Toggle sidebar

2018 Schedule-related Thoughts

Quicksilver

Quicksilver

1st Team
Mar 13, 2010
393
30
52
Ellicott City, MD
I've been thinking about our 2018 schedule in connection with comments that were made by various national sports media pundits during the 2017 season to the effect that, prior to the Auburn game, Alabama "hadn't played anyone." What I see coming up for Alabama in 2018 tells me that, to make the playoffs again, we are going to have to go undefeated and win the SEC. The SOS boost that we are accustomed to getting out of the opening game won't be delivered by a win over Louisville.

Thoughts?

[TABLE="width: 548"]
[TR]
[TD]2018 Alabama Football Schedule[/TD]
[TD]Masseyratings.com 2017 Finish[/TD]
[TD]Other Status[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sept. 1 vs. Louisville (Orlando, Fla.)[/TD]
[TD]#28[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sept. 8 ARKANSAS STATE[/TD]
[TD]#87[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sept. 15 at Ole Miss[/TD]
[TD]#48[/TD]
[TD]On NCAA probation; 2nd season HC for 2018[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sept. 22 TEXAS A&M[/TD]
[TD]#41[/TD]
[TD]1st season HC for 2018[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sept. 29 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE[/TD]
[TD]#155[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oct. 6 at Arkansas[/TD]
[TD]#72[/TD]
[TD]1st season HC for 2018[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oct. 13 MISSOURI[/TD]
[TD]#49[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oct. 20 at Tennessee[/TD]
[TD]#78[/TD]
[TD]1st season HC for 2018[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nov. 3 at LSU[/TD]
[TD]#21[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nov. 10 MISSISSIPPI STATE[/TD]
[TD]#14[/TD]
[TD]1st season HC for 2018[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nov. 17 THE CITADEL[/TD]
[TD]#235[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nov. 24 AUBURN[/TD]
[TD]#9[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 
I'm hoping that Louisville will buy out of, or be bought out of, that game. And replaced by UCF. The SOS derived from either one will probably be no worse than FSU this past season.

Safe to say that Bama's SEC competition in 2018 will be the barn and UGA. Have you seen their schedules? The barn plays two FCS schools. Alabama State and Liberty. UGA plays Austin Peay. MTSU. UMass, and GT. :rolleyes:
 
Shouldn't be an overly taxing schedule. Too bad Lamar Jackson left, that was the only way we'd have gotten a boost for playing U of L. We'll need A&M, LSU and Tennessee to overachieve. The Missouri game is intriguing due to their QB returning - at least it's in T-town.

Pruitt didn't catch any breaks with this part of the UT schedule, in succession: Florida, Georgia, open week, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina.
 
ALA2262 said:
I'm hoping that Louisville will buy out of, or be bought out of, that game. And replaced by UCF. The SOS derived from either one will probably be no worse than FSU this past season.
Safe to say that Bama's SEC competition in 2018 will be the barn and UGA. Have you seen their schedules? The barn plays two FCS schools. Alabama State and Liberty. UGA plays Austin Peay. MTSU. UMass, and GT. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The thought of a UCF swap-out for the opener hadn't occurred to me. I hope that happens. The trouble with FSU was, of course, that they faded so precipitously after the loss of Francois. I suspect that UCF will hold up much better down the stretch in 2018 than FSU did in 2017. For the regular season, the main thing that we have to do, as usual, is win against the Barn (that's assuming that the SEC West title is still in play for them at the time of the Iron Bowl). I just don't see our 2018 schedule supporting another 4th seed/no conference title scenario.
 
Arkansas State and ULL are normally pretty good midmajors. The OOC scheduling here was strong in concept but the Louisville situation may or may not pay off.
 
Quicksilver said:
The thought of a UCF swap-out for the opener hadn't occurred to me. I hope that happens. The trouble with FSU was, of course, that they faded so precipitously after the loss of Francois. I suspect that UCF will hold up much better down the stretch in 2018 than FSU did in 2017. For the regular season, the main thing that we have to do, as usual, is win against the Barn (that's assuming that the SEC West title is still in play for them at the time of the Iron Bowl). I just don't see our 2018 schedule supporting another 4th seed/no conference title scenario.
Click to expand...

Without Jackson, Louisville would be very receptive to a buyout. In fact they may buy out of it themselves. If UCF has a game scheduled on 9-1, it has not been announced. As of now, that date remains open on their schedule. The UCF President says he is not interested in a neutral site game, but he probably has never been offered 4 or 5M to play in one. :biggrin: That will change his tune very quickly. Especially if that neutral site is Orlando.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-18/2018-ucf-knights-football-schedule.php
 
Last edited:
I think Miss. State could actually be a pretty good team in 2018. They return most of the players that dang near beat Alabama back in November. The trip to LSU is always tough but I'm not sure how they'll look this year. After seeing how our team overcame adversity this year, I'm not betting against us in 2018.
 
just a FYI, Liberty will be in their first year of FBS next year, so auburn will only be playing 1 FCS team.

As far as our schedule, we will need to be undefeated or really hope the SEC is much stronger.
 
ALA2262 said:
Without Jackson, Louisville would be very receptive to a buyout. In fact they may buy out of it themselves. If UCF has a game scheduled on 9-1, it has not been announced. As of now, that date remains open on their schedule. The UCF President says he is not interested in a neutral site game, but he probably has never been offered 4 or 5M to play in one. :biggrin: That will change his tune very quickly. Especially if that neutral site is Orlando.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-18/2018-ucf-knights-football-schedule.php
Click to expand...

Quicksilver said:
The thought of a UCF swap-out for the opener hadn't occurred to me. I hope that happens. The trouble with FSU was, of course, that they faded so precipitously after the loss of Francois. I suspect that UCF will hold up much better down the stretch in 2018 than FSU did in 2017. For the regular season, the main thing that we have to do, as usual, is win against the Barn (that's assuming that the SEC West title is still in play for them at the time of the Iron Bowl). I just don't see our 2018 schedule supporting another 4th seed/no conference title scenario.
Click to expand...

Could be wrong about this but I don’t remember hearing about a game being bought out this close to the game. Im pretty sure it’s set in stone at this point but if it’s not that would certainly be an interesting situation..
 
As long as Petrino is the coach, I'm sure Louisville will have a guy who slings it around pretty well. As far as us having to go undefeated, I don't believe that. If we were to be 12-1 SEC champions, I would nearly bet the farm that we would get in. Unfortunately, I don't own a farm, though.
 
CrimsonForce said:
Could be wrong about this but I don’t remember hearing about a game being bought out this close to the game. Im pretty sure it’s set in stone at this point but if it’s not that would certainly be an interesting situation..
Click to expand...
You are correct even if Louisville did buy out.It is way to late to replace that game with UCF we woukd likely be scrambling to find someone to play and chances are high it would be another Arkansas State/ Louisiana Tech type opponent.
 
I’ve been irritated by this schedule since the day it was released. Easily the weakest schedule we’ve had under Saban. I agree, there’s very little room for error based on the name recognition of the opponents we are playing.

The one good thing though, the teams we are facing in non-conference and cross-divisional matchups aren’t exactly defensive teams. Petrino might as well not have a defense, ULL and ArkSt can’t keep up with us, Mizzou still plays Big12 ball, and TN is still going to be massively rebuilding. If we open the offensive up, Tua could put up stupidly good stats. If there was ever a year our QB could win a Heisman, it might be this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hopefully 3 of our last 4 will be ranked in the top 15, but it looks like we will have to run house to keep from being left out.

Whatever happened to playing home and home series? I don't think we've done that since Penn St.
 
Playing UCF will do us no good. "Look at Bama playing down in G5 again. Why don't they play somebody." Yes, I know that would make the media two-faced, but hey, that is what they would be whining about.
 
BamaHoosier said:
I’ve been irritated by this schedule since the day it was released. Easily the weakest schedule we’ve had under Saban. I agree, there’s very little room for error based on the name recognition of the opponents we are playing.

The one good thing though, the teams we are facing in non-conference and cross-divisional matchups aren’t exactly defensive teams. Petrino might as well not have a defense, ULL and ArkSt can’t keep up with us, Mizzou still plays Big12 ball, and TN is still going to be massively rebuilding. If we open the offensive up, Tua could put up stupidly good stats. If there was ever a year our QB could win a Heisman, it might be this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Mizzou has a Heisman contender at qb according to most betting and sports outlets. So Mizzou and Auburn could be our two biggest games in the regular season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Posts

Advertisement

Trending content

Advertisement

Latest threads

Top Bottom
Back