We all had strict teachers in our schooling past, the ones who made us sweat with just the thought of a pop quiz.

And we knew the drill when we turned in assignments for those particular teachers.

As in, our strict teachers tended to be strict graders.

Well, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., there are thousands and thousands of strict teachers when it comes to the education of Crimson Tide football.

And, yeah, every one of those strict followers of Alabama football would make for tough graders in the aftermath of every season.

Especially after a season like this one.

At the end of it all this fall, the Crimson Tide still managed 10 victories. And despite being denied its just-about-annual trip to Atlanta for the SEC title game, Bama, incredibly, nearly squeezed into the College Football Playoff with a shot at a national championship most thought was totally out of reach after that 2nd loss on Nov. 5 at LSU.

But the eye test never lies, especially not to those strict Bama fanatics who would have a field day with their red teacher’s pen if they were really giving the 2022 Alabama Crimson Tide their position-by-position grades.

Those fans won’t be doing that, at least not here. But we will be. We’re going to touch on each position group on the Tide roster and hand out the letter grade we think it deserves. We’ll be fair, but we’ll also be — yep — very strict, because it’s Alabama football and it was a 2-loss regular season that hasn’t happened very often under Nick Saban.

So here come those position groups and here come those grades, the solid ones and the not-as-flattering ones:

Quarterback: A

Bryce Young didn’t win the Heisman Trophy again, and he wasn’t even among the 4 finalists invited to Saturday night’s award ceremony, which is certainly debatable. But not every season is built the same, even for stars like Young. And the junior who most certainly is headed to the NFL Draft next spring left a different kind of impression in 2022 for the fans in Tuscaloosa: one of perseverance, determination, guts and grit, because this fall was a different sort of journey for Young.

There wasn’t the glamour of 2021. There wasn’t a 1st-place finish in the SEC West, a trip to Atlanta and a victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Instead, there was a just-OK September that essentially knocked Young out of the Heisman race right away, there was a brutal sprained right throwing shoulder injury suffered on the 1st day of October at Arkansas, and there was a taxing, intense rehab schedule that Young accepted and amazingly got him back on the field 2 weeks later.

And, of course, there were those 2 crushing road losses in Knoxville and Baton Rouge that essentially removed Alabama from the national title picture and erased Young’s dream of capping his Crimson Tide career with the 1 missing piece from that magical 2021 season. Instead, Young returned from the shoulder injury on Oct. 15 in that insane loss at Tennessee and played out a solid if unspectacular 10-2 regular season that in many ways was nearly as heroic as the one that brought him the Heisman. His final numbers weren’t 2021 Bryce Young, but they were still pretty darned good: 3,007 yards passing, a 64.1 completion percentage, 27 touchdown passes, just 5 interceptions and a 156.5 passer rating.

Young won’t leave Tuscaloosa with a national championship (not as a starter, at least), but he went out a “champion,” and, even more, a winner. And when Young was injured, freshman Jalen Milroe played with moxie, toughness and flair through his self-inflicted mistakes, showing that the position could very well be in good hands if/when Young does the expected and says goodbye to Bama. The quarterback position for Alabama in 2022 didn’t deserve an A+, but to give it anything less than a solid “A” is to lose sight of what Young — and Milroe — accomplished through adversity.

Running back: B

It was a very solid if not spectacular season for the Tide when Young handed the ball off, and the sole reason it was solid was because junior Jahmyr Gibbs was a smashing success in his 1st season in Tuscaloosa. The transfer from Georgia Tech finished 8th in the SEC in rushing with 850 yards, averaging 6.3 yards per carry, and added 7 touchdowns. Gibbs was rewarded by being named 2nd-team All-SEC.

It wasn’t just his ball-carrying, though. He became a weapon out of the backfield, too, catching 42 passes for 378 yards and another 3 TDs. And that wasn’t all. During a season when Young wasn’t 2021 Young, when Young was injured and when Young never quite got on the same page with his receivers, Gibbs became the engine for the Tide offense from Game 1 to Game 12. He was the steady force and the steadying force, too.

Fellow junior Jase McClellan was a good 2nd option behind Gibbs. He was 20th in the SEC in rushing with 613 yards, averaged 5.8 yards per carry and had 6 TDs, and McClellan surely had his moments, like the scintillating 81-yard touchdown burst at Texas. Having 2 of the top 20 running backs in the SEC isn’t bad at all, but Bama finished 7th in the league in team rushing — middle of the pack, because its complementary backs like Roydell Williams, Jamarion Miller and Trey Sanders just never got going.

Wide receiver/tight end: C-

This was a problem area throughout the season, but because of Young’s resilience and Gibbs’ brilliance, Bama was able to mask its issues in the passing game and still grind out 10 victories. And yeah, the Crimson Tide finished 5th in the SEC in team passing, averaging 278.3 yards per game.

But a deeper look at individual receiving tells you the real, sad story. Sophomore Ja’Corey Brooks was the Tide’s leading receiver in 2022 but ranked only 14th overall in the SEC with a paltry 623 yards on 37 catches. He did have 7 TDs, but Brooks’ numbers would’ve been good if he were the complementary receiver and not the top target.

Then there was Jermaine Burton, who transferred from rival Georgia to put the Tide over the top. Instead, Burton was a big disappointment, finishing with just 37 catches for 590 yards and failing to find that real rhythm with Young save for a few fleeting moments. Burton also never stretched the field, as his season-long catch went for just 52 yards. The Tide’s 3rd-leading receiver was a running back (Gibbs), their 4th-leading receiver is already in the transfer portal (Traeshon Holden) and their 5th-leading receiver was their senior tight end (Cameron Latu) who battled knee injuries since preseason camp and was never the same as in 2021.

Offensive line: B+

Bama finished 5th in the SEC in total offense, not bad but not the level of production a Nick Saban-coached team is used to. And while the Tide ranked 2nd in points per game, trailing only high-octane Tennessee and finishing slightly ahead of No. 1 Georgia at 40.8 points per game, you never got the sense that a talented O-line unit was totally in sync with Young and the skill position players.

But numbers are numbers, and the line held its ground despite Young never quite getting in complete rhythm with the weapons around him. The fact that offensive guard Emil Ekiyor Jr. was the offense’s only 1st-team All-SEC selection is telling, and not in a good way. It’s also telling, in an impressive way, that fellow offensive linemen Javion Cohen and Tyler Steen made 2nd-team All-SEC. That’s 3 Bama offensive linemen who performed among the SEC’s best overall players in 2022.

The problem was that lack of rhythm between the line and the skill guys when it really got tight. But the skill players underperformed as a whole, and that’s not the offensive line’s fault.

Defensive line: B

Senior Byron Young fought through a sprained ankle suffered in Week 4 and thrived, finishing with 46 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. He was a steadying force on a line that was unheralded and probably underappreciated because of the star power of the Crimson Tide linebackers.

Young just accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl down the road in Mobile, Ala., where he’ll try to improve his NFL Draft stock. NFL general managers might want to look at how Young persevered through injury and turned in a rock-solid season on a unit that didn’t force nearly enough turnovers. Young added 6 quarterback pressures, 2 pass breakups and a forced fumble.

Freshman Jaheim Oatis was the only other defensive lineman to have 20-plus tackles, finishing with 27, and senior DJ Dale was the only other lineman besides Young to have more than 1 sack, finishing with 2.5. But, again, the immense production from the linebackers and secondary have to be taken into account here. The D-line was a solid unit in 2022.

Linebacker: A

This unit really is the embodiment of an embarrassment of riches. First, you have Will Anderson Jr., who’s likely going to be a top 10 pick in next spring’s NFL Draft. Anderson’s 10 sacks weren’t the 17.5 he piled up last year, but they were still good enough to tie him for the SEC lead with ex-Bama linebacker Drew Sanders.

Then you consider that Anderson’s 51 tackles weren’t even the most by a Tide linebacker by a long shot, as senior Henry To’oTo’o finished with an eye-popping 89 to go with 2.5 sacks. Not surprisingly, Anderson and To’oTo’o were 2 of the 3 linebackers (with Sanders being the 3rd) named to the All-SEC 1st team.

And we haven’t even mentioned Jaylen Moody (49 tackles, 2 sacks), Deontae Lawson (45 tackles) or turbo-charged sophomore Dallas Turner (37 tackles, 4 sacks), who could very well be in line to take over the position as Alpha Dog of the Tide defense in 2023. Yeah, an embarrassment of riches is right.

Defensive back: B-

Yes, Jordan Battle (62 tackles) and Kool-Aid McKinstry (34 tackles, 12 pass deflections) were 1st-team All-SEC selections. Yes, DeMarcco Hellams registered a team-high 95 tackles and was seemingly always around the ball. Yes, Brian Branch was 3rd on the Tide with 78 tackles while adding 2 sacks and 1 interception. And, yeah, Terrion Arnold was a ballhawk all year with 45 tackles, 8 pass deflections, an interception and a fumble recovery.

All that is great, and the Bama secondary was chock full of talent and playmakers. But that 1 dreadful afternoon in Knoxville keeps coming back at us, when Hendon Hooker lit up this same Tide secondary for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns. Making it worse was that all 5 of those TDs went to Jalin Hyatt, who had 207 yards receiving and caught 6 passes, so almost all of his catches went for scores. That simply is unacceptable. And even though it was 1 game, it was the game that effectively took the shine off Bama’s season and led to that 2nd loss 3 weeks later.

So this is why all of those great stats that Battle and Co. put up isn’t met with a better letter grade. In college football, 1 bad day can help ruin a season, and that’s just about what happened on Oct. 15 at Neyland Stadium for this secondary.

Specialists: B+

Will Reichard had another really solid season for the Tide to finish out a solid career. He made 21 of his 25 field-goal attempts, including 18 out of 20 kicks inside 50 yards, and he was a spotless 58-of-58 on extra-point attempts. Reichard was named to the All-SEC 2nd team for his placekicking and kickoff duties, and it was well deserved.

But we can’t give this group an A or even an A-, because of Reichard’s 4 misses, 1 was very costly and 2 others could have been. Reichard missed that 50-yarder with 15 seconds left at Tennessee, which the Vols cashed in on with a winning kick of their own. And while 50-yarders on the road with the game on the line are hard to make, Reichard did make 3 field goals of 50-plus yards in 2022. The week before against Texas A&M, Reichard missed 2 field goals that would’ve made a tight win a little less tight.

Meanwhile, McKinstry’s contributions extended to the special teams, as he was named 2nd-team All-SEC for his explosiveness in the return game. And sophomore James Burnip ranked 8th in the SEC in punting with an average of 42.8 yards per punt. He pinned the opponent inside its 20-yard line 13 times.