I fear if not properly handled Alabama's situation could turn out similar to Ohio State's situation of Jones-Miller-Barrett.
Question: Move Jalen to Slot Receiver?
- Thread starter BearFan
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Absolutely. The wr from Phenix City said in an interview that the reason he was previously reticent about signing with UA was the offense. He also said it looked much better in the title game, which I guess was the only thing that kept us in contention for his signature. Too late I guess.
I think the vast majority of coaches in college football would have already decided. I am nearly certain the wide receivers have decided who is better. The previous offensive coordinator evidently had decided, but was over ruled. But Saban has all those rings, and it's his team. I believe, though, the decision has privately been decided, and I think that's why Enos, more of a pro style qb coach, was hired. I know Saban doesn't like to tip his hand till he has to, as in fall camp, but this time isn't like most times.
Had not thought about that. That guy lost money by coming back. He should have left after that championship season before people got a good look at him. It also could be because he had a different OC to although.
The problem Ohio State's staff had is they mistook Zeke Elliott becoming an unstoppable force that made it hard to defend their deep WR corp in 2014 as a sign that Jones was the quarterback for them in 2015. I don't think the same miscalculation will be made here because we plainly would not have won that national title game without Tua's skill set. His emergence isn't due to someone else elevating their level of play such that it made everyone else's job easier.
Who knows right now though...this is hypothetical season. haha.
Yeah and the nearest coach to CNS's ring count is 3, and that coach faced the same challenge with a backup qb and he failed. CNS isnt a Lyold Carr coach that gives a darn what any of us think about who should start. Point is he isnt going to fall into the Brady-Henson situation just because fans believe Tua is better.
Yeah and the guy that calmed that bunch down is our OC now, and if you believe Locksley is going to do anything CNS doesnt want him to do then I got time shares in Siberia to sell to you.
Expecting Jalen Hurts to all of the sudden think like Tom Brady was the most idiotic thing Daboll tried to do. Next to Nuss and Applewhite, Daboll was the most over his head OC we have had in the last 11 years.
yeah and Lane Kiffin never worked with a mobile qb until Blake Sims
I believe this. Put yourself in the shoes of a high profile WR that watched Bama have wide receivers running wide open all year long and hardly ever get the ball.
Ross saw it too much to ever get on board and it was not enough to see one half of good stuff to overcome the lead Clemson had.
I didn't watch every Clemson game this year but the scouting report on their passing game was they throw short and don't really press the field vertically. Not sure how Ross could be all that excited to play with Kelly Bryant who did basically nadda against us. I realize Clemson has other highly rated recruited QBs on roster but so does Bama. I don't think the struggles of our offense played as much of a factor in the WR recruiting misses as last years strong WR class. I don't know Clemson's depth chart situation at WR but even a highly rated WR recruit would have a hard time getting on the field at Bama next year over Juedy, Ruggs and Smith. Any WR coming in would be fighting for the 4th and 5th spot with other highly recruited players who redshirted (Shavers) and the rest of the incoming WR class. It was just a perfect storm that caused us to miss on some WR prospects..
I have no idea what played a factor and what didn't but I think after 1 year you tend to get the benefit of the doubt that things will improve. We all had a lot of hope going into the season that JH would make big gains in the passing game and I think it wasn't until maybe the Auburn game that the issues with our passing game got a lot more media attention. So, I wonder if Clemson is getting the benefit of the doubt after one season of a limited passing game.Kind of a "one year is an aberration 2 years is a trend" thought process.
Also, probably helps having the top QB recruit in this class. I'm sure Trevor Lawrence was recruiting guys just like Tua did for us.
It'll be interesting to see how Dabo manages Bryant and Lawrence. Could be Jalen/Tua part 2.
If Lawrence is as good as advertised, I think he'll see significant minutes sooner that Tua did. Might just be the difference in Dabo being an ex-WR and Saban being an ex-DB.
I don't think the the frustration of the receivers is a secret or anything. Even I could see it on the field long before the locker room fiasco after the Auburn game. So you know the wr prospects knew about it too. It was after the title game, after the 2nd half of the title game, that we got the wr that I think was committed to or leaning to A&M.
The Justyn Ross article below, from a few months ago. An excerpt from that.........
Ross usually doesn’t give revealing answers when it comes to his recruitment. But, he did answer honestly when asked about his thoughts on Alabama’s offense in its first game against Florida State.
The 6-foot-4, 197-pound prospect was in Atlanta for the game where he saw Jalen Hurts complete 10 of 18 pass attempts and only throw for fewer than 100 yards. Calvin Ridley was the only wide receiver to have a reception in that game.
https://www.seccountry.com/alabama/...ting-justyn-ross-auburn-tigers-clemson-tigers
While, clearly, Alabama got the result it wanted in the game, for a wide receiver with options, it was not a performance that was exciting.“I feel like they could have opened it up a bit more, but they didn’t really have a chance to reveal their passing game too much,” Ross said.When asked what the Tide have to do to impress him moving forward, his answer centered around making sure other receivers outside of Ridley are involved.“I do feel like they have to spread the ball around more, but it’ll come in due time,” Ross said. “I was expecting a bit more, to be honest. I didn’t get that. I’ll probably get that in the future, though.”
Everyone talks about Lawrence while forgetting Dabo also signed the #2 pro-style QB in 2017 in Hunter Johnson.
Could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Tua hosted Ross on his official visit to Tuscaloosa. I just think the struggles of our offense IRT missing on recruits was a little overstated. I think after the NC game all that was kind of a wash and it came down to what it always comes down to with WRs - playing time. Clemson is losing several WRs and most of ours are coming back. That's a more logical explanation of why we missed on WRs than our offense. Same thing with RBs. We had some highly recruited backs de-commit because D Harris is coming back along with everyone else except Bo. So it makes sense that we wouldn't sign the strongest RB class ever this year..
What's funny about this is now Alabama has a different OC and QB than what we had in the FSU game. If he made his decision off that then it's very short sided logic. Almost a guarantee that Alabama will have a more wide open offense than Clemson this year. Kelly Bryant is not a consistent passer and their only other options are players who've never taken a snap in college. I don't begrudge him for choosing Clemson because they have a great program and put WRs into the NFL but it's a poor choice to make a decision based on such a small sample size of data if he did as the article portrays..I don't think the the frustration of the receivers is a secret or anything. Even I could see it on the field long before the locker room fiasco after the Auburn game. So you know the wr prospects knew about it too. It was after the title game, after the 2nd half of the title game, that we got the wr that I think was committed to or leaning to A&M.
The Justyn Ross article below, from a few months ago. An excerpt from that.........
Ross usually doesn’t give revealing answers when it comes to his recruitment. But, he did answer honestly when asked about his thoughts on Alabama’s offense in its first game against Florida State.
The 6-foot-4, 197-pound prospect was in Atlanta for the game where he saw Jalen Hurts complete 10 of 18 pass attempts and only throw for fewer than 100 yards. Calvin Ridley was the only wide receiver to have a reception in that game.Alabama signed Justyn Ross’ (left) teammate in the 2017 class in 4-star linebacker Markail Benton. The two remain close friends. (Chris Kirschner/SEC Country)
https://www.seccountry.com/alabama/...ting-justyn-ross-auburn-tigers-clemson-tigers
While, clearly, Alabama got the result it wanted in the game, for a wide receiver with options, it was not a performance that was exciting.“I feel like they could have opened it up a bit more, but they didn’t really have a chance to reveal their passing game too much,” Ross said.When asked what the Tide have to do to impress him moving forward, his answer centered around making sure other receivers outside of Ridley are involved.“I do feel like they have to spread the ball around more, but it’ll come in due time,” Ross said. “I was expecting a bit more, to be honest. I didn’t get that. I’ll probably get that in the future, though.”
I actually think Hunter Johnson has a better shot at overtaking Bryant tbh. From the little I've seen Lawrence I just think he is a little over hyped.
Well I would say he had a full season after that to watch any changes or improvements in the passing game, so if there was significant improvement overall, that definitely could have swayed him but that didnt transpire. I think to be fair, we are not sure if he has been interviewed since then or asked about his views of Bamas passing game since then. Regardless, if those were his views in the beginning...with the exception of the second half of the title game...I'm not sure there was much that could have changed it. As indicated earlier in threads before the playoffs, there were multiple wr recruits who apparently were thinking the same things. Not to mention, it seemed offensive philosophy was kind of guessing game at times.Whether right or wrong, I think it played a factor to at least some extent.
Oh absolutely. We just had too much ground to make up after 2 years of a stagnant downfield passing game. Those blue chip wide receivers like to see themselves on ESPN highlights making catches downfield, rather than a long handoff on a jet sweep like in 2016 or, well, like even less than that most of this past year.
Next year is whole nother story imo.
edit: And yes. I do realize we recruited well at wr last year. Those guys had been recruited for years, even when we did have a good and balanced offense. Oh well. There is a good chance that next season is going to be even better than those years.
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TBH, I wouldn't be surprised to find out a team cut together Ridley's on field "tantrums" (for lack of a better word) and showed it to recruits.
I have no doubt the on field issues of us not distributing the ball affected Ross, but the more important issue was that we basically didn't get "in" with him until about 1 month to go.
Clemson formed relationships that we couldn't undo with just one month of Tua highlights.
Clemson formed relationships that we couldn't undo with just one month of Tua highlights.
I think we didn't sign as many WRs this year due to the three freshman more so than perceived flaws with the quarterback or offensive system.
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