Post season thoughts

[BamaMoon]

In watching the game yesterday with my non-Alabama fan football-watching buddy, I explained the long tale of how we got from Coach Bryant to Coach Saban.
In recounting that long, sad story (except Coach Stallings, but even he had a sad ending) I realized just how much I have an aversion to getting back on that coaching roller coaster. It was so long and so painful, I do not want to get back on it.
I'm inclined to be patient with Coach DeBoer, and hope for a better times next year and much better times the year after. But he's gonna need to start demanding a lot more accountability from players and coaches. He better start expecting a lot more accountability from players and coaches or Greg Byrne needs to expect a lot more accountability from Coach DeBoer by the end of 2026. And if Greg Byrne doesn't hold Coach DeBoer accountable, then the Board of Trustees needs to hold Greg Byrne accountable.

I join your friend in being concerned we don't do the coaching carousel ever again! Your friend and I must've been training with the same reflections. So much I posted thoughts about that yesterday!

And that was before I read JessN's article which explained why CKD is probably guaranteed at least 3 seasons, even if we struggle. We are just not in a position to do what Auburn's done for so long with Yella Wood man. And even if we could, it's not the right approach. Look at Sarks first couple of years. In his first 2 years his record was 5-7 and 8-5. Finally in year 3, they are thriving. And much like us, talent wasn't the issue there. It was culture. And I suspect that'll be high on CKD's list of things to improve in year 2!

If you are going to survive and compete in the NIL era, I believe we are...

1) To convince kids that Alabama is still one of the best places to get developed and noticed for a professional career and lean on our pedigree for doing that.
2) We need to stay away from the kids who have no professional potential who are just coming, and possibly going, to make as much money they can while they are in college.
3) We better have a plan for playing everyone in our 3 deep roster including QB. You simply can't keep kids motivated and them not see the field.
4) We cannot make promises about opportunity snaps, plays, etc on the field.
5) We have to set expectations and boundaries for what will be tolerated at Alabama.

The same recruiting message Saban had of you will the opportunity and we will win with you or without still works in the NIL era we just have to double down on our commitment to it and target the right players And that may more 3 stars than 5 stars.

I don't have anything to add! I just wanted to say "great post!"

Honestly at this point, until Milroe declares what he is going to do it will be a bitter time on here, and not many will see much optimism.

I'm not too concerned. He can announce what he's doing and where he's going. I'm just confident he won't be back as QB at Alabama.

I know people are down on CKD and even ADGB right now, but I think they are too smart to allow him to come back.

 

[bamaslammer]

I'm completely demoralized.

Other programs have left us in the dust, our coach doesn't seem to be able to shift to changing conditions, he reminds me of Shula and Curry in that regard. We hired an offensive expert and got the worst offence I've ever witnessed in Crimson and it wasn't a fluke, defenses haven't suddenly improved. It was incompetence from the game plan and incompetence from the players. The tight ends and WR had a decent year but nothing else offensively worked.

The UGA game was a total fluke, it had more to do with Smart being unprepared than us being good.

My only hope is that DeBoer looks deeply into himself, questions everything he thinks and believes, commits to make changes no matter who it ****** off, that includes showing the door to some players and coaches, and the equipment staff, the yard man at the local hotel 6. I DO NOT CARE.

I don't care what the players make, If their loyalty is not focused on making Alabama better their talent won't help us. We need guys who will do it the right way way more than we need people with more talent. Talent is usesless against good teams if you don't do it the right way. Pure athletic ability is not alone going to work. It's the guy who can focus the most athletic ability into effective results. Trust me when I say that since I've been watching Alabama in the 70's, some of the most amazing athletes we've had were rotten football players. We need to get the right guys on the field. We didn't do that this year.

If DeBoer can't fix this between now and the end of spring Alabama will slip into the 2nd tier of programs that have next to no chance of winning a championship and only a coaching change will fix it. Seen this multiple times before and the signs are all there. Can he turn it around? yes he can, but he's got to become a terrible person, nice people don't win in the SEC. It is what it is. There was no bigger jerk than Nick Saban when you weren't getting it done.

 

[CB4]

We definitely were perineal contenders this year

I hate it when someone makes a typo and suddenly becomes the BUTT of everyone’s joke….

 

[BamaMoon]

I'm completely demoralized.

Other programs have left us in the dust, our coach doesn't seem to be able to shift to changing conditions, he reminds me of Shula and Curry in that regard. We hired an offensive expert and got the worst offence I've ever witnessed in Crimson and it wasn't a fluke, defenses haven't suddenly improved. It was incompetence from the game plan and incompetence from the players. The tight ends and WR had a decent year but nothing else offensively worked.

The UGA game was a total fluke, it had more to do with Smart being unprepared than us being good.

My only hope is that DeBoer looks deeply into himself, questions everything he thinks and believes, commits to make changes no matter who it ****** off, that includes showing the door to some players and coaches, and the equipment staff, the yard man at the local hotel 6. I DO NOT CARE.

I don't care what the players make, If their loyalty is not focused on making Alabama better their talent won't help us. We need guys who will do it the right way way more than we need people with more talent. Talent is usesless against good teams if you don't do it the right way. Pure athletic ability is not alone going to work. It's the guy who can focus the most athletic ability into effective results. Trust me when I say that since I've been watching Alabama in the 70's, some of the most amazing athletes we've had were rotten football players. We need to get the right guys on the field. We didn't do that this year.

If DeBoer can't fix this between now and the end of spring Alabama will slip into the 2nd tier of programs that have next to no chance of winning a championship and only a coaching change will fix it. Seen this multiple times before and the signs are all there. Can he turn it around? yes he can, but he's got to become a terrible person, nice people don't win in the SEC. It is what it is. There was no bigger jerk than Nick Saban when you weren't getting it done.

Sark, widely considered by many Bama fans as the hottest coach in the country right now, started 5-7 and 8-5 in his first two years at talent-laden Texas.

Give the man time, please, before you throw in the towel.

 

[Foleybammer]

Some of you had unrealistic expectations of this season. You could see the under belly of this
program eroding since 2020 if you looked. This season is simple. Milroe played well at home
and all his bad games were on the road. Our defense improved alot during the season.
We need coaching stability which would be for the first time since 2020.
We got another good recruiting class coming in. We have regressing for a couple of years
while other teams in the conference have gotten better since the portal started.
College football will never see a Saban like run again due to the portal and NIL.
We are in a different era in college football.

 

[Tidewater]

I join your friend in being concerned we don't do the coaching carousel ever again! Your friend and I must've been training with the same reflections. So much I posted thoughts about that yesterday!

My friend was not concerned. I was. He was just curious what happened the last time Alabama tried to replace a coaching legend. I told him, bottom line up front, it did not go very well.
"We have to hire somebody with ties to Coach Bryant"
Perkins, Curry (not so good). Then Stallings, (good, but had an unfortunate finish). DuBose (disaster), Franchione (quitter), Price (did not even make it out of the gate), Shula (overwhelmed).
Anybody who wants to fire coach DeBoer and get back on that rollercoaster should read some history. That is not a fun ride.

 

[81usaf92]

FWIW, Rodney Orr told his crew in the offseason after everyone was predicting a playoff run that they should temper their expectations and that 9-3 was probably the best we could do with the amount of talent we had coming back. FTR I don’t know if was expecting a loss to Vandy but he was clearly seeing us miss the playoffs in year 1 with what we had on roster.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Theoretically next year's team should be in better positioned to win. If we get QB right we should have a solid OL and a good group of WRs, especially if Bernard comes back(i haven't seen if he is or isn't) and then returning a good amount of experience on defense especially if we can get Domani to come back

 

[81usaf92]

Theoretically next year's team should be better positioned to win. If we get QB right we should have a solid OL and a good group of WRs, especially if Bernard comes back(i haven't seen if he is or isn't) and then returning a good amount of experience on defense especially if we can get Domani to come back

I think one thing is a certainty next year… DeBoer will have a quarterback that can run his offense or one that can read defenses.

Yesterday I saw 4 quarterbacks that were better in the pocket, better at reading the field pre and post snap, and far more mobile than Milroe. Milroe’s mobility is greatly exaggerated and i honestly don’t get why so many see him as another Lamar.

 

[spidermayin]

I think one thing is a certainty next year… DeBoer will have a quarterback that can run his offense or one that can read defenses.

Yesterday I saw 4 quarterbacks that were better in the pocket, better at reading the field pre and post snap, and far more mobile than Milroe. Milroe’s mobility is greatly exaggerated and i honestly don’t get why so many see him as another Lamar.

Or...Derrick Henry *wink*

 

[crimsonaudio]

Milroe’s mobility is greatly exaggerated and i honestly don’t get why so many see him as another Lamar.

He's fast, not mobile.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

I think one thing is a certainty next year… DeBoer will have a quarterback that can run his offense or one that can read defenses.

Yesterday I saw 4 quarterbacks that were better in the pocket, better at reading the field pre and post snap, and far more mobile than Milroe. Milroe’s mobility is greatly exaggerated and i honestly don’t get why so many see him as another Lamar.

Yeah agreed. He's fast and strong but doesn't know how to use either skill effectively most of the time.

I don't understand why anyone would compare any player to Lamar. He's one of one IMO

 

[oskie]

I hate it when someone makes a typo and suddenly becomes the BUTT of everyone’s joke….

Hey, what's wrong with cracking jokes?
.

 

[B1GTide]

FWIW, Rodney Orr told his crew in the offseason after everyone was predicting a playoff run that they should temper their expectations and that 9-3 was probably the best we could do with the amount of talent we had coming back. FTR I don’t know if was expecting a loss to Vandy but he was clearly seeing us miss the playoffs in year 1 with what we had on roster.

I was too, because of Milroe. I had Alabama at 9-3 because of him, and him alone.

 

[B1GTide]

He's fast, not mobile.

No elusiveness at all.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Yeah agreed. He's fast and strong but doesn't know how to use either talent effectively most of the time.

I don't understand why anyone would compare any player to Lamar. He's one of one IMO

FIFY

 

[CB4]

FWIW, Rodney Orr told his crew in the offseason after everyone was predicting a playoff run that they should temper their expectations and that 9-3 was probably the best we could do with the amount of talent we had coming back. FTR I don’t know if was expecting a loss to Vandy but he was clearly seeing us miss the playoffs in year 1 with what we had on roster.

I think it isn’t the losses that have many up in arms. I think a 9-3 season with a loss to what could be perceived as clearly better teams going into the 2024 season would have been more palatable. A 9-3 season with losses to say UGA, Tennessee, and LSU (UGA a clear favorite to win the conference and the others possible tough road games) would have been much easier to accept. The win over UGA elevated expectations. Then it was followed by an inexplicable loss in Nashville. A game in Knoxville slips through the fingers. For many it appears the ship is righted in Baton Rouge, only to fall apart against an Oklahoma team that was a dumpster fire.

Not saying we would have “liked” losses to UGA, Tennessee or LSU. But it would have been far more understandable for many. The roller coaster of inconsistency this year changed all that.

 

[gtgilbert]

I think it isn’t the losses that have many up in arms. I think a 9-3 season with a loss to what could be perceived as clearly better teams going into the 2024 season would have been more palatable. A 9-3 season with losses to say UGA, Tennessee, and LSU (UGA a clear favorite to win the conference and the others possible tough road games) would have been much easier to accept. The win over UGA elevated expectations. Then it was followed by an inexplicable loss in Nashville. A game in Knoxville slips through the fingers. For many it appears the ship is righted in Baton Rouge, only to fall apart against an Oklahoma team that was a dumpster fire.

Not saying we would have “liked” losses to UGA, Tennessee or LSU. But it would have been far more understandable for many. The roller coaster of inconsistency this year changed all that.

Agree with this 100%. I wouldn't have liked it at all, but I could at least live with losses against better / good teams if those losses were in the context of new system, new coaches, learning the ropes in the SEC, etc all the while making progress. For example, the D started out not so awesome this year in the new system, but as the players got more experience playing in it, they improved significantly - progress.

Losing games against teams we should beat, while also NOT making any progress in installing the new offensive philosophy is what really, really burns. We'll probably be starting from scratch with the offense, so might still have a learning curve.

 

[TraskiTideFan]

After the Vanderbilt game, you kind of realized the worst thing that happened to this team was the first half of the Georgia game. They bought into their press clippings and totally forgot about Keeping the Main Thing the main thing and finishing. If it turns out we hired a sideline "Attaboy", then the next 2 years are going to make me appreciate even the 80's a little more because they missed on this hire for sure. I had to turn the Oklahoma game off at halftime for my own sanity and I have haven't done that ever. The presser after the bowl game was disappointing to say the least. It was like watching a Dad who gets run over by his own kids in the household and just makes excuses for their performance or actions.

At least we get to enjoy basketball finally with a coach who knows for the most part how to handle his players and the fans. This years A-Day preparation and game will tell us a lot about what we have to look forward to. I will be working on my golf game and trying to not take the game I love quite so seriously for my own health.

 

[WMack4Bama]

We still have a few days before our portal window closes. MIGHT have a coach or two move on to other opportunities after NSD in February. So all the hay isn't in the barn yet. This upcoming season - to me - feels like a fresh start and in retrospect last season was a bridge between the Saban regime and the DeBoer regime. (I'm definitely hoping that that's how history shows it....positively of course).

I'm definitely excited about spring ball. Looking forward to seeing a new direction.