Starters for Bowl Game?

[KrAzY3]

THIS is where the problem lies. He struggles with short to intermediate accuracy. QB run doesn't have to planned for him to take off. Once he gets his bell rung a couple times he'll take of at the first sign of pressure, usually in the wrong direction.

To me that does ultimately fall on the offensive coordinator. When you have a dual threat QB, or really any QB, you don't want the entire offense to be reliant on them. That might seem like a necessity in this day in age, but it's not. You can have a balanced offense, you can run the ball with actual running backs and also pass the ball as well in an evenly distributed manner.

It's just easier to let the QB do it all, and it takes even more constraints on the quarterback to keep them from calling their own number constantly. If a coordinator is trying to pass more than he's running the ball, he's letting the QB take over and the QB can just decide to take off. So the first step to avoiding this is you call more plays where he's instructed to hand off, and then you as the very high paid offensive coordinator you are have to figure out other ways to avoid this from happening.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

To me that does ultimately fall on the offensive coordinator. When you have a dual threat QB, or really any QB, you don't want the entire offense to be reliant on them. That might seem like a necessity in this day in age, but it's not. You can have a balanced offense, you can run the ball with actual running backs and also pass the ball as well in an evenly distributed manner.

It's just easier to let the QB do it all, and it takes even more constraints on the quarterback to keep them from calling their own number constantly. If a coordinator is trying to pass more than he's running the ball, he's letting the QB take over and the QB can just decide to take off. So the first step to avoiding this is you call more plays where he's instructed to hand off, and then you as the very high paid offensive coordinator you are have to figure out other ways to avoid this from happening.

Because of Milroe's limitations/abilities: The OC is saying to himself "You mean I can only run this 10% of our playbook...?"

 

[BamaInBham]

When he looks for and hits the TE he looks like a decent QB. We killed Auburn with the short to intermediate passes to the TE's. They are big targets, easy to see and Milroe should look for them all day and twice on Sunday's.

And against LSU he hit several checkdowns, short and intermediate passes on the first 2 drives. They looked like a highly efficient offense. It was glorious. Then Alabama just ran the rest of the game.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

To me that does ultimately fall on the offensive coordinator. When you have a dual threat QB, or really any QB, you don't want the entire offense to be reliant on them. That might seem like a necessity in this day in age, but it's not. You can have a balanced offense, you can run the ball with actual running backs and also pass the ball as well in an evenly distributed manner.

It's just easier to let the QB do it all, and it takes even more constraints on the quarterback to keep them from calling their own number constantly. If a coordinator is trying to pass more than he's running the ball, he's letting the QB take over and the QB can just decide to take off. So the first step to avoiding this is you call more plays where he's instructed to hand off, and then you as the very high paid offensive coordinator you are have to figure out other ways to avoid this from happening.

We didn't put it all on Milroe. It may appear that way, but this scheme is very heavy on RPO and zone read. A good portion of Milroe's carries had the option to hand it off, but Milroe rarely did that. It falls on the QB to make the right decisions, and that didn't happen nearly as often as we would've liked. That's not putting the entire game on Milroe's shoulders. Thats simply asking him to run the offense. With a QB who can make the reads, it can be a fairly dangerous offense. We saw flashes of that at times, even with Milroe, but he's never been consistently good at it. As for the passing distribution, that's all on Milroe. There were many, many times this year where Sheridan schemed various different receivers wide open, and Milroe didn't make the right decision.

It seems we did do what you are suggesting about designed RB runs during the last game it worked well. Now, you might ask why they didn't do it earlier, but what we did was working to an extent, at least on the final scoreboard. And also, the RBs have not been very consistent, either. I also think some of that is our that our OL doesn't quite fit with the blocking schemes we want to run, so there are limitations there, as well. Bottom line is, Sheridan did the best he could do with what he had. Now maybe it ends up not working out, but for the time being, it's really difficult to put a ton of blame on him. Let's see what he does with Ty, Mack, or Keelon first.

 

[merino]

I'm going to ask what might be obvious. If Milroe is so bad, why didn't DeBoer pull him in the games that he performed so poorly?

I believe he would have been pulled following a fourth interception in the Oklahoma game

 

[AWRTR]

I believe he would have been pulled following a fourth interception in the Oklahoma game

I don’t.

 

[81usaf92]

If Milroe returns to college next year it likely won’t be at Alabama. It will be somewhere that maximizes his style and potential and would allow him to be him. I just don’t see it being at Alabama

 

[81usaf92]

Being a first round pick has little bearing on whether you're a good college QB or not. Anthony Richardson was a first round pick, and he was terrible in college. The NFL has been strangely obsessed with super athletic QBs for awhile now. Not really sure why, and I'll probably never understand it. When is the last time a run-first QB has ever won a Super Bowl? Everyone is obsessed with Lamar Jackson, but he hasn't even sniffed a Super Bowl. And that's really where we're at with Milroe. Yes, he can do some cool things with his legs, but in 2 years, the closest we've gotten to a national title is the semifinal. That's not good enough at Alabama. We said a lot of the same things about Jalen Hurts as we are Milroe, but the bottom line is, Hurts took us to the national title game twice. He ultimately couldn't win it himself either, but he still got further than Milroe. It would be different if he had shown he can do the traditional QB things, as well as run, but he can't. Nothing he has done hes inspired confidence that he is the man that can end this title drought.

Milroe is nowhere near as dangerous as Lamar Jackson and I wish someone like the Browns were dumb enough to draft him because everyone keeps talking him up to be. Milroe is a glorified running back with an active arm whereas Lamar is a decent arm with a magician’s legs in a system that totally benefits him. Milroe is a North and South runner whereas Lamar is an East and west runner.

I think Milroe has yet to progress at the quarterback position enough to survive in the NFL, but staying one more year would ultimately lock him out of millions of dollars because it will be far deeper quarterback drafts.

 

[KrAzY3]

We didn't put it all on Milroe. It may appear that way, but this scheme is very heavy on RPO and zone read. A good portion of Milroe's carries had the option to hand it off, but Milroe rarely did that. It falls on the QB to make the right decisions, and that didn't happen nearly as often as we would've liked. That's not putting the entire game on Milroe's shoulders.

If you just run RPO that is in my opinion putting the entire game on his shoulders. You are always saying pick between handing the ball off, running it yourself, or passing. You are letting him make the choice. You are correct in assuming that I am saying you should just run the R more often once it starts to get like that. That's how it used to be all the time, and that doesn't mean you can't even run RPO, or can't even run it most of the time, but you can tell the guy who you are talking to via headset to just hand the darn ball off.

It seems we did do what you are suggesting about designed RB runs during the last game it worked well. Now, you might ask why they didn't do it earlier, but what we did was working to an extent, at least on the final scoreboard. And also, the RBs have not been very consistent, either.

For the record, I have been suggesting that for the past couple of seasons. I actually started making this sort of suggestion back when Hurts was at Alabama. Don't give him as much of an option to do things you don't want him to do. Force his hand more.

I also believe part of the issue with the running game is you have to have a commitment to it. You can't just do it sometimes, you need to have the attitude every single game that you're going to run the ball and you are going to literally stuff the ball down the other team's throats. Running requires more of an attitude, more discipline, more aggressiveness, but it's also far more reliable. It's like building a muscle though, you can't develop a great running game if you don't use it enough.

I will say one other thing about Sheridan. He was only an OC for two years and he got fired for having the second worse offense in all of college football. That's... not a good resume at all and he was not plan A at OC. He was basically an emergency plan. So the other point I would make isn't that Milroe wasn't a problem, but to assume that Sheridan wasn't as well isn't necessarily the case. He's not in any way shape or form a proven play caller, so when I see the offense doing things that aren't working I'm not going to go well I know the OC isn't the problem because I don't know that.

 

[81usaf92]

If you just run RPO that is in my opinion putting the entire game on his shoulders. You are always saying pick between handing the ball off, running it yourself, or passing. You are letting him make the choice. You are correct in assuming that I am saying you should just run the R more often once it starts to get like that. That's how it used to be all the time, and that doesn't mean you can't even run RPO, or can't even run it most of the time, but you can tell the guy who you are talking to via headset to just hand the darn ball off.


For the record, I have been suggesting that for the past couple of seasons. I actually started making this sort of suggestion back when Hurts was at Alabama. Don't give him as much of an option to do things you don't want him to do. Force his hand more.

I also believe part of the issue with the running game is you have to have a commitment to it. You can't just do it sometimes, you need to have the attitude every single game that you're going to run the ball and you are going to literally stuff the ball down the other team's throats. Running requires more of an attitude, more discipline, more aggressiveness, but it's also far more reliable. It's like building a muscle though, you can't develop a great running game if you don't use it enough.

I will say one other thing about Sheridan. He was only an OC for two years and he got fired for having the second worse offense in all of college football. That's... not a good resume at all and he was not plan A at OC. He was basically an emergency plan. So the other point I would make isn't that Milroe wasn't a problem, but to assume that Sheridan wasn't as well isn't necessarily the case. He's not in any way shape or form a proven play caller, so when I see the offense doing things that aren't working I'm not going to go well I know the OC isn't the problem because I don't know that.

The thing about OCs is that they are geniuses when they have a great quarterback and idiots when they don’t. I remember guys like Biemeny and O’Brien hailed as the greatest OCs of all time and Sark and monken as jokes. But there is a huge difference when you have Mahomes and Brady as a quarterback and Matt Ryan and Baker Mayfield as a quarterback.

I know that is an extreme example but usually high profiled OCs have alot going for them in the talent department especially at Quarterback position. Alot of the guys who Saban hired from 2014-2022 were guys who desperately wanted to get back to the HC ranks. Only Daboll wasn’t a guy who didn’t ever have a HC or immediately became a HC before or after Saban. But it’s a weird situation because the two couldn’t coexist with each other past one year. More or less Alabama became a more sustainable version of Oklahoma where there was a healthy balance of quarterback talent and running ability with a semi competent defense.

However that changed with Milroe and Rees because Saban tried to bring the offense back to something closer to the pre 2014 version after seeing Georgia do it the previous two seasons. But you don’t have the personnel to do it… specifically the quarterback. Teams are too good to lose to a Greg McElroy hand it off and occasionally pass offense. But at the same time you can’t just put a running back at quarterback and expect teams to back off the line either. Our losses to Oklahoma, Tennessee, Michigan, and Texas had all one thing in common and that was all of them dared Milroe to pass and totally shut down our quarterback running game. They basically gambled that Milroe couldn’t read a defense and would be willing to live with the occasional big play when and if it happened as long as he wasn’t doing it all night.

I don’t think Sheridan is the greatest pick for OC and I pretty much thought Shepard would have been the pick quite honestly after Grubb left, but at the end of the day, unless they are explicitly telling Milroe when to give and keep the ball I don’t really know how Sheridan is more to blame for the offense coming to such a halt as Milroe. Even in the Wisconsin game… we had running backs that could’ve walked into the end zone with how hard the ends were crashing down on Milroe and we were forced to 2 and 3 play them for Touchdowns. Milroe has and always has been a quarterback with loads of potential but very little progress and development in terms of being a quarterback. It’s amazing that his record only has 5 losses through 2 seasons with how the offense is so limited with him behind center and he still isn’t any better at processing the field as he was vs aTm in 2022. Yes there are far more variables than Milroe to account for but for two years now… if you stop Milroe’s legs you stop the Alabama offense. That’s a problem in which two different staffs had to deal with and had to tailor their own offenses to compensate for.

 

[KrAzY3]

Our losses to Oklahoma, Tennessee, Michigan, and Texas had all one thing in common and that was all of them dared Milroe to pass and totally shut down our quarterback running game. They basically gambled that Milroe couldn’t read a defense and would be willing to live with the occasional big play when and if it happened as long as he wasn’t doing it all night.

This gets back to the root of the point I was trying to make. It wasn't a defense of Milroe, nor was it necessarily a condemnation of the OC, it was just that I feel over-reliance on the quarterback is a huge gamble that doesn't pay off consistently enough to win championships at the level Alabama expects to. For a normal team it's fine, but if you want to be in contention year in and year out it's not the way to go.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't have, or don't need good QB play though. That's not it at all, it's just that the unfortunate side effect of great QB play tends to be over-reliance as well. When I started researching this during Hurts time at Alabama, I immediately noticed that the indicator of success under Sagan was not elite QB play (it actually presented as a negative factor) but rather elite RB play. This was not that good QBs were bad in my opinion the result of two things.

A: When a team has a really productive QB the tendency is to just let them keep doing too much. This is an issue because it's gambling the team's success on the play of one individual at a position where a lot of things can go wrong.
B: This also doesn't necessarily mean that the running backs in those championship seasons were the best running backs Alabama has or what have you. It was just that if you did develop a strong running game and you stuck with it, Alabama's chances of a championship were really, really good.

A good example of this playing out was the year Mac threw two pick sixes against Auburn. Specifically, one thrown from the three yard line when the team has Najee Harris who would become a touchdown machine the following year. Mac wasn't the problem, the problem was not developing that smash mouth running game that would help the 2020 offense become one of the best we've ever seen.

The difference by the way was that in 2019 the Alabama team averaged 3.8 passing TDs per game to only 2.1 rushing. The following year that was 3.2 to 2.8. The quality of the passing game didn't go down, the quality of the running backs didn't improve. It was just about how they were used.

To give another example, I'll revisit Washington's 2022 loss to a team that finished the season at 3-9. This was a very good Washington team and a very bad Arizona State team. They'd lost four games in a row up until that point by double digits. Washington should have been able to club them like a baby seal. Instead Washington lost the game.

What happened? Penix threw the ball 53 times and then rushed an additional 6 times (well mostly sacks I guess but that's 59 plays he kept the ball on). This against a team that hadn't scored more than 25 points against an FBS team all year! He threw one interception, 0 TDs, and they lost by a TD.

Why on earth is he keeping the ball 59 times against a team that over-matched? They weren't down big, it was a one TD game almost the whole way, yet he's holding onto the ball 59 times. May be the running backs were ineffective that game? Not at all, the running backs averaged 6.8 yards on only 25 carries (170 yards) and 4 TDs! That's how you lose to a team that you're way better than, you play QB hero ball when you don't even have to.

So... a very long story short, I think the key to success is to make sure you develop and utilize a strong running game and then intentionally try to limit over-reliance on what is hopefully a very good quarterback. You unleash him when you absolutely have to, but otherwise the goal should be to balance his utilization with maintain a strong running (back) game. You can't afford to let them team overly rely on the quarterback to win games and you can't afford the quarterback getting into the habit of trying to win the game single-handedly. That's how you lose games like Arizona State, Oklahoma and an Auburn team you really had beat.

 

[81usaf92]

This gets back to the root of the point I was trying to make. It wasn't a defense of Milroe, nor was it necessarily a condemnation of the OC, it was just that I feel over-reliance on the quarterback is a huge gamble that doesn't pay off consistently enough to win championships at the level Alabama expects to. For a normal team it's fine, but if you want to be in contention year in and year out it's not the way to go.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't have, or don't need good QB play though. That's not it at all, it's just that the unfortunate side effect of great QB play tends to be over-reliance as well. When I started researching this during Hurts time at Alabama, I immediately noticed that the indicator of success under Sagan was not elite QB play (it actually presented as a negative factor) but rather elite RB play. This was not that good QBs were bad in my opinion the result of two things.

A: When a team has a really productive QB the tendency is to just let them keep doing too much. This is an issue because it's gambling the team's success on the play of one individual at a position where a lot of things can go wrong.
B: This also doesn't necessarily mean that the running backs in those championship seasons were the best running backs Alabama has or what have you. It was just that if you did develop a strong running game and you stuck with it, Alabama's chances of a championship were really, really good.

A good example of this playing out was the year Mac threw two pick sixes against Auburn. Specifically, one thrown from the three yard line when the team has Najee Harris who would become a touchdown machine the following year. Mac wasn't the problem, the problem was not developing that smash mouth running game that would help the 2020 offense become one of the best we've ever seen.

The difference by the way was that in 2019 the Alabama team averaged 3.8 passing TDs per game to only 2.1 rushing. The following year that was 3.2 to 2.8. The quality of the passing game didn't go down, the quality of the running backs didn't improve. It was just about how they were used.

To give another example, I'll revisit Washington's 2022 loss to a team that finished the season at 3-9. This was a very good Washington team and a very bad Arizona State team. They'd lost four games in a row up until that point by double digits. Washington should have been able to club them like a baby seal. Instead Washington lost the game.

What happened? Penix threw the ball 53 times and then rushed an additional 6 times (well mostly sacks I guess but that's 59 plays he kept the ball on). This against a team that hadn't scored more than 25 points against an FBS team all year! He threw one interception, 0 TDs, and they lost by a TD.

Why on earth is he keeping the ball 59 times against a team that over-matched? They weren't down big, it was a one TD game almost the whole way, yet he's holding onto the ball 59 times. May be the running backs were ineffective that game? Not at all, the running backs averaged 6.8 yards on only 25 carries (170 yards) and 4 TDs! That's how you lose to a team that you're way better than, you play QB hero ball when you don't even have to.

So... a very long story short, I think the key to success is to make sure you develop and utilize a strong running game and then intentionally try to limit over-reliance on what is hopefully a very good quarterback. You unleash him when you absolutely have to, but otherwise the goal should be to balance his utilization with maintain a strong running (back) game. You can't afford to let them team overly rely on the quarterback to win games and you can't afford the quarterback getting into the habit of trying to win the game single-handedly. That's how you lose games like Arizona State, Oklahoma and an Auburn team you really had beat.

Stallings and Dye were quoted at a meeting saying 90% of the time the team that could run and stop the run wins. I think the former is probably still more true in the modern game than the latter. But with Baker Mayfield type quarterbacks a plenty it’s more important to stop teams that are throwing it 10 million times a game from constantly one playing you to death.

You keep bringing up 2019 Auburn like it’s some definitive example of over reliance on a quarterback, but ignore 99% of that game for 1 play. You do realize we had 180 yards on the ground and 335 through the air. Almost had 10 minutes of possession than them. Najee Harris had 146 yards rushing that night. I don’t know what you see as an over reliance in a quarterback in that situation. It was a bad play, but if you REALLY want to go there then why aren’t you hand waving about in 2012 when we have a chance to beat aTm late at HOME after a debacle of a day. We have it 1st and goal at the 6 and run Eddie Lacy once in 4 plays. Is that over reliance on a quarterback or is that just bad play calling in a clutch part of the game?

The truth is up until Bryce Young we haven’t been so reliant on a quarterback to will us through a game. But most of that is due to the personnel we had instead of the system we ran. I mean if you compare who Bryce has had to every quarterback from Coker to Milroe you can see how paper thin we were on offense the two years after the 2020 season. Our best players aside from Bryce were transfers from other teams. To make matters worse our defense was far worse in 2021 than any other year in the Saban era at keeping leads or getting off the field. It’s why Bryce broke the single season passing record off of Arkansas of all teams.

Milroe on the other hand has had far more advantages with experienced and talented offensive linemen and elite backs. Why we don’t run is anyone’s guess, but it’s weird that Jam miller in both the Tennessee and Oklahoma games is averaging 3.5 yards per carry at 12 attempts but Milroe has more rushing attempts and less than 20 yards in both. The problem seems more that Milroe is calling his own numbers on reads because in no scenario should he be getting that many touches with so little payoff. This is more of a case of an over reliance on an ATHLETE than a quarterback because Milroe isn’t quarterbacking as much as he is trying to out talent people. If you put any of the quarterbacks from Tua to Bryce in place of Milroe then we don’t have 3 losses right now and we are probably saying Sheridan is the greatest play caller since Sark.

2024 is a mixture of a quarterback that still can’t read a defense and a coordinator that is unsure how to gameplan around a quarterback who can read a defense and a quarterback that really isn’t ideal for the system that the staff is really wanting to run.

 

[gtgilbert]

This gets back to the root of the point I was trying to make. It wasn't a defense of Milroe, nor was it necessarily a condemnation of the OC, it was just that I feel over-reliance on the quarterback is a huge gamble that doesn't pay off consistently enough to win championships at the level Alabama expects to. For a normal team it's fine, but if you want to be in contention year in and year out it's not the way to go.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't have, or don't need good QB play though. That's not it at all, it's just that the unfortunate side effect of great QB play tends to be over-reliance as well. When I started researching this during Hurts time at Alabama, I immediately noticed that the indicator of success under Sagan was not elite QB play (it actually presented as a negative factor) but rather elite RB play. This was not that good QBs were bad in my opinion the result of two things.

A: When a team has a really productive QB the tendency is to just let them keep doing too much. This is an issue because it's gambling the team's success on the play of one individual at a position where a lot of things can go wrong.
B: This also doesn't necessarily mean that the running backs in those championship seasons were the best running backs Alabama has or what have you. It was just that if you did develop a strong running game and you stuck with it, Alabama's chances of a championship were really, really good.

A good example of this playing out was the year Mac threw two pick sixes against Auburn. Specifically, one thrown from the three yard line when the team has Najee Harris who would become a touchdown machine the following year. Mac wasn't the problem, the problem was not developing that smash mouth running game that would help the 2020 offense become one of the best we've ever seen.

The difference by the way was that in 2019 the Alabama team averaged 3.8 passing TDs per game to only 2.1 rushing. The following year that was 3.2 to 2.8. The quality of the passing game didn't go down, the quality of the running backs didn't improve. It was just about how they were used.

To give another example, I'll revisit Washington's 2022 loss to a team that finished the season at 3-9. This was a very good Washington team and a very bad Arizona State team. They'd lost four games in a row up until that point by double digits. Washington should have been able to club them like a baby seal. Instead Washington lost the game.

What happened? Penix threw the ball 53 times and then rushed an additional 6 times (well mostly sacks I guess but that's 59 plays he kept the ball on). This against a team that hadn't scored more than 25 points against an FBS team all year! He threw one interception, 0 TDs, and they lost by a TD.

Why on earth is he keeping the ball 59 times against a team that over-matched? They weren't down big, it was a one TD game almost the whole way, yet he's holding onto the ball 59 times. May be the running backs were ineffective that game? Not at all, the running backs averaged 6.8 yards on only 25 carries (170 yards) and 4 TDs! That's how you lose to a team that you're way better than, you play QB hero ball when you don't even have to.

So... a very long story short, I think the key to success is to make sure you develop and utilize a strong running game and then intentionally try to limit over-reliance on what is hopefully a very good quarterback. You unleash him when you absolutely have to, but otherwise the goal should be to balance his utilization with maintain a strong running (back) game. You can't afford to let them team overly rely on the quarterback to win games and you can't afford the quarterback getting into the habit of trying to win the game single-handedly. That's how you lose games like Arizona State, Oklahoma and an Auburn team you really had beat.

I completely get what you are saying. I view it as having balance on offense. A team needs to be able to do multiple things well so that they are able to keep a defense from being able to key in on just 1 or 2 things to stop them. Your reference to the 2020 team is fitting, because on that team, if you focus on stopping Najee by loading the box, Mac, Smitty and Waddle were going to find a way to eat your lunch in the passing game.

So why are we where we are in 2024, with an offense that isn't balanced at all? And why is it that even with a complete staff turnover, the offense looks a whole lot like it looked last year, even when every offensive coach comes from a more spread based passing centric approach?

The answer is JM. He simply has a very narrow skillset of things that he can consistently do well. he flashes in other areas, but it's just not consistent. Teams have figured that out, and some teams have the personnel to significantly limit that.

take, for example, when we are running a zone read with the RB to the inside. Many teams are intentionally crashing the end inside to force JM to read keep, but then flowing both ILBs over the top, with the backside LB as an extra fill in case we give, and the playside LB taking the outside to force JM to be an east-west runner. Since JM rarely executed the pass option from that, they are free to aggressively flow the S down as well to have an extra tackler in play. What they've really done is flip the script on gap assignments. Sometimes, like against Auburn and the freshman LB JM torched, JM has enough speed, or the LB doesn't get enough of a head start, so that JM gets outside and it's a good gain, but it works out in the defenses favor way more often than not if they have disciplined a playside LB who doesn't get pulled inside by the ZR action.

So why are we playing with such limitations, that two different offensive staffs haven't been able to work around?

See LANK...

Given LANK...

All on JM...

 

[KrAzY3]

You keep bringing up 2019 Auburn like it’s some definitive example of over reliance on a quarterback, but ignore 99% of that game for 1 play. You do realize we had 180 yards on the ground and 335 through the air. Almost had 10 minutes of possession than them. Najee Harris had 146 yards rushing that night. I don’t know what you see as an over reliance in a quarterback in that situation.for the system that the staff is really wanting to run.

I already brought up the statistics from 2019 and compared them to 2020. That's not one game or one play, that's the entire season. This was with the same basic personnel. This was with QB play that was almost identical. One team was pretty much unstoppable, the other team lost two games.

I can bring up more examples though. Even on the years GMac and AJ didn't win a championship, they ended up throwing the most passes. Let's look at Coker and Sims though.

Sims had 3,837 total yards and 35 TDs.
Coker had 3,187 total yards and 23 TDs
Same offensive coordinator, both have Henry at running back. Coker wins a championship and Sims doesn't make it to the championship.

So for instance in both 2014 to 2015 we see the same issue that we saw from 2019 to 2020. A great running back wasn't being used enough in part because a quarterback was moving the ball so easily.

This isn't just Alabama, look at Ole Miss and how Dart plays in losses. Against Kentucky he passes 27 times, then he also keeps the ball another 13 times. That's 40 times he keeps the ball compared to handing it off a meager 15 times. Their running back was running effectively he just barely got any chances despite it being such a close low scoring game.

Same basic thing against Florida and LSU, Dart is trying to do it all and it just doesn't work. This doesn't excuse the choices Dart is making, or Milroe is making, or that Sims made or what have you, but I think part of the issue with more of a west coast mindset is that they have no reservation in just putting the game in the QBs hand, and it works well enough to win enough games to make most people happy. I'm just saying even if you change QBs, if you don't work hard enough at changing that aspect I have my doubts it works well enough to keep Alabama fans happy.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

@B1GTide I think your question was answered yesterday in the interviews with the players: Milroe is playing. Campbell is playing. It sounds like most of the players are playing. shouldn't expect many opts.. Which bodes well for the team and the program as a whole. The culture is there.

 

[The Ols]

Welp that's it.

I'm off to cancel my YTTV

Can not believe this crap is continuing

No wonder Law got the hell out.

Just throw bombs all day…

 

[81usaf92]

I already brought up the statistics from 2019 and compared them to 2020. That's not one game or one play, that's the entire season. This was with the same basic personnel. This was with QB play that was almost identical. One team was pretty much unstoppable, the other team lost two games.

You do realize Mac Jones ran with different responsibilities and privileges than Tua. So comparing his stats with stats that Tua led are like comparing two different offenses. Mac’s offense lost a game off one bad decision and 3 bull manure calls by the r

But also… you have 4 1st round receivers and a 1st round quarterback and running back starting. I don’t know any offensive coordinator in their right mind that would handcuff that offense. Does anyone in their right mind take the ball out of Brady or Mahomes hands to establish balance?

And no… it wasn’t the same personnel. Mac is no Tua, and having 2 1st round receivers vs 4 1st rounders is a huge difference.

 

[KrAzY3]

You do realize Mac Jones ran with different responsibilities and privileges than Tua. So comparing his stats with stats that Tua led are like comparing two different offenses. Mac’s offense lost a game off one bad decision and 3 bull manure calls by the r

But also… you have 4 1st round receivers and a 1st round quarterback and running back starting. I don’t know any offensive coordinator in their right mind that would handcuff that offense. Does anyone in their right mind take the ball out of Brady or Mahomes hands to establish balance?

And no… it wasn’t the same personnel. Mac is no Tua, and having 2 1st round receivers vs 4 1st rounders is a huge difference.

How did it work out?

I'm talking about risk mitigation, not handcuffing. Tua got hurt on a passing play. This might have cost Alabama the LSU game because he wasn't healthy. Then, Tua got out for the season on a passing play where he was trying to do too much when Alabama already had the game well in hand. Then of course there's the passing play three yards from the end zone that cost the team the Auburn game and a shot at a championship.

Every time you let the quarterback keep the ball in his hands you are dramatically increasing the odds he gets injured and you are dramatically increasing the odds that the team turns the ball over. This isn't opinion, it's statistical fact. That doesn't mean you don't ever do that, you do need a balanced offense, but you mitigate the risk by having a strong running game so you're not forced into doing that, or that it doesn't become habitual. Tua got injured for the season on a routine play, but a routine play that never should have happened. He shouldn't have had the ball in his hands on the sideline in those circumstances, period but it was ingrained behavior.

As far as the other stuff, keeping people happy and what have you, a balanced offense that protects the ball and protects the QB is far more important than an offense that just keeps people happy. That 2019 team has Najee, they fed him the ball more and developed that running game like they did the following year, that season almost certainly goes better. Does that mean less passing yards? It does, but a healthy Tua and a championship seem like a good trade. I would also add it should have some value to keep running backs happy as well.

Other than that we can go back and forth but this QB hero stuff is not championship football. It risks the quarterbacks health, it doesn't protect the football, and it abandons the run. If I look at 2018-2022 I see fantastic QB play every single year but I only see championship football one year, that was the year I also saw fantastic running back play.

Having said that, this is probably Alabama football for the foreseeable future, and we'll always get mad when the QB has a bad game because it means Alabama lost the game.

Edit: I think you and I can disagree on a lot of stuff but I'd bet we'd both love to see another RB at Alabama with 1,500 yards and 20 TDs.

 

[jjv0004]

Can I say how happy I will be when Milroe is gone if for no other reason than I won't have to listen to/read thousands upon thousands of Milroe is great/Milroe is the worst QB in Bama history anymore.

 

[UAH]

I respectfully disagree.

I'm flat tried of watching a grown man acquiesce to this crap.

He's not a good QB or Leader or Teammate.

In fact.. he's a BAD QB and a BAD leader and a BAD teammate.

It's all about him.

Him Him Him

It's HIS QB1 Job, It's HIS Showcase, It's HIS time to call his own number repeatedly.

By hell or highwater Milroe is NOT going to let anybody else take QB1 practice reps or game snaps.

It's completely flabbergasting that ONE player is more powerful that a HC making $10 MILLION dollars per year.

Milroe is nowhere near as dangerous as Lamar Jackson and I wish someone like the Browns were dumb enough to draft him because everyone keeps talking him up to be. Milroe is a glorified running back with an active arm whereas Lamar is a decent arm with a magician’s legs in a system that totally benefits him. Milroe is a North and South runner whereas Lamar is an East and west runner.

I think Milroe has yet to progress at the quarterback position enough to survive in the NFL, but staying one more year would ultimately lock him out of millions of dollars because it will be far deeper quarterback drafts.

Major difference in twitch between Jackson and Milroe. Milroe stronger and perhaps faster but it appears to me he consistently avoids contact. Just my opinion obviously.