When you're writing something on deadline and trying to get something out there for people to read after an exceptionally big event like the SEC Championship Game, oftentimes a second viewing will help with things you might have missed, or just wanted to mention again. Also, some general musings on where we are as a program and where I think we're going...
1) Trezmen Marshall played his butt off. I made mention of Deontae Lawson in the recap article, and not to take anything away from Lawson but Marshall had as much to do with our LBs' dominance of Georgia's LBs as anything else. I was glad to see the two former UGA players play big roles. I wish Marshall had been 100 percent the whole year -- there was a time I thought we were playing the wrong guy at his spot, meaning either Jihaad Campbell or especially early in the year, Kendrick Blackshire -- but Marshall really earned his keep against Georgia. I have to believe both he and Jermaine Burton were not treated well in Athens because both of them looked like they had scores to settle ... and did.
2) I mentioned Robbie Ouzts in the recap but then someone directed me to Cole Cubelic's comments on our offensive design last night and he did a nice in-depth on how we used Ouzts to confuse the heck out of Georgia. One of Milroe's last runs (the fake toss that he took for a first down) was set up by Ouzts selling the outside run to the strongside. We also did a lot of three-TE bunch formations in this game and I'm not sure Georgia's LBs have figured it out yet. Cubelic also hinted at this but Georgia's LBs, especially their inside guys, played like crap. To be more accurate, they played dumb. Like they hadn't prepared, or couldn't adjust on the fly. I'm an old-school guy -- I like having a fullback in the offense -- and Ouzts is a good fullback. Can't wait to see what we do with him next year.
3) Recruiting: Our long-term readers can remember when TideFans.com used to actually keep a prospect database, do in-depth film study of prospects and even conduct prospect interviews. That was what the whole NARCAS thing was about that you still see us attach to some of our articles. In the current age of NIL and especially the transfer portal, we have dialed back our recruiting coverage because, while it still means something, it doesn't mean nearly what it used to, and it's 1000x harder to track. How you work the portal these days is almost as important, if not more so, than how you recruit. Recruiting will always build the foundation, but the transfer portal is where you go for the designer touches. Recruiting used to be 50% of my focus here; now it's just another article. To that end, we're probably going to sunset the NARCAS tag and label going forward because we really don't play in that space here anymore.
4) Coaching: I'm not really sure when Nick Saban is going to hang it up but I think if he could have the same level of fun he had this year, he might not ever leave. Having said that, when he does, I suspect it will be very similar to how Gene Stallings did it: He'll pick a big win and go out on it, so that's my way of preparing you for the possibility that we're in the "red zone" of his career right now and it could happen at any time. When it does, you will see us gutted by the transfer portal, too, unless we really get the transition right (which might mean elevating an assistant). I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there because as crazy as it sounds, I believe it might actually happen: Alabama has not had great success with hiring from within, but Tommy Rees may still get that opportunity, if he sticks it out here. My understanding is that he's not going to consider another job this year, but if someone came to me and threw crazy money at me I might change my plans, too. The best thing anyone can say about Rees as a Bama head coaching candidate is that there doesn't appear to be another Nick Saban out there for the taking. So it's not like Bama would be passing up a sure thing if it decided to promote from within.
5) SEC/CFB in general: As much as the sport has changed over the last 3-5 years, it's about to change twice that much going forward. There are multiple court cases going up right now that are challenging everything about how college football is put together. There are some suits asking for billions in back pay and compensation for athletes. If everything hits in the players' favor, it's very likely that many of us, if not most, will find ourselves priced out of the sport we love. As for the NCAA's current plan that is being floated right now -- the "Division Zero" concept that I basically outlined in an article five years ago at least -- that's where we're eventually going to go, and we're probably going to eventually do it with a collective bargaining agreement with players. Once that happens, I don't know who the winners and losers are going to be, but I know we're in a far better position than a lot of our rivals. On the other hand, we're not in as good a shape as Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame (if it wants to play ball, that is), Michigan and others that have deeper booster pockets. It's too bad Saban isn't about 5 years younger because I really would like him to be in charge during this transition. As for the SEC, I would like to see the conference work behind the scenes with the Big Ten to ensure the futures of both organizations. I think you could take those two conferences alone and make your superdivision. You could even afford to continue to drag Vanderbilt and Northwestern along by the hair. I never thought I'd see the day when the PAC-12 would go the way of the WAC, but here we are.
1) Trezmen Marshall played his butt off. I made mention of Deontae Lawson in the recap article, and not to take anything away from Lawson but Marshall had as much to do with our LBs' dominance of Georgia's LBs as anything else. I was glad to see the two former UGA players play big roles. I wish Marshall had been 100 percent the whole year -- there was a time I thought we were playing the wrong guy at his spot, meaning either Jihaad Campbell or especially early in the year, Kendrick Blackshire -- but Marshall really earned his keep against Georgia. I have to believe both he and Jermaine Burton were not treated well in Athens because both of them looked like they had scores to settle ... and did.
2) I mentioned Robbie Ouzts in the recap but then someone directed me to Cole Cubelic's comments on our offensive design last night and he did a nice in-depth on how we used Ouzts to confuse the heck out of Georgia. One of Milroe's last runs (the fake toss that he took for a first down) was set up by Ouzts selling the outside run to the strongside. We also did a lot of three-TE bunch formations in this game and I'm not sure Georgia's LBs have figured it out yet. Cubelic also hinted at this but Georgia's LBs, especially their inside guys, played like crap. To be more accurate, they played dumb. Like they hadn't prepared, or couldn't adjust on the fly. I'm an old-school guy -- I like having a fullback in the offense -- and Ouzts is a good fullback. Can't wait to see what we do with him next year.
3) Recruiting: Our long-term readers can remember when TideFans.com used to actually keep a prospect database, do in-depth film study of prospects and even conduct prospect interviews. That was what the whole NARCAS thing was about that you still see us attach to some of our articles. In the current age of NIL and especially the transfer portal, we have dialed back our recruiting coverage because, while it still means something, it doesn't mean nearly what it used to, and it's 1000x harder to track. How you work the portal these days is almost as important, if not more so, than how you recruit. Recruiting will always build the foundation, but the transfer portal is where you go for the designer touches. Recruiting used to be 50% of my focus here; now it's just another article. To that end, we're probably going to sunset the NARCAS tag and label going forward because we really don't play in that space here anymore.
4) Coaching: I'm not really sure when Nick Saban is going to hang it up but I think if he could have the same level of fun he had this year, he might not ever leave. Having said that, when he does, I suspect it will be very similar to how Gene Stallings did it: He'll pick a big win and go out on it, so that's my way of preparing you for the possibility that we're in the "red zone" of his career right now and it could happen at any time. When it does, you will see us gutted by the transfer portal, too, unless we really get the transition right (which might mean elevating an assistant). I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there because as crazy as it sounds, I believe it might actually happen: Alabama has not had great success with hiring from within, but Tommy Rees may still get that opportunity, if he sticks it out here. My understanding is that he's not going to consider another job this year, but if someone came to me and threw crazy money at me I might change my plans, too. The best thing anyone can say about Rees as a Bama head coaching candidate is that there doesn't appear to be another Nick Saban out there for the taking. So it's not like Bama would be passing up a sure thing if it decided to promote from within.
5) SEC/CFB in general: As much as the sport has changed over the last 3-5 years, it's about to change twice that much going forward. There are multiple court cases going up right now that are challenging everything about how college football is put together. There are some suits asking for billions in back pay and compensation for athletes. If everything hits in the players' favor, it's very likely that many of us, if not most, will find ourselves priced out of the sport we love. As for the NCAA's current plan that is being floated right now -- the "Division Zero" concept that I basically outlined in an article five years ago at least -- that's where we're eventually going to go, and we're probably going to eventually do it with a collective bargaining agreement with players. Once that happens, I don't know who the winners and losers are going to be, but I know we're in a far better position than a lot of our rivals. On the other hand, we're not in as good a shape as Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame (if it wants to play ball, that is), Michigan and others that have deeper booster pockets. It's too bad Saban isn't about 5 years younger because I really would like him to be in charge during this transition. As for the SEC, I would like to see the conference work behind the scenes with the Big Ten to ensure the futures of both organizations. I think you could take those two conferences alone and make your superdivision. You could even afford to continue to drag Vanderbilt and Northwestern along by the hair. I never thought I'd see the day when the PAC-12 would go the way of the WAC, but here we are.
