Obviously I have no way of actually knowing, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s not a happier person now than he was the last couple of years when he was coaching.
Who Are We?
- Thread starter UKTideFan1961
- Start date
I think he is much happier. After he first announced he was retiring, it seemed like he had cold feet. But, as he has settled into retirement, I'll bet he is glad he did it. He just seems to have a different aura around him now
For this year we’ll either get better or get worse. Hard to say about next year as there is no way to predict what the roster will look like. Going forward teams will be more prone to dramatic shifts based on too many variables to even think about.
Can’t speak for CNS of course, but when I retired three years ago at the age of 74, After a while, I found that while I missed the people, I didn’t miss the actual JOB itself. When I came to that realization, it convinced me that I made the right decision and that it was time for me to go.
There’s a balance that has to be found imo.
I use to be so passionate in my younger days that I let it effect school, work, and relationships with other people.
It took me a long time to get to a place where I keep that passion to the 3-4 hours of game time.
I thought this was where I was heading in the pre-season and talked a big game about being done with the sport.
But here I am still waking up with the roosters on Sat morning to watch CNS on College Gameday and then about 12-14 hours of CFB.
It’s like this sport is a part of my DNA and if it’s on I have to watch no matter the dip in overall quality.
I feel he’s way happier and has way less stress.
You can tell he absolutely loves being on Gameday and has great chemistry with Rece, Kirk, Corso and even Pat and Desmond.
He held for a FG kick this past week for a kid to win tuition money…lol
But he even looks younger… he’s just beaming.
At least we didn’t pay 15 million to have two losses (ole miss) or 20 million to lose the big game (Ohio state). Parity is here to stay
We understand that, and from that perspective things are great. Especially considering the turmoil from retirement , transfer portal, and recruiting , hiring a coach, hiring a staff. all in January. If it were simply an issue of confusion because of a new scheme , that would be acceptable. But to see confusion from one play to the next with basic concepts, personal foul penalties , total confusion at times, it’s hard to swallow . Especially considering they played a good game on the road at Camp Randall against a decent 4-2 Wisconsin team , and played a great half against a good Georgia team. It looks less like a New Scheme issue and more like lack of preparation.
Now look, I'm not saying you aren't right, but I am saying, if you had bought the orange ball cap with the big red A on it last year, we wouldn't be in this mess!!!
Could our problem be a lack of UNITY because of NIL? I mean some players getting more $,$$$,$$$.00 than other players could result in a lack of UNITY. With NIL there could be more I’s than WE’s.
I hope I’m wrong, but I do not like NIL!
Last edited:
I don’t know, maybe . I do believe NIL is costing preparation time, study time , players are monetizing the script A they are wearing instead of keeping the main thing, the main thing .
But, I went into the season expecting 9-3 , with a good bowl game. Especially with all the true Freshman that were expected to be big contributors . Then it seemed they found something in big moments. My bar raised . Don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting a title , but a playoff berth and maybe a first round win just seems there for the taking. Clean some stuff up and they could still make that run. I think making the playoffs would go a long way with recruiting, showing that really nothing has changed in Tuscaloosa. Even though things have.
Maybe it’s come with getting older, maybe it’s the fact that the college game is just not what it used to be, but now I don’t get so wrapped around the axle like I used to. I think I found the Vandy loss more embarrassing than upsetting, like it would have been in the past. Just me, but I think that the college game just doesn’t have the same connection to the school as it once did.
Things change so fast these days and college football (especially at the major level) is the best example of that. My father's last full season was 2016. He saw a smidgen of the 2017 season, his last game being Alabama-Fresno State in week 2. He would die suddenly and unexpectedly two days later on that following Monday morning. If my dad came back 4 years later in 2021 and tried watching college ball he'd probably be confused. If he saw it now, it would be unrecognizable to him. The rate that this sport has changed in just 7 years is mind blowing
And until there are guardrails put in place it is going to continue to change at that pace and probably in an unlikeable direction.
Wallace Wade 1923: 4-1-1
Frank Thomas 1931: 5-1
Red Drew 1947: 4-2
JB Whitworth 1954: 0-6
Paul Bryant 1958: 3-2-1
As to who Alabama is I will append some info I posted elsewhere on the Board with a few additions.
Last year Alabama had 2 lockdown corners and 2 top edge rushers. Their absence without similar replacements, dramatically changes this D. The safeties were better also. Bama does not have overall elite talent on D or O, this, along with a change to a one-gap system with 2-gap personnel in the front 7 has greatly reduced Bama’s potential.
With far superior and more compatible personnel last year, Alabama lost 2 games and played 4 more one-score games, including a 6 pt win vs 6 loss A&M, 3 pt wins vs 7 loss AU and 8 loss Ark @ home. Only had 2 blowout (21+ pts) wins vs P5 teams.
They also had 5 one score games in both 21 & 22 as well as 5 in 23. Many (8) were vs 6+ loss teams in those years. Playing close, including vs mediocre to bad competition is not a recent phenomenon. This year may end up 10-2 to 8-4 which would be good to “understandable”, but dominance other than 2016 (no NC) & 2020 has been absent since a one loss 2012 which had its own hiccup.
The memory of the Alabama fan base is very selective. The program has been sliding on and off the field for a while. The dominance was real for 5 years then the game changed ~2012 but CNS did a great job adapting and recruiting improved but things simply were not the same after the focus changed to offense and officials often refused to call IMDF.
The 3 years prior to this had over one third, ~40%, of the games be within one score, several (8 to be precise) were vs teams with 6+ losses. With all of the massive changes (didn’t 41 players leave the program after last year, including not only the secondary starters but the depth also) that have taken place, 5-1 seems reasonable. That’s on top of the sport’s changes that all have experienced.
That’s not to say that improvement from the HC and staff is not needed but they a owed some patience and understanding and IMO, are being over criticized and compared to a record unknown in the history of the sport in reality and when remembered imprecisely it is a record that cannot be approached.
As CA has mentioned more than once, to cudgel this HC at this point is how you become AU. He has a stellar though admittedly sparse record at this level. He has a QB dependent system with a QB that does not fit, though he and Jalen have made meaningful improvement.
TideFans.shop - Get your Gear HERE!
Alabama Crimson Tide Car Door Light
Get this and many more items at our TideFans.shop!
Purchases may result in a commission being paid to TideFans.