Link: Interesting CFBCG take from Josh Jacobs

bvandegraff · Jan 31, 2019

https://247sports.com/college/alaba...yoff-Josh-Jacobs-mentally-fatigued-128486119/

In retrospect, this isn't all that surprising. Still, interesting to hear it from a player.

In the midst of the writers/talkers celebrating Bama's loss and our hand-wringing over staff turnover, it seems that schedule difficulty/conference affiliation hasn't gotten its full due as a factor in the loss.

Here's each team's schedule from November on:

Alabama

#3 LSU
#16 Mississippi State
Auburn
Citadel
#4 UGA (SEC title game)

Oklahoma
Clemson

Clemson

Louisville
#17 BC
Duke
SC
Pitt (ACC title game)

ND
Bama

TideEngineer08 · Jan 31, 2019

Our November is always brutal. Everyone gives us grief about the 1-AA opponent before Auburn, but who else is always playing 3 top 20 level teams every single November? And then following that up with a top 10 opponent the first weekend of December?

The CFP absolutely hurts Alabama from a fatigue standpoint. They are exhausted by the time the SEC championship game is over. We recover some over December and usually play our 2nd best game of the year in that semi-final bowl game (The best is usually the first game of the season, IMO). But having only a week to prepare for the title game after that semi is never enough and we end up playing barn burners in the title game. This past season, we obviously didn't even mentally make the trip out west.

Clemson never faces this. And they never will. Should Florida State recover their former glory, and that isn't going to happen within the next 2 or 3 years, that only provides one tough divisional game for Clemson. The Coastal side of the ACC is full of mediocrity. Miami has the history, but that program has so much against it as far as ever regaining what it had in the 80s through the early 2000s. So Clemson is always fresh when the season ends. And then it gets the best draw with a completely over matched Notre Dame in the semi. No, all of this isn't the only reason they won the game like they did. But it certainly helped them.

CoachJeff · Jan 31, 2019

When you have several weeks from the conference title game to the playoffs most of this shouldn't matter.

Bama had no problem in 2015 navigating the post season.

runtheoption22 · Jan 31, 2019

some of Clemson's staff has said similar in private...they believe we were worn and they were fresh

TideEngineer08 · Jan 31, 2019

CoachJeff said:
When you have several weeks from the conference title game to the playoffs most of this shouldn't matter.

Bama had no problem in 2015 navigating the post season.

Yes it did.

Those weeks help the team recover in time for the semi-final. But you don't truly fully recover from the grind of a football season for several weeks, if not months. This is why Spring practice doesn't happen until, well, the next Spring. So a few weeks off definitely helps in that first bowl game but then you are turning right around and playing another high level opponent a week later. When you are coming off the final quarter season that Alabama is always coming off of, then you are never entering that championship game at anything close to full speed.

But Alabama did have massive issues navigating that schedule in 2015... While Michigan State seemed like a mere road bump, Clemson in the title game was an epic struggle that we damn near lost if not for that onside kick/Drake KO TD return at just the right time in the game.

BamaMoon · Jan 31, 2019

Our schedule is back-loaded and progressively gets harder as the season goes on. I wish we could do something about it, but some years we manage it with injuries and mental freshness better than others.

I really wonder about the "leadership" on this team. Leadership doesn't win championships alone, but it's hard to win a NC without leadership. This is just pure speculation.

TideEngineer08 · Jan 31, 2019

BamaMoon said:
Our schedule is back-loaded and progressively gets harder as the season goes on. I wish we could do something about it, but some years we manage it with injuries and mental freshness better than others.

I really wonder about the "leadership" on this team. Leadership doesn't win championships alone, but it's hard to win a NC without leadership. This is just pure speculation.

LSU and MSU didn't used to be good at the same time, so it did not used to be a big deal.

Bamabuzzard · Jan 31, 2019

We got beat. Check that. We got the hell beat out of us. Regardless of the "real" reasons. The honorable thing to do is simply tip the cap, give Clemson all the credit in the world and move on. The public excuses, no matter how legit they are, do nothing more than come across as whining. It's not very becoming.

CaliforniaTide · Jan 31, 2019

I think there's some truth to Jacobs statements, and CNS had mentioned during the season about the team getting mentally tired as well. This year it didn't work out for us; last year it did.

PA Tide Fan · Jan 31, 2019

I think the OU game took a lot out of our team. Our guys seemed really fired up to play OU, partly because of the Heisman Award results. Having to prepare for Kyler Murray took a lot out of our defense. If we would have had another week to rest and prepare I think the Clemson game would have been a lot closer.

TideEngineer08 · Jan 31, 2019

Bamabuzzard said:
We got beat. Check that. We got the hell beat out of us. Regardless of the "real" reasons. The honorable thing to do is simply tip the cap, give Clemson all the credit in the world and move on. The public excuses, no matter how legit they are, do nothing more than come across as whining. It's not very becoming.

We can't talk about it? I think we've all more than "tipped our caps" to Clemson since the game was played. Or are you just referring to any players talking about this kind of thing?

For the record, if you dropped Clemson into the SEC West in 2018, I do think they would end up with pretty much the same result as Alabama did over the course of the season. They are truly that good. What they did in the NC game wasn't a fluke. But I'm not going to pretend both teams had anything close to equal paths getting there, and that the journey didn't effect each team very differently. Also, to the greater point, that the CFP absolutely does no favors to teams that have to face tough schedules. The timing of the NC game is brutal. There needs to be a week in between the semi and the NC game, but that will never happen.

gman4tide · Jan 31, 2019

Bamabuzzard said:
We got beat. Check that. We got the hell beat out of us. Regardless of the "real" reasons. The honorable thing to do is simply tip the cap, give Clemson all the credit in the world and move on. The public excuses, no matter how legit they are, do nothing more than come across as whining. It's not very becoming.

If bama don't study/investigate the reason for the beating, they stand a bigger chance of history repeating itself.

bvandegraff · Jan 31, 2019

Agreed. I don't think it's whining to break down the reasons for a loss, no matter when or to whom. We've (the team) been able to overcome similar obstacles as recently as last season (LB injuries, IB loss, etc), but it didn't happen this time. I think we've (the fans) all acknowledged that Clemson was comparable in talent, superior in preparation, and that showed in the final result. In the immortal words of Coach Saban, "It is what it is." Just thought the player's perspective was interesting.

TitleWave · Jan 31, 2019

gman4tide said:
If bama don't study/investigate the reason for the beating, they stand a bigger chance of history repeating itself.

The Self-Reporting Defeated & Dismayed Task Force has brought forward the recommendation that 'Bama and the East Georgia Academy of Amalgamated Cattle Waste apply for immediate membership in the ACC as a way of ensuring history never repeats itself.

crimsonaudio · Jan 31, 2019

Well, I've got bad news for Jacbos - the NFL season is longer and every team is good.

UntouchableCrew · Jan 31, 2019

CoachJeff said:
When you have several weeks from the conference title game to the playoffs most of this shouldn't matter.

Bama had no problem in 2015 navigating the post season.

This is kind of how I feel. Obviously our schedule is more of a grind but with that much time off I don't really think it matters. Probably true that we had to prepare for a much more dangerous semi-final opponent but at the end of the day it feels like excuse making... And to be honest I'm not sure I buy into the "we weren't fresh" thing. In the first quarter I felt like we were the better team -- but mistakes and lack of red zone execution shifted the game away. We just didn't play our best game.

BamaMoon · Jan 31, 2019

TideEngineer08 said:
We can't talk about it? I think we've all more than "tipped our caps" to Clemson since the game was played. Or are you just referring to any players talking about this kind of thing?

For the record, if you dropped Clemson into the SEC West in 2018, I do think they would end up with pretty much the same result as Alabama did over the course of the season. They are truly that good. What they did in the NC game wasn't a fluke. But I'm not going to pretend both teams had anything close to equal paths getting there, and that the journey didn't effect each team very differently. Also, to the greater point, that the CFP absolutely does no favors to teams that have to face tough schedules. The timing of the NC game is brutal. There needs to be a week in between the semi and the NC game, but that will never happen.

I'd like to see the CFP schedule adjusted a little but I'm sure the end of the semester is part of the issue with most schools.

Personally, I wish they could figure out a way to schedule the first playoff about 2 weeks after the conference championships (which would be about a week before Christmas) and then keep the NC game around the same time in order for the two teams to take a week off at Christmast and still be able to reassemble and get in about 10 days of practice before the NC game.

rgw · Jan 31, 2019

Admittedly, Clemson looked like the team with more juice out there. I think there is some truth to Jacobs' analysis but the blame is still in our court. My argument since that whooping is that we've got to start playing more guys because than Saban's traditional approach dictates. He wants to play guys he "trusts" but that day and age is over. When you play 14 or 15 games in a season and our back half of the schedule is almost nothing but top 25 teams...you've got to build depth and sometimes that means playing guys before you can trust them and hope that they become trustable. Injuries exacerbated this issue for Alabama this year but even with 3 more OLBs and a 1 DB we were still very thin rotationally - despite having bodies - on the DL which is why our best player was worn out since that LSU game.

rgw · Jan 31, 2019

crimsonaudio said:
Well, I've got bad news for Jacbos - the NFL season is longer and every team is good.

Conversely, the games are generally shorter than college in terms of time and snaps and they almost certainly have less practice contact than college teams too. The roster is tighter than college, so starters usually play the whole game though. I think the NFL does a pretty good job of keeping their players fresh. Especially the good franchises.

Bamabuzzard · Jan 31, 2019

TideEngineer08 said:
We can't talk about it? I think we've all more than "tipped our caps" to Clemson since the game was played. Or are you just referring to any players talking about this kind of thing?

For the record, if you dropped Clemson into the SEC West in 2018, I do think they would end up with pretty much the same result as Alabama did over the course of the season. They are truly that good. What they did in the NC game wasn't a fluke. But I'm not going to pretend both teams had anything close to equal paths getting there, and that the journey didn't effect each team very differently. Also, to the greater point, that the CFP absolutely does no favors to teams that have to face tough schedules. The timing of the NC game is brutal. There needs to be a week in between the semi and the NC game, but that will never happen.

My apologies, I wasn't referring to the board discussion but players and others who may represent the university in some capacity (players parents, players, coaches etc.) publicly making statements that though are possibly legitimate reasons, come across more as whining than anything.

Regarding your second paragraph, though I agree with everything your're saying. It's the nature of the beast with college athletics and nothing realistically can be done to change it. You're dealing with majority amateur talent (with some professional talent mixed in) that is not evenly dispersed across the country. As much as I agree with Clemson having a cheesy easy path to the CFP. What do we expect to be done to "correct" it? Not let them in the CFP, force them to change conferences, mandate them to play all SEC teams as their OOC games? Unfortunately, most of the elite talent resides in the SEC. We beat our chest, brag about it, rub it in other conferences' faces. Then try to use it as an excuse when we lose. There could be an argument made that if our teams play in the toughest conference, against the best talent in the country, then we should be more than prepared to play teams from other conferences.

I do agree it would benefit us to have an additional week between semi final games and NC games. But, concerning this year's title game. I think being out coached and out prepared had more to do with the loss than being tired.

Link: Interesting CFBCG take from Josh Jacobs

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