Also ...
Where I think the program is right now ... I'm going to try to microwave what I just wrote for the column. I'll start with the three blood-boilers so you can go ahead and get your cheap shots out of the way early, and then we can discuss it like adults:
* This is two years now with an undisciplined football team. One year is bad enough. Two is inexcusable and goes directly back to the head coach. What I don't know is how he fixes it. Is it generational all of a sudden? There's obviously a lack of fear for what happens in the event of a mistake made.
* I've never seen a bigger canard than the whole "we just need to fire (3-4-5-6) assistants and then it will all be better." Who hired them? What are they being asked to teach? If they're teaching what they're being told to taught, is that their fault? This leads into ...
* Defensively, I think the system itself is past its sell-by date. This has a lot of interaction with the point above about assistant coaches, because if they're teaching what you want taught yet what you want taught isn't compatible with where offensive football is now or where it's going, then you're about to shoot soldiers for following orders, so aim carefully.
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Now, if you're solutions-based, you probably want to focus on next steps and not just the gripefest of the present. I think the first point makes me maddest. Fans love to hoot about how Saban likes to growl and bark and how he treats media or those unsuspecting folk who stand up at a Touchdown Club meeting and ask a dumb question, but either we've got guys playing who laugh him off as Grumpy Grandpa or they're not capable of actually doing the right thing physically/mentally, which then calls into question the recruiting process ... something that has been (and should be) just about as far above reproach as any part of Saban's tenure here could be.
The second point is consequential to the third, and the third point is where it gets reeeeeeallly uncomfortable around here to discuss. At best, this is Bryant in 1970 post-Scott Hunter, putting in the wishbone. At worst, you have a defensive coach whose own defensive baby may be part of the problem. And yes, I know all about the two true freshmen we have running around at ILB. The problem here is middle-top of this defense has been its weak point since 2007, everyone knows it, and now this year we've thrown in DL that get inconsistent pushes and CBs that aren't making plays.
If anyone wants to respond with "all is well," save it for another thread, because all isn't well. What I am hopeful for is that this triggers a top-down reevaluation of program management. If it doesn't, then it probably is the beginning of the end of the ride, just as it would have been for Bryant without the 'bone.
