen a motivationally different Bama team against FSU for a NC than the one that showed up in a less consequential game against OU.
Not to take anything against OU. They played a whale of a game and capitalized on their opportunity. I just think you'd've seen a different Bama team against FSU.

RTR91 said:

I said earlier in this thread the only real difference was Alabama making field goals. That's an obvious given when a team misses 4 in one game makes 5 in the next.

LSU's season average per punt was 44.1, and the season net punt average was 41.2. That means they averaged 2.9 yards a return.

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Like I said it wasn't just what we did, it was what we kept them from doing. LSU relied on big plays from special teams to get field position, turnovers and special teams were the bread and butter of that team. Bama, meanwhile, did not rely on special teams. For us to outplay them, even by a small margin, is impressive to me because LSU had a far surperior unit all season.

TouchThatThang said:

Like I said it wasn't just what we did, it was what we kept them from doing. LSU relied on big plays from special teams to get field position, turnovers and special teams were the bread and butter of that team. Bama, meanwhile, did not rely on special teams. For us to outplay them, even by a small margin, is impressive to me because LSU had a far surperior unit all season.

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The stats don't differ on that, though. Alabama didn't change anything with the special teams from the first game to the second. There are two differences: made field goals and Maze's second return. Neither are schematic changes that Saban made. Those were execution plays, which the players and Alabama fans felt like was the difference in the first game. Alabama didn't execute to win the game.

In the first game, Alabama committed 2 turnovers and missed 4 field goals. In the second game, Alabama didn't turn the ball over once and missed two field goals.

Alasippi said:

I am so sick of seeing the criticism of Nussmeiher. We averaged nearly 40 points a game, which is probably one of the highest averages in our history. Nuss wasn't the defensive co-ordinator, nor head coach, who basically coaches the secondary, who couldn't even slow down an opposing offense in our last two games of the season. I mean, seriously, our OFFENSE, lost our last two games??? Are we truly considering this to be an option?
I'll ask you guys this--What if we had held our opponents to two touchdowns higher than what we gave up as our season average? Guess what? We'd have won both games.
Nuss wasn't the problem. I'm really just sick of hearing that.
sip

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That game was on the whole staff and in part the players, but a little less so. We should've scored more than 28 points on Auburn, whether that's on CNS of CDN, who knows...but for LSU, Georgia, and Missouri all to rack up points against Barn, basically scoring at will, and for us to quit being aggressive, is a bit sad. I may be wrong but it seems like we scored 21 in the first half and 7 in the second. And I know our OL wasn't great, but that didn't stop other offenses from lighting up the Barn, and we have far superior skill players than many teams that scored more than us. Bottom line, we were playing to keep a lead, not extend it, much like the last Iron Bowl. I'm glad CDN is gone but I'm sure he had some input from CNS as to how to call the game.

edit: that is, the last Iron Bowl that we lost.

What was our true strength (on the field) last year when we had the ball? QB, wide receivors and running backs.

The obvious weakness was the OL. Therefore our great running backs were somewhat nullified by poor OL play. When we had a 3rd and 1 and our running back gets hit in the backfield, it's hard to make a first down.

There were times when I felt like we should have just gone pass happy and scored a bunch a points. There were times when we showed we could run, but we didn't (like against OU).

That tells me that the OL was terribly inconsistent and were susceptible to huge, unpredicatable mental lapses.

I just don't think we were good enough up front to win the big games, excluding LSU!

BamaMoon said:

What was our true strength (on the field) last year when we had the ball? QB, wide receivors and running backs.

The obvious weakness was the OL. Therefore our great running backs were somewhat nullified by poor OL play. When we had a 3rd and 1 and our running back gets hit in the backfield, it's hard to make a first down.

There were times when I felt like we should have just gone pass happy and scored a bunch a points. There were times when we showed we could run, but we didn't (like against OU).

That tells me that the OL was terribly inconsistent and were susceptible to huge, unpredicatable mental lapses.

I just don't think we were good enough up front to win the big games, excluding LSU!

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And the defense. LSU was not that good last year. I still contend that we were not nearly as good as an entire team as we thought. I do agree that our play calling was pretty obvious to the untrained eye, imagine other team's DC's looking down from the booth.

GrayTide said:

And the defense. LSU was not that good last year. I still contend that we were not nearly as good as an entire team as we thought. I do agree that our play calling was pretty obvious to the untrained eye, imagine other team's DC's looking down from the booth.

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Don't disagree, but I was only referring to weaknesses on offense which was surely centered on the OL.

Overall I've agreed with you that we were just not championship material last year.

Sadly, most of us may never again see a Bama team have the opportunity to 3-peat like we did last year. Even being a spoiled Bama fan (like we all are) we should realize how precious and hard these opportunities are to just win ONE CHAMPIONSHIP.

I agree that we are spoiled, and quite frankly, I never envisioned the type success CNS has had in such a short period of time. Three NCs in seven years is way beyond most people's expectations.

At the risk of getting flamed, I am not so sure this year will be much better, although I do feel better about the shakeup in the staff which IMO is a big plus heading into the season. It will be interesting to see how we adapt to defensing the HUNH offenses in the conference; I still think it will be a weakness, especially the secondary. I agree with Sip, huge improvements are needed in the OL and at CB. Somewhere in perceived talent, coaching or player development we went off the tracks last year(by our standards).

Alasippi said:

This year is somewhat of an enigma because there's so much mystery surrounding the team.
Who's going to be the QB? Most say Coker but nobody, not even the coaches are sure yet.
Corners? Will we go with experience or throw Humphrey and Brown immediately into starting positions?
Offensive line? Will we stick with the "average to good ones" we had last year, or will incoming transfers and even true freshman be asked to step up early?
Kicking game? Did Griffith lose his confidence forever because of one missed field goal or will he regain the confidence he had when he arrived on campus?
The only really "sure things" we know is that we're loaded at receiver, d-line, and linebacker.
Whether those three can off-set all the questions above remain to be seen.
I think going in that we could either be 12-0 or 8-4. Can't wait to find out though.
sip

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Even though we struggled on the OL and defensive secondary last year, we were still 11-0 going into the Barn.

Only way I see us dropping to 8-4 is a total failure at qb, which I admit is possible, but not likely.

One thing in our favor relative to improved secondary play and the possibility of playing 2 true freshmen at CB is that most of the SEC QBs we will face are inexperienced and/or not very good.

BamaMoon said:

Even though we struggled on the OL and defensive secondary last year, we were still 11-0 going into the Barn.

Only way I see us dropping to 8-4 is a total failure at qb, which I admit is possible, but not likely.

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When I think of next year this is the thought that keeps coming to my mind. With all of the troubles that we had last year, I'll name a few DB dealing with both injuries and inexperience throughout the entire year, OL that struggled with penalties and blown assignments all year, DL that struggled to rush the passer, RB who struggled to hold onto the ball, WR who struggled to hold onto the ball (my favorite player, Amar,i I'm looking at you), and playcalling issues on offense at critical times and on defense against HUNH teams. All of those issues combined and we were a made fg, a converted 3rd or 4th and one, a non false start call, or any number of other plays away from likely playing in the national championship. In other words as un Bama of a season as it was for us it was still almost enough.

Prognosticating to next year at this time QB seems to be our most apparent drop in talent and production. Obviously, Coker or Blake Sims could win the job and set the world ablaze but at this point it's a serious question. In my mind the OL almost can't get worse but right now appears like it might be the same. I expect our RB, WR, and TE units to be stronger. To me if the OL is able to improve some and we get a nice game manager type season with some big throws/plays in big games we should have enough offense to beat anyone.

On the defensive side I think we should be vastly improved at rushing the passer. Overall we are just going to have more quality players along the DL than we had last year. Most of our impact defensive line players are back and are just a year deeper into the system. I also think the OLB play should improve to the point where they might actually be a factor on the defense. The DB situation like last year is the mystery, however I think they should be improved as well. We've got lots of experience at safety with Perry and Williams even though they seem to only play limited roles. We've got Landon who is likely to be an AA and 1st round pick. You also have Geno who has been in the system a while and is no doubt talented enough. Again idk how the DBs could be much worse than they were last year. With all of the young guys with another year of experience and the influx of Hump and Tony Brown I think the unit will be better overall.

Then I look at the landscape of the SEC next year. How many teams should be better? Most teams are going through a QB change. The teams that we are playing that aren't come at the end of the year when hopefully our QB has matured some. All of this adds up to me thinking that if the mindset is right we will have a really good shot at winning the SEC. To me it is all about attitude, if we have the right one combined with our talent I'll take our chances against anyone.

GrayTide said:

One thing in our favor relative to improved secondary play and the possibility of playing 2 true freshmen at CB is that most of the SEC QBs we will face are inexperienced and/or not very good.

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For some reason I think Brown and/of Humphrey will break the trend of first-time-starting corners struggling under CNS. And if Dominick Jackson is as good as I think he is I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by the OL. We don't need a reincarnation of the 2012 unit. We just need them to improve on last year's unit. For me, it all rides on the QB.

^^^^^ As good a look at the coming season as I have seen, though it doesn't fit the thread topic.

Kudos to RT1224 for the thought and reasoning that went into it; not-kudos for where he put it. :smile:

bama579 said:

^^^^^ As good a look at the coming season as I have seen, though it doesn't fit the thread topic.

Kudos to RT1224 for the thought and reasoning that went into it; not-kudos for where he put it. :smile:

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Thanks Bama579, I went on a little bit of a rant. I guess my connection to the thread topic was that I think we would've had a very good chance of beating FSU if we were able to make it. FSU's weak schedule made them appear much better than I think they were, most importantly the offense looked overwhelmed by the moment at the beginning. Bama would have had a very good chance to pounce on them early cause I'm sure McCarron wouldn't have been experiencing those same jitters.

So I guess the frustrating part of last season is that it was probably there for the taking we just didn't make the plays for whatever reason. Instead of focusing on the negativity of last year I'm going to project it forward to next year and say that we aren't that far off. As others have mentioned the reason that this offseason is causing so much soul searching is because we have to wait however many months again before we get to the see our team play again and the last two games they played were two of the more painful games I can remember.

I like our position, I'm actually seeing people doubting Coach Saban and the defense. I think the mindset that Coach wants to instill will be much easier than it was last year. As I said to my best friend this is one of the most exciting seasons I can remember just because of the unknowns and challenge of the HUNH teams to Coach Sabana's style of football.

With threads like this, speculation and what if?

I don't see any reason not to be a complete homer decked out with crimson glasses...

We hung in the Auburn game despite whatever was out of kilter...if that final fluke play hadn't of done us in, I'm confident in saying we would have won the SEC champ game and then wiped the floor with FSU.

If you want to wring your hands and concede we would have lost the game without us having even played in it, well, bless your heart. :smile: