Kevin Hagan on Bill King's Show (January 10)

teamplayer said:

This is exactly correct. I'll add another reason that I think may have caused TT to not have Saban's confidence- the UT game this year. It looked like we were going to run them out of the stadium and put them away early, and Tua came in early to continue his progress. He forced a throw that was intercepted and returned 100 yards for a TD. I think that one mistake may have put TT on the back burner for a bit in Saban's mind. Many Bama fans and people on this board even stated after that game that it was clear that Hurts was still the guy. Throwing for 300 yards and 4 TDs is great, and I think Tua will have quite a few of those in his career, but it doesn't mean jack squat if you throw 3 interceptions and lose the game. Now, I am excited about our future, but I do hope we don't start slinging the ball all over the place in West Coast fashion. I hope we use our passing and attack like we did Monday night, but I also hope we continue to use our power run game first and foremost. With the ability to do both, the offense should set records. With our defense, that should be a recipe for more championships. Roll Tide!

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TiderinAZ said:

Apologies to Brian Daboll.

Kirby and most Georgia fans are pretty sure they are going to dominate the east for the foreseeable future, I hope Jeremy changes that narrative.

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crimsonaudio said:

I'll be honest - Dan Mullen might have something to say about that as well.

And Will Muschamp isn't standing around waiting for something to just happen, either...

The SECE has upgraded it's collective coaching considerably in the last few years - it's about to be a tough division again, and I don't think anyone is going to dominate over there for the foreseeable future. I see it being very competitive for a while - not unlike the SECW was just a few years ago.

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Intl.Aperture said:

I agree with you. His default is to negate risk - obviously a winning formula - but what elevates him to greatness is to take risk at just the right moment.

I see a lot of people arguing that "he never takes risks!" and the counter, "He's taken a ton of risks!" It's somewhere in the middle.

Philosophically he is risk averse but in the game of football elements go beyond one's control and his ability to recognize WHEN a risk must be taken and how to go about taking that risk makes him the greatest.

Teams bank on the fact that they think Saban never takes a risk and then he fakes a punt or pulls an onside kick or swaps a QB. He WILL do it - but I agree that holistically his approach is to avoid and mitigate risk as much as possible.

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Tideflyer said:

Mullen and Pruitt could very well make things uncomfortable for Kirby, eventually. Kirby may have 2-3 year jump start on them, though.

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bigjue24 said:

I disagree with you there. Those guys are super talented. I especially like Jeudy and Ruggs. They are all Number 1 WR's. Next year with Tua throwing them the ball will be something to behold. The NFL looks so much at measurables. They all three have them.

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GrayTide said:

It certainly won't happen next year or the next but with Smart, Pruitt, Mullen and yes Muschamp, the balance of power will swing to the East in the SEC. The West will only have Saban and Fisher as perennial powers. It's anybody's guess how long this will take, but TAMU will replace LSU as the other team in the West.

Edit: Smart inherited a fully stocked cupboard with experienced and quality players while Pruitt inherits nothing and Mullen and Muschamp slightly better than nothing.

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teamplayer said:

This is exactly correct. I'll add another reason that I think may have caused TT to not have Saban's confidence- the UT game this year. It looked like we were going to run them out of the stadium and put them away early, and Tua came in early to continue his progress. He forced a throw that was intercepted and returned 100 yards for a TD. I think that one mistake may have put TT on the back burner for a bit in Saban's mind. Many Bama fans and people on this board even stated after that game that it was clear that Hurts was still the guy. Throwing for 300 yards and 4 TDs is great, and I think Tua will have quite a few of those in his career, but it doesn't mean jack squat if you throw 3 interceptions and lose the game. Now, I am excited about our future, but I do hope we don't start slinging the ball all over the place in West Coast fashion. I hope we use our passing and attack like we did Monday night, but I also hope we continue to use our power run game first and foremost. With the ability to do both, the offense should set records. With our defense, that should be a recipe for more championships. Roll Tide!

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Bamabuzzard said:

Yep, and it will be interesting to see the degree of drop off (if any) next season with all that talent graduating or leaving early for the draft. I think UGA has more than one regular season loss. I'm not saying they tank but I don't see them going into the Auburn game undefeated. Games to keep an eye on that they may get slipped up on:

9/08 AT USCe
9/22 AT Mizzoo (Drew Locke will be dangerous)
10/13 AT LSU
10/27 Cocktail Party

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92tide said:

smart and uga have a huge target on their backs now.

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JessN said:

I will admit not to reading all 11 pages of comments so far (did read the first three) but I wanted to offer up my take on this guy's take...

1) I don't know this guy, can't/won't vouch for him but Bill King typically doesn't just let any yahoo get that kind of airtime without challenging him. That's my way of saying Bill probably vetted him to some degree.

2) TideFans.com staff have heard rumors of team unrest all year. At worst, it was the whole team about to go on the picket line. At best, it was 2-3 of the receiver corps grousing about a lack of opportunities. I will take the opportunity to remind everyone who is rushing to pat Mike Locksley on the back for averting some type of coup that it's Locksley who sets the WR rotation and kept running Robert Foster out there ahead of three freshmen, so if young receivers were truly about to overthrow the government, they should have started with their own general. Yes, younger kids have threatened to transfer already this year. At Alabama under Saban, that is not an irregular occurrence. I don't know what the exact depth of that discomfort got to last Monday, but as a friend of mine said today, if you think we had players at halftime chaining themselves to garbage cans and refusing to go back out for the second half unless Tua was playing, you probably have watched one too many movies. Our halftime frustration was real; the way the team reacted to it may be a bit less sensational.

3) The part about having to tell some kids who haven't developed yet to hit the road has been going on here with regularity since 2007, and it went on during Bryant's day, too. Alabama does engage in roster management, yes. Not everyone has the opportunity to come back for year five. We live in a day now where the NCAA has pushed schools to offer four-year scholarships rather than one-year renewals, but kids still can be "politicked" into hearing about other opportunities and getting an accurate assessment on what their future playing time is likely to be if they stay in Tuscaloosa. I'm not saying I'm comfy with any of it but it happens and it's going to happen as long as Saban is here. It's also not new to this year.

4) Kirby rubbed some people the wrong way his last couple of years here. I'm trying to decide whether that really means anything. Nick Saban rubs people the wrong way every day.

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JustNeedMe81 said:

Thank you. I have a question. Where was the leadership from Ridley, Foster, Sim in this situation? I felt like Receivers didn't handle their situation well this year and I'm concerned about the maturity aspect for the young players... Next year will be interesting. I'm just glad we won championship! -

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Padreruf said:

Given the circumstances, I thought they handled it very well...continued to play hard and block without a chance of meaningful receptions.

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BamaMoon said:

WAY too much scrutiny has been brought to Tua's INT against UT. It happened.

I'm just speculating, but for every INT Tua will throw he'll probably throw 3 or 4 tds. Combine that with our lethal running game and defense and I doubt it'll ever be the difference in a game.

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92tide said:

one of the local radio guys, in a break from the constant hair shirt moaning, made the point that they had 4 top notch seniors, including the most productive running back tandem ever, come back this season with the purpose of winning it all. they are not going to have that kind of senior leadership heading into next year.

yeah, they've got their mad on for redemption, but we saw this year, just how tenuous that can be to get back to the dance and we did it with magnitudes better talent than they currently have on their roster.

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