The reason I'm dogging the OL is because, quite frankly, it fits. Alabama was 10th out of 12 teams in the SEC in sacks allowed last year and 101st overall. Much has been made about Alabama having experience returning on the line, but that leads to the question of whether experience is a good thing if the players in quesiton are mediocre.
Then, people point to the youth on the Alabama OL. That's fine, but the young players were the best ones of the bunch last year -- Caldwell and Stabler, with Marlon Davis probably showing the most ability of the reserves. It was the older players who had the most troubles.
This would have been more acceptable had the running game been better, but Alabama's rushing offense was ranked 65th in the nation, which is just below the halfway mark. Alabama won in 2005 on the strength of its defense and a handful of glamour plays on special teams and by the offense. Nothing wrong with that; that's how Alabama won the 1993 National Championship. Alabama basically put together a three-game run of good offense (South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida) and then disappeared.
That leads me to your note on the WRs. I'm not badmouthing our WRs if D.J. Hall returns as expected. But if he doesn't, Alabama is going to be in a tough spot. The loss of Prothro either triggered or exacerbated the offensive falloff last year, and that was with Hall and Brown in the lineup together for most of the rest of the season. This year, Alabama essentially lost Matt Miller and Brandon Brooks and picked up Nikita Stover. Stover has a lot of prep accolades in his pocket but looked very uneven in the spring.
If Hall is back, then Alabama has two proven receivers (Hall and Brown), another guy who has just 30 catches in two years (Caddell) even though he's been a part-time starter during that time, one guy with ability but no track record (Stover) and two guys with zip for experience at all (Oakley, McDaniel). The wild card is McCoy, who I look to play early and often, but who is a true freshman nonetheless. On the grand scale of receiving corps in the SEC, this is a mid-pack scenario. If Hall is not back, adjust that downward.
I'm not down on the WRs; I'm cautious. To clear things up, I am very much down on the OL, as are many, and the only way the OL will shed the labels attached to them is to get mad and go out and dominate. But on the WRs, I can definitely see where people might be excited; between the speed and athleticism of that group and the potential they bring to the table, they could easily emerge as a major strength.
