Areas to Tidy Up For A Run at #16

BamaMoon

Hall of Fame
Apr 1, 2004
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Feel free to add areas and key personel but I'd list these in order of importance:

1. Replace guys lost on the o-line. CK and Steen come back but we'll have three new starters across the way. Big for obvious reasons, but especially AJ's success/health and our running backs.

2. Place kicker. Losing Shelly who was perfect on PATs and can't recall him missing many regular fgs. Will Foster step up or will Griffith be the next regular kicker?

3. Developing a true threat as a kick returner. Amazingly, we won a NC without a dynamic threat there this year. This area needs to be developed. Is Christian Jones Or Cyrus Jones going to up their game here??? What about true freshman Foster?

4. Finding TJ Yeldon's a dependable backup who becomes the 2 in our 1-2 punch running back duo. Will it be Drake or a guy I can't wait to see: Derek Henry! There's also Tennpenny (if he sticks), the kid from Georgia and of course Jalston Fowler comes back too, but I don't know if he'll be the real 2 in this package.

5. Replacing key losses on defense including Millner at corner and Lester at safety. Losing Nico and Square too. Others?

Areas #2 - #5 can probably be shuffled in any order.
 

tidefanbeezer

All-American
Sep 25, 2006
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Offensive line, obviously.

We need to develop our next shut-down corner. Belue, Smith, Fulton....someone, needs to step in to this role with Milliner gone.

Improved pass rush. Hubbard, Stinson, Pagan need to improve their production from this year.

We need a solid back-up for Fowler. He is a versatile player and adds a different dynamic to the offense. If he gets injured again this year, we need someone who can step in to that role with little drop-off.
 

Snuffy Smith

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Sep 12, 2012
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Huntsville, AL
I agree with the kick returner. I watched several games back recently and Jones seems to intentionally run into the "mass" rather than hit what looks to be an open seam on the edge.


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bamacon

Hall of Fame
Apr 11, 2008
17,179
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College Football's Mecca, Tuscaloosa
OL needs to gel. Even with great talent sometimes you have to find the right chemistry. Glad they got several series in this past season. I'd say the Pass Rush is critical because the secondary will be green. We saw how little breakdowns could lead to 3 losses in 2010.

And not that you can "tidy" this up but avoid the injury bug.
 

jthomas666

Hall of Fame
Aug 14, 2002
22,587
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Birmingham & Warner Robins
1. OL
2. Improved pass rush
3. a PR who doesn't give me heart failure every freaking time he fields a punt
4. long snapper ;)
5. ID the RB to complement TJ. We've no shortage of options, just have to find the right one
 

gamersfuel

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Jan 20, 2008
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i'd say the most important spot will be the defensive line. whenever we have a mixture of smarts and experience on that front we tend to do well. i will never be concerned with the secondary as long the returners have experience and Coach Saban is head coach. It's becoming to also be that way with our offensive lineman. Each new guy improves each and every year.
 

gtowntide

All-American
Mar 1, 2011
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Memphis,TN.
We need to develope a quarterback behind A.J. I'm really interested in seeing who steps up in the spring. I think both QB's in this class are early entries. The A day game should be fun to watch.
 

B1GTide

TideFans Legend
Apr 13, 2012
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Offensive line and stay hungry.

If you have those two things, you will be far ahead of the field. That guarantees nothing as it doesn't factor in things like injuries and turnovers, but every team will face those.
 

BamaMoon

Hall of Fame
Apr 1, 2004
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Agree about the pass rush...forgot about that one.

Also agree about finding the #2 qb. I know Blake Sims as been that guy, but I get the feeling he wouldn't be a legitimate long term solution if AJ went down next season. We've been extremely fortunate going all the way back to JPW without having to rely on a back up qb best I remember. That streak will eventually come to an end...just hope it's not next year!
 

capnfrog

All-American
Aug 17, 2002
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Agree about the pass rush...forgot about that one.

Also agree about finding the #2 qb. I know Blake Sims as been that guy, but I get the feeling he wouldn't be a legitimate long term solution if AJ went down next season. We've been extremely fortunate going all the way back to JPW without having to rely on a back up qb best I remember. That streak will eventually come to an end...just hope it's not next year!
This concerns me more than anything now. If AJ gets hurt we are hurting for a proven QB and right now we are looking real good at RB with Henry and Tenpenny coming in but neither is proven as a blocker and if one or two RB's go down for any length of time we only have TJ, Drake and Fowler as provens with any kind of experience. We need Henry and Tenpenny in the worse possible way.
 

tidefanbeezer

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Sep 25, 2006
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We need to develope a quarterback behind A.J. I'm really interested in seeing who steps up in the spring. I think both QB's in this class are early entries. The A day game should be fun to watch.
Excellent point. When AJ tweaked his knee in the Missouri game, I wondered if we were done. We have no shortage of talented QB's on the roster, just need to develop one of them in to a solid back-up that can fill at least 80% of AJ's production.
 

bamaslammer

All-American
Jan 8, 2003
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the OL is probably the biggest issue, followed by the secondary. Even though we have a history of great DB's this past year was just not great. I'm hoping a good offseason will help that situation but I don't see any dre kirkpatricks on this roster. After that I just think we need to solidify a real backup QB who can run the whole offense.
 

bamachile

Hall of Fame
Jul 27, 2007
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It's all on the line - literally. The O-Line has to gel and grow toward the 2012 standard. I would love to see the D-Line exceed the 2012 standard - at least in terms of pass rush off the edges.

RB/FB/HB will be fine. TE is solid. DB will be improved. QB is outstanding, although development of a back-up would be nice. LB corps is in good shape. Coaching staff is untouchable.

ST is mediocre, so I guess that's my only other concern. Still, though, the war is won in the trenches.
 

jps1983

Hall of Fame
Aug 30, 2006
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A lot of ppl have hit on the areas, but the three biggest issues will be:

1) Offensive line -- obviously replacing 3 starters, 2 of whom are first round picks (Fluker may go into the 2nd) and the third starter was probably our most decorated OL in Bama history, we have some big shoes to fill. I think we'll find a good enough combination.

2) Defensive Backs -- we lose our two best DB's in what was probably our "weak link" on defense this year. It was a weaker spot because we were playing more inexperienced guys there, so this area may be shored up since a lot of young guys (Geno, Ha-Ha in particular) got a lot of quality PT. I am concerned about losing our best cover corner though without someone waiting in the wings. When we lost Kareem, Dre was there; when we lost Dre, Dee was there. Geno may be the answer because he looked better at the end of the year. Fulton and Belue improved, but Belue's big issue is size.

3) Blocking TE -- our running game wasn't just powered by our awesome OL. We had a 270 lb TE in there as well that was almost another OL with his blocking ability. Vogler looked decent against UGA and he poses a better receiving threat than MW, but Williams' blocking ability will be sorely missed, especially with a younger OL needing time to gel.

I'm not too concerned about the DL because we rotate a lot of guys, so the new starters (probably Ivory and Pagan) got a lot of meaningful snaps. The bigger concern is leadership lost on the DL. Some guys will have to step up into those roles.
 

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