News Article: Players can play up to 4 football games a year and still redshirt per new NCAA rule

JustNeedMe81

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I think there are several ways Saban will take advantage of the new rules:
1. Play any of the 4 games in 1st half of the schedule. Allow the freshmen to adjust to the game speed and then spend redshirt year learning from their experiences. This will allow their development to speed up.

2. Play any of the 4 games in 2nd half of the schedule. There might be some candidate that are slow to figure out things early on, but finally get it by LSU Game. I think we saw two or three players that came off redshirt due to injury late in the season.

3. Play 2 games in the season, work on learning the playbook and etc, and then play 2 later in the season before determining that they could take redshirt or not.

I'm curious to see how they will develop a plan for all of the freshmen. I do think that we'll see almost all redshirt after playing in 4 games, but then again... who knows?
 

TiderJack

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SIAP, but the only way I see a TF get on the field even with this new rule is if he has a fairly good understanding of the playbook. Some may think everybody will see time but I don't think that will be the case.
 

B1GTide

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I think there are several ways Saban will take advantage of the new rules:
1. Play any of the 4 games in 1st half of the schedule. Allow the freshmen to adjust to the game speed and then spend redshirt year learning from their experiences. This will allow their development to speed up.

2. Play any of the 4 games in 2nd half of the schedule. There might be some candidate that are slow to figure out things early on, but finally get it by LSU Game. I think we saw two or three players that came off redshirt due to injury late in the season.

3. Play 2 games in the season, work on learning the playbook and etc, and then play 2 later in the season before determining that they could take redshirt or not.

I'm curious to see how they will develop a plan for all of the freshmen. I do think that we'll see almost all redshirt after playing in 4 games, but then again... who knows?
I think that teams with "Alabama" talent will see almost every player get some playing time as a true freshman from here out. It was significant to see teams like Alabama and Ohio State play 15+ true freshman every year. That is now going to be the low end.

I am more interested to see how many more end up really contributing earlier than they might have previously. I mean, if Saban gets a guy on the field and sees that he is clearly better than a second stringer, is he really going to limit him to 4 games? I don't think so.

The end result may be, with this change and the transfer changes combined, that young players push out more experienced "depth" players more frequently than we have seen in the past. In other words, teams will get younger and we will see more grad transfers.
 

B1GTide

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SIAP, but the only way I see a TF get on the field even with this new rule is if he has a fairly good understanding of the playbook. Some may think everybody will see time but I don't think that will be the case.
How many of last year's crop of TF did not see the field?
 

B1GTide

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Nine total. One being Mac Jones (anyone really expect him to play?). Two others were Hunter Brannon and Joseph Bulovas, two blueshirt guys.
Thanks - That is pretty incredible given the caliber of team that you guys faced in most games. Tells you just how good your incoming players really are.
 

RollTide_HTTR

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Thanks - That is pretty incredible given the caliber of team that you guys faced in most games. Tells you just how good your incoming players really are.
Still can't believe we essentially won the 2nd half of the NCG with a TF QB, RB, LT and 3 WRs. It's insane.
 

RedWave

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SIAP, but the only way I see a TF get on the field even with this new rule is if he has a fairly good understanding of the playbook. Some may think everybody will see time but I don't think that will be the case.
If every game we played was against an SEC or other Power 5 team, I might be tempted to agree with you. But we had too many games last year where the scores went in a way that would easily accommodate even more players get on the field than did. Of course, Coach Saban is going to make sure they are prepared to be on the field, but he does have the option of limiting the playbook to cover for the younger guys that will likely work out fine against some of our weaker opponents. Are you saying that our 59-0 blowout of Vandy or the 60 point win over Ole Miss would have been hurt by letting a guy out there that maybe still had some work to do? Nah, it still would have been fine. Those guys didn't get on the field because we wanted to not burn their redshirt, and they were not ready enough to pull it off of them. Imagine this rule was in place last year. Bulovas might have gotten in a kick or two in some of our blowout games, and maybe Tua's miracle in OT would have been unnecessary, as it was easy to see Papa was struggling that day and could have used someone else to come kick the game winner for him.
 

TiderJack

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If every game we played was against an SEC or other Power 5 team, I might be tempted to agree with you. But we had too many games last year where the scores went in a way that would easily accommodate even more players get on the field than did. Of course, Coach Saban is going to make sure they are prepared to be on the field, but he does have the option of limiting the playbook to cover for the younger guys that will likely work out fine against some of our weaker opponents. Are you saying that our 59-0 blowout of Vandy or the 60 point win over Ole Miss would have been hurt by letting a guy out there that maybe still had some work to do? Nah, it still would have been fine. Those guys didn't get on the field because we wanted to not burn their redshirt, and they were not ready enough to pull it off of them. Imagine this rule was in place last year. Bulovas might have gotten in a kick or two in some of our blowout games, and maybe Tua's miracle in OT would have been unnecessary, as it was easy to see Papa was struggling that day and could have used someone else to come kick the game winner for him.
If you don't know where to line-up or what your responsibility is you are not going to get on the field with Coach Saban. If all 25+ TF do that then you will be right but if some don't they are not going to get on the field IMO.
 

RedWave

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If you don't know where to line-up or what your responsibility is you are not going to get on the field with Coach Saban. If all 25+ TF do that then you will be right but if some don't they are not going to get on the field IMO.
Like I said, Saban will make sure they are prepared to be on the field. I would lay odds that he does so far more often than not this year, knowing he can play them without losing their RS year. But they will be ready, or he won't put them out there. I just think this rule will change how many coaches look at their redshirt freshman players. And since we always have a plethora of new,young, talented players, it will make a big difference to get them some time on the field in real action when it doesn't hurt their eligibility.
 

B1GTide

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If you don't know where to line-up or what your responsibility is you are not going to get on the field with Coach Saban. If all 25+ TF do that then you will be right but if some don't they are not going to get on the field IMO.
I don't think that anyone disagrees. But consider the level of talent that you are bringing in and the coaching staff that you have. For every Ben Davis there are 10 Mack Wilsons.
 

Redwood Forrest

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I think there are several ways Saban will take advantage of the new rules:
1. Play any of the 4 games in 1st half of the schedule. Allow the freshmen to adjust to the game speed and then spend redshirt year learning from their experiences. This will allow their development to speed up.

2. Play any of the 4 games in 2nd half of the schedule. There might be some candidate that are slow to figure out things early on, but finally get it by LSU Game. I think we saw two or three players that came off redshirt due to injury late in the season.

3. Play 2 games in the season, work on learning the playbook and etc, and then play 2 later in the season before determining that they could take redshirt or not.

I'm curious to see how they will develop a plan for all of the freshmen. I do think that we'll see almost all redshirt after playing in 4 games, but then again... who knows?
I was thinking about this also. Play three or four in the first couple of games, three or four in the next two and etc. At least they get some experience without losing a year.
 

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