2015 Will Bring even more question marks than 2014
- Thread starter WMack4Bama
- Start date
Before the season before this past one, the DB situation was so shaky that we were told by a staff member that, if we lost even one man in the defensive backfield, we could lose several games. Then, we did lose one more guy. We now just seem to be skating along the edge, just as we did the last two seasons, it appears we're facing the same situation. If Brown and Humph step up, that could relieve that situation, by allowing the guy best suited to slide over to safety. Somehow, I think the OL will come around, at least after a couple of opening games, mainly because, like Mack said, LT and OC are solid. I guess I worry most about LB and QB, after DBs. I'm not seeing the answer at LB yet. Something has to happen there, and if our losses turn out to be what I fear, i.e. RR leaving, then some magic has to be worked. And, then, there's QB. Blake was a miracle. He basically defaulted into the position and then surprised everyone with his ability. Sure, you can make a case that he could have won at OM and Sat. OTOH, had he not developed as he did, then we're not even in spitting distance of 12-2. Now, for the dark side of the coin on QB. Nobody could beat out a fifth year career backup. Coker gets a pass, trying to pick up the playbook in fall camp. The rest of the crew had a chance to make their moves. They didn't do it. Is it reasonable to think they can do it with another chance? About the best development I could see is that Coker, who's now made great strides, succeeds in an offense suited to his skills and Barnett understudies a year, then takes over. The rest of them do seem to be capable of being decent backups, although not many teams do as well as OSU with backups. OK, that was my take - worries and possible sunny outcomes...
Something to remember when discussing the QBs - Cornwell was recovering from a torn ACL and did not really participate in spring practice. Plus, he told reporters last week he had ankle surgery after A-Day and was in a cast until June. I'm not saying he's going to pass Coker, but I don't think we can dismiss him as a career backup like we can Alec Morris or possibly Cooper Bateman.
I agree with this totally. To me, Cornwell shouldn't even be in that discussion, because the chances are he wasn't going to start as a true freshman anyway, regardless of the injuries.
Do my eyes deceive, or is the Board trending towards Coker is the answer again? :wink: Seriously, I think our QB situation will work out and the OL will be fine. For the first time in many, many, many years I am concerned about the RB position. Sure the loss of KD and TJ's more than "nagging" injuries hurt, but that's one that I will be very interested to see how it develops.
Let's do it:
Losses:
Amari Cooper - the best WR statistically in Alabama history
DeAndrew White - A 5th year senior who was instrumental in 2 of the most recent championship runs by 1 (giving our starters fits on the scount team) and 2 (getting injured against Ole Miss and allowing Amari Cooper the opportunity to step into the spotlight as a freshman)
Christion Jones - Senior who had probably his finest moment stepping in as a true freshman vs. LSU in the title game when Marquise Maze went down.
For kicks, I'll throw in TE and H-Back
Brian Vogler - big bodied TE who, when healthy, did as good of a job as any at sealing the edge in the running game. I still jump out of my seat watching him run block during the 2011 SECCG
Jalston Fowler - offensive swiss army knife. Do it all. Gonna truly be missed.
Michael Nysewander - unsung hero
Returning / Arriving (in order of receptions this year)
OJ Howard - physically as talented as they come as a receiver. Work in progress as a blocker.
Chris Black - came in as an early enrollee 3 years ago with fellow Floridian Amari Cooper. Many thought Black was better. Shoulder injury forced him to redshirt and fall WAY back in the shuffle. Has been frustrated about his usage or lack thereof. Maybe next season will be better for him.
ArDarius Stewart - explosive playmaker and all around athlete (did you see the height he got on that onside kick attempt the other night?). He seems to have a pretty good chemistry with Jake Coker. So if Coker is the guy, look for him to do some great things.
Cameron Sims - Shocked me that he got on the field before Robert Foster this year. But he has a big body and uses it well vs smaller DBs.
Robert Foster - All I heard before he got here and right after he got here was how he was the next Julio. And then......**shrug**...Played in spots this season. Hopefully enough to quell his homesickness and get him to stick around.
That's it for guys that played. Honestly that should be enough. But here are some other guys who could get in the mix.
Raheem Falkins - Another big bodied Louisianan. Played a lot as a true freshman but didn't register a catch this season. May have been injured. I can't recall.
Derek Kief- big bodied receiver (6'5") who can be a dangerous red zone asset and possession receiver.
Every TE on the roster (8!!!!!! of them) as well as the one committed to come here are probably best suited as run blockers. Not one as dynamic as Howard as a receiver
Coming in
Calvin Ridley - smooth route runner, hands like glue, outstanding athlete. Potential to be as productive as Cooper
We think we're gonna hold on to the Charlot kid from Louisiana, but man...LSU is going hard after him. And the interest is mutual. So yeah...That's where we are.
As long as Burton Burns is here, we're solid there. It'll have more to do with the blocking they receive. I think Dom Jackson going to RT and getting Grant Hill & Bozeman out there are guards (maybe even Casher), we're gonna be ok. Pass protection may be a concern. But we've got some maulers lined up if we just have to run. Also, we got some tackles in last year's recruiting class that I'm VERY excited about. The talent level is about to go back through the rough. Cristobal has done a great job of building the talent back up from where it dropped off after Coach Pendry retired. (example...Chance Warmack was a 2-star guy. Coach Pendry saw him and fell in love with him. A guy that's been around ball that long knows what he's doing.)
The weakness of the process is that when it gets rolling you have to replace leaders and starters every year. There is rarely a fifth year senior like Sims.
Someone will step up. One big issue is an inexperienced qb throwing to inexperienced receivers. I hope Kiffin rides Henry for a long time.
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Someone will step up. One big issue is an inexperienced qb throwing to inexperienced receivers. I hope Kiffin rides Henry for a long time.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
If we don't change our defensive philosophy, this thread doesn't matter.
Anybody noticed how many points we're starting to give up against good teams?
Now, shall we blame the players?
Uh..no...
As has been mentioned by many others, we have four and five star recruits coming in every year.
Simply Play them!
We don't need "projects" at corner when we have incredible athletes who can lock down on receivers.
And we really need to take the leash off these incredible defensive linemen and linebackers we're signing.
They can't be great if they're not allowed to let it loose and make big plays.
And as far as them," not being able to pick up the defense".........maybe , just, I don't know, SIMPLIFY it and let the kids simply be better than their opponents because they're five times more athletic?????
Coach needs to do some thinking.
sip
Anybody noticed how many points we're starting to give up against good teams?
Now, shall we blame the players?
Uh..no...
As has been mentioned by many others, we have four and five star recruits coming in every year.
Simply Play them!
We don't need "projects" at corner when we have incredible athletes who can lock down on receivers.
And we really need to take the leash off these incredible defensive linemen and linebackers we're signing.
They can't be great if they're not allowed to let it loose and make big plays.
And as far as them," not being able to pick up the defense".........maybe , just, I don't know, SIMPLIFY it and let the kids simply be better than their opponents because they're five times more athletic?????
Coach needs to do some thinking.
sip
Are the coaches projecting Shawn Burgess-Becker as a Safety or WR? His tape catching the ball looks impressive.
No other way to put it about the safety. I'm guessing Ronnie Clark and/or Hootie Jones, but either way their will be zero experience at safety.
I believe he's going to be a safety.
Never understood why Hootie didn't get actual game reps with the 1s. He could have relieved Perry every few series to get some experience.
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JMO, but I believe that OJ's height and build work against him in getting leverage in blocking. I think Saban's going to have to abandon his dream of a TE being an OT/TE hybrid. I thought OJ was a
tweener the first time I saw him and I think they would understand that by now. He's an over-sized WR and they need to use him like that. We would, I think, if there weren't such holes in the TE position...
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I'd also add that OJ doesn't seem to be aggressive wrt attacking the ball as a receiver. With his size and build, he should be able to catch most anything within about a 4' radius of his chest.
this sums up exactly how i feel... sometimes you have to play to the strength of the talent you have. it's like having the strongest, fastest automobile but never driving it. i feel like we didnt help some of those guys who may have been lacking in certain areas. gotta be aggressive with that young talent sometimes. i would have put reuben foster in on some passing 3rd downs and told him to concentrate on nothing else and go get the QB. thats just one example. we have several guys who could do that with the best of them.
Uh yeah. Yeah, you do blame players when they are not making plays. We aren't seeing players running down the field uncovered very often. We are watching players get beat, and get beat badly at times, one on one. That is not a defensive philosophy problem. When we had all those years of top 3 defenses, it was because we had a difficult scheme, but we had to have the players to execute it. Everybody wanting to dumb down the defense needs to realize that this is a short-sighted fix that will likely cause us to have mediocre defenses from now on. Cy Jones took his lumps in the system last year, as did Tony Brown, Jackson, and Sylve did this year, but they will be better for it going forward, just like Cy Jones was this year. You can't even compare how he played last year to this year. Same for Marquis Johnson '08 - 09, and Dre Kirkpatrick and Dee Milliner from '10 - 11. We have been in a lull over the last 2 years in talent and experience, but history says that will be better next year. This is a scheme and system that has produced some of the best defenses in we've ever had, and everybody wants to scrap it. I'm not saying that tweaks don't need to be made, but this whole simplify the defense thing is first class ticket to simple, average defenses, IMO.
Another thing to consider is that they did "simply play them" with Tony Brown against Ole Miss, and it was disastrous. Other than Humphrey and Brown, show me these CB's on our roster that are "five times more athletic" than our opponents. While your at it, send a letter to the coaches as well, because I'm sure they'd like to know that too.
The bottom line is this - for our coaches to have put the best athletes we have on the field this year at CB would have required us to put 2 true freshmen out there. These "projects" we have out there are there because they are who the coaches think give us the best chance to win.
I do not believe we would have won 12 games and a SEC Championship if they had threw Brown and Humphrey out there as true freshmen, whether they did this awesome "simplifying the system" or not.
As bad as our defense was this year (by our standards), we still had the #11 ranked Total Defense (#6 in Scoring Defense) in the country and the only defenses that were better in the SEC were LSU and Arky (both of whom gave up 30+ points more times this year than we did). We finished 1 spot ahead of the mighty Land Shark defense, 3 spots ahead of BOOOOOOOM's mighty Gators, and 6 spots ahead of hottest DC in land's UGA Bulldogs.
Yeah, let's scrap - I mean simplify - the system...
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Two more aggressive plays on the ball and we would be undefeated and packing for Dallas.
+1 on this one. The thing I kept telling myself was "These coaches know more than I do."
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