Are We Witnessing the Inevitable Decline of Bama?
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:11 AM ^
Other teams have caught up, you gave examples.
I'll always hold out that if Colt McCoy didn't get injured Texas would've wrecked Alabama, but I of course can't prove that. In the mean time, we've seen they aren't super heroes.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^
Not a chance on Colt McCoy, but this year they are beatable, so there!
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:29 AM ^
Garrett Gilbert had them in position to drive to win the game at the end with a 5.6 QBR, going 15/40, 2 TDs, and 4 Interceptions. There's no way in the world Colt McCoy doesn't top that.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:18 AM ^
they shouldn't have been given the rematch against LSU.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:11 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 8:38 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:02 AM ^
As long as that network is the mouthpiece of the SEC that conference will continue to get any and all benefit of the doubts.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:11 AM ^
Mortal, yeah, but that was always true. No team is perfect, not even Alabama, and no coach is omnipotent, not even Nick Saban.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:19 AM ^
Yeah, you say that now!
Hindsight all that,,,,
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:23 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:11 AM ^
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January 2nd, 2015 at 1:15 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:13 AM ^
Well, Saban is 63. Figure what, 5-7 more years before he calls it quits?
I don't think it's fair to call it the end just yet. He was outcoached and his team wasn't as good as OSU today but they did still win the SEC and made it to the playoff.
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:10 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:13 AM ^
No Saban just can't coach against spread teams.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:23 AM ^
Eh, when Urban was with Florida, Saban ended up wrecking Urban Meyer's teams near the end of Meyer's tenure there. I thought Bama would take this game because I figured that Saban has had Meyer's number.
This was a winnable game for Bama if their offense was better. I thought Lane Kiffin had an excellent year calling plays but man his fourth quarter was brutal along with Blake Sims.
January 2nd, 2015 at 3:10 AM ^
How does a team with nothing but 5-star talent wind up with a 3-star QB like Sims?
By the end of the game, I was more nervous when Sims went back to pass than I was when Cardale Jones went back to pass.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:13 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:14 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:22 AM ^
But those ended under indictment. This was just Bama, great coach and top recruiting class for how many straight years, gertting beat. For the 2nd year in a row, no NC appearance.
Parity of a sort
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:15 AM ^
Football is always cyclical. Nobody can dominate year after year. There are too many good programs out there and the increment between one and another shrinks each year as more and more HS coaches have more and more access to training and coaching techniques. More and more players get to go to summer camps, too.
Bama benefited from the Bama Exemption, which automatically ranks them at the top any group of teams that has the same number of losses as they do. Maybe the media will actually consider that other teams might be as good as the Mighty Bammers now.
January 2nd, 2015 at 5:08 AM ^
I'm not sure this is a case of cycles: I think the SEC has been so very good at promoting itself this last decade or so that everybody was drinking the kool-aid. The aftertaste of the kool-aid, was that the Big Ten was inferior and had slower, less talented players.
This year the playoffs enabled the head-to-head match ups that pitted the best of both conferences and shattered all the misconceptions propogated by the self-serving SEC propaganda.
Hey, The Big Ten's not so bad after all.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:16 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:23 AM ^
was a weakness, particularly in 2nd half of the year. Auburn lit these guys up as well, but kept kicking field goals in the red zone.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:27 AM ^
For all their recruiting dominance year after year, this Alabama team has lots of holes. And the QB play is in the 3-star range for some reason.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:44 AM ^
David Brandon play?
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:07 AM ^
This. Is. AMAZING!!!!! Hahaha what a post!
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:16 AM ^
I honestly think we are.
They've appeared to be merely mortal since CFB has begun to clamp down on oversigning. It was a loophole that Saan was smart enough to exploit, but now it's closing.
Everybody scoffs when we say that things run in cycles, but they really do. It was only a few years ago that Florida, Texas, and USC were dynasties that would never end.
Alabama won't just disappear, but they won't be a never-ending dynasty.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:37 AM ^
I was just going to say that. Oversigning was huge. Now you see it evening out. However, nothing takes the place of good coaching.
January 2nd, 2015 at 6:42 AM ^
Can you explain what changes the NCAA is making to oversigning that affect Alabama? Thanks.
January 2nd, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
Intense media oversight, and weak but not entirely non-existing limits put in by the SEC. They are having an impact.
You are not seeing the volume of Alabama medical hardships that you saw in the past at St. Nick's hospital.
They know the world is watching.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^
Saban is a secondary guy, and his secondary was beaten up on 3rd down all night.
At the very least this is the begnning of the end for Kirby Smart at Bama, he should have taken a HC job by now.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:19 AM ^
Bama will be interesting in 5 years when Saban leaves. I think the next two power programs down the road might be Ohio State and Michigan.
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:14 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:24 AM ^
No.
They rebuilt most of the OL, 5th year QB who could not beat other guys earlier in his career, and rebuilt D . A pretty young team. Lots of extraplation from 1 game man. If they go 9-3 next year let's talk. They have nowhere to go but "down" when you win NC every year.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:22 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:27 AM ^
"The fact that Urbz was able to do this with a 3rd string QB mind bottling"
That's the part that would scare me as a Michigan fan. Meyer took a 6-6 team in 2011 and has gone 12-0, 12-2, and 13-1. He's playing a 3rd string QB in 11 days for the national championship. If Saban is 1a, he's clearly 1b and I don't think anyone is remotely close to #2.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:35 AM ^
is Meyer's ability to bottle a mind.
I MEAN REALLY? WHAT THE FUCK?!?11!?
January 2nd, 2015 at 7:51 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^
Mr. Butterfield just had a case of the butterfingers. BTW he gave me a good lol.
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:02 AM ^
That 2011 had loads of talent. The problem was Fickell was the 'head coach' and Braxton Miller was a true freshmen. Tressell had won 5 straight Big Ten titles and finished the season in the Top 10 all 5 of those years. In fact, they finished the season ranked in the Top 5 four of those 5 years. Meyer is a damn good coach but he walked into an OSU football program that was loaded with talent.
January 2nd, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
They'd been 12-1 and (until he was suspended) had a senior Terrelle Pryor returning. If Pryor had played for the whole year instead of the Joe Bauserman/freshman Braxton Miller combo, I have to imagine they'd have won at least another 2-3 games.
That's not even counting the other guys they had suspended for a good chunk of the year, like DeVier Posey.
January 2nd, 2015 at 6:25 AM ^
And Michigan was in the game against OSU in the 4th qtr. Having 3 QBs looks great in the media, but only 1 can play. The other 2 will leave. Its not like having 3 great WRs or DBs.
January 2nd, 2015 at 3:31 AM ^
mind bottling is a pet peeve of mine. It is an incredibly stupid term. Mind boggling is the term, and yes, it is mind boggling.
January 2nd, 2015 at 7:49 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^
January 2nd, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
OK. So I thought that Mr. Butterfield had a case of the butterfingers. But it IS in the urban dictionary so we have that.
BTW I kind of like it.
January 2nd, 2015 at 1:33 AM ^
are running to their ATMs as we speak. And Saban is gonna be running off the back of the herd something fierce this spring.
And this just in: Alabama just doubled their staff of academic "tutors" and is consulting former East Germans on their training regimens.