I don’t tend to write a lot of articles anymore. I’m enjoying retirement from writing by traveling and still working my regular day job when I’m in Panama City Beach, Florida. But I felt like this is something I needed to say, so here’s the old sports writer’s take on all things concerning Alabama football right now.
If I were President of the University, this would be my speech. The State of the Union, as in Alabama football, is still fine. Alabama holds a tie-breaker over Georgia, something not many teams will have, and it’s really hard to see any team escaping SEC play without a loss before the playoffs. Right now only Texas still has the title of undefeated in our league and they looked very pedestrian for much of the Mississippi State game, probably the worst team in the SEC.
This year the SEC is simply more evenly competitive than usual. last week, three undefeated teams were surprisingly beaten by teams that were previously thought to be lesser.
But as for Alabama, let’s not take anything away from Vanderbilt. They won the game and I nor the team or coaching staff should offer any excuses. It reminded me of the first time we faced Tim Tebow in an SEC Championship Game. Diego Pavia put that Vanderbilt team on his shoulders and carried it to victory and just as Tebow never had such luck against us again, neither will Vandy in the near future. But last week, it was their day one for the ages.
To Bama’s credit though, they were one fumble or tipped pass from winning it. It’s not like they were beaten badly. But there were problems, glaring ones, mostly on defense, where the Tide had trouble getting Vandy off the field on third down. It was the same problem they had getting Georgia off the field on all those fourth-down conversions.
Alabama needs to do a little soul-searching here and either toughen up or change their play calling to better use the personnel they have. But I’m not an armchair coach and don’t pretend to have the answer, but DeBoer better gather the coaches and approach the problem head-on. Except for this, the one glaring, undeniable problem, the State of the Union in Alabama football is strong.
The defensive secondary, which I thought at the season’s start, would be our Achilles heel, is working out. Talent is winning out over experience here and they are holding their own for the most part. And though the defense certainly bends, it’s done enough not to break so far except for being on the field too much yesterday because of the two costly turnovers on offense. So overall the defense can carry us to the playoffs, but as for now, remains our biggest concern.
The offense and special teams are our bright spots. The offense is solid and steady with stars aplenty and can be both explosive and clock-eating with their drives. They are Bama’s most deadly weapon.
Stars have emerged at running back and especially at receiver, where Ryan Williams may be the best in the country and other new names have emerged to be rock steady too. We finally have another tight end who has OJ Howard-type hands and production.
Even in last night’s loss, the offense only punted once in the first half and scored in both their other full possessions. But that freak-tipped ball that went for a touchdown for Vandy on their first possession was just that. One of those one-in-a-million bounces that rarely happened but was the difference in the game.
The second half also had just one punt, with three touchdowns but one drive-killing fumble that also could have been the difference in the game.
The problem in the Vandy game though can’t be blamed on the offense’s two unusual turnovers, but the lack of opportunities they had to score given Vanderbilt’s remarkable ability to run very long, clock-consuming drives that kept the offense on the bench.
They had in essence 9 drives against Vanderbilt and 13 against Georgia. Given their proclivity to score on the majority of their drives, therein lies the real reason they lost the Vanderbilt game. So to backtrack just a bit, getting the defense to get teams off the field on third and fourth downs is the only glaring problem in this Union we call Alabama football, and coach DeBoer is fully aware of this and I’m sure is working on the problem.
The schedule is firmly in our favor up to the SEC Championship Game with only Tennessee, who looked quite pedestrian after a loss to Arkansas last week, seems to be a potential stumbling block until we face the likely opponent of Texas where it’s anybody’s guess at this point.
So there’s no need for “Chicken Little” like screams and stares into the heavens, the sky is not falling, the State of the Union for Alabama football is strong, the future is still bright and holding the tie-breaker over Georgia is huge.
The path to the playoffs is still there. The path to the SEC Championship is still there. It’s not like we don’t know where the problem is and fortunately, there seems to be only one. I have faith that the coaches will continue to work on it and we have the men to fix it. This is a young team and it hasn’t reached its peak yet.
The future is bright.
Larry has been writing for over 25 years and his sports articles have been published in most all the leading sites. He was Bleacher Report’s number-one college football writer and was the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama, but is now retired and just writing for my friends to enjoy my ramblings.
If I were President of the University, this would be my speech. The State of the Union, as in Alabama football, is still fine. Alabama holds a tie-breaker over Georgia, something not many teams will have, and it’s really hard to see any team escaping SEC play without a loss before the playoffs. Right now only Texas still has the title of undefeated in our league and they looked very pedestrian for much of the Mississippi State game, probably the worst team in the SEC.
This year the SEC is simply more evenly competitive than usual. last week, three undefeated teams were surprisingly beaten by teams that were previously thought to be lesser.
But as for Alabama, let’s not take anything away from Vanderbilt. They won the game and I nor the team or coaching staff should offer any excuses. It reminded me of the first time we faced Tim Tebow in an SEC Championship Game. Diego Pavia put that Vanderbilt team on his shoulders and carried it to victory and just as Tebow never had such luck against us again, neither will Vandy in the near future. But last week, it was their day one for the ages.
To Bama’s credit though, they were one fumble or tipped pass from winning it. It’s not like they were beaten badly. But there were problems, glaring ones, mostly on defense, where the Tide had trouble getting Vandy off the field on third down. It was the same problem they had getting Georgia off the field on all those fourth-down conversions.
Alabama needs to do a little soul-searching here and either toughen up or change their play calling to better use the personnel they have. But I’m not an armchair coach and don’t pretend to have the answer, but DeBoer better gather the coaches and approach the problem head-on. Except for this, the one glaring, undeniable problem, the State of the Union in Alabama football is strong.
The defensive secondary, which I thought at the season’s start, would be our Achilles heel, is working out. Talent is winning out over experience here and they are holding their own for the most part. And though the defense certainly bends, it’s done enough not to break so far except for being on the field too much yesterday because of the two costly turnovers on offense. So overall the defense can carry us to the playoffs, but as for now, remains our biggest concern.
The offense and special teams are our bright spots. The offense is solid and steady with stars aplenty and can be both explosive and clock-eating with their drives. They are Bama’s most deadly weapon.
Stars have emerged at running back and especially at receiver, where Ryan Williams may be the best in the country and other new names have emerged to be rock steady too. We finally have another tight end who has OJ Howard-type hands and production.
Even in last night’s loss, the offense only punted once in the first half and scored in both their other full possessions. But that freak-tipped ball that went for a touchdown for Vandy on their first possession was just that. One of those one-in-a-million bounces that rarely happened but was the difference in the game.
The second half also had just one punt, with three touchdowns but one drive-killing fumble that also could have been the difference in the game.
The problem in the Vandy game though can’t be blamed on the offense’s two unusual turnovers, but the lack of opportunities they had to score given Vanderbilt’s remarkable ability to run very long, clock-consuming drives that kept the offense on the bench.
They had in essence 9 drives against Vanderbilt and 13 against Georgia. Given their proclivity to score on the majority of their drives, therein lies the real reason they lost the Vanderbilt game. So to backtrack just a bit, getting the defense to get teams off the field on third and fourth downs is the only glaring problem in this Union we call Alabama football, and coach DeBoer is fully aware of this and I’m sure is working on the problem.
The schedule is firmly in our favor up to the SEC Championship Game with only Tennessee, who looked quite pedestrian after a loss to Arkansas last week, seems to be a potential stumbling block until we face the likely opponent of Texas where it’s anybody’s guess at this point.
So there’s no need for “Chicken Little” like screams and stares into the heavens, the sky is not falling, the State of the Union for Alabama football is strong, the future is still bright and holding the tie-breaker over Georgia is huge.
The path to the playoffs is still there. The path to the SEC Championship is still there. It’s not like we don’t know where the problem is and fortunately, there seems to be only one. I have faith that the coaches will continue to work on it and we have the men to fix it. This is a young team and it hasn’t reached its peak yet.
The future is bright.
Larry has been writing for over 25 years and his sports articles have been published in most all the leading sites. He was Bleacher Report’s number-one college football writer and was the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama, but is now retired and just writing for my friends to enjoy my ramblings.
