ALABAMA
Alabama fans may want to look away as this is the year Nick Saban’s team will be viewed by some to not only take a backseat to Clemson in the preseason rankings nationally but ride shotgun to Georgia’s hype train in the Southeastern Conference.
Among those currently ranking Georgia ahead of Alabama entering the spring is Watch Stadium’s Brett McMurphy. The college football insider points to the losses suffered by the Crimson Tide this offseason, including seven players early to the 2019 NFL Draft and seven on the field assistants in Tuscaloosa.
He also pointed to Alabama’s defensive struggles to end last season — the Tide gave up 28 points to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, 34 to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and 44 to Clemson in the National Championship Game.
McMurphy breaks down his rationale in more detail below:
Find out why @Brett_McMurphy has #Alabama ranked No. 3⃣ in his pre-spring college football rankings. #RollTide pic.twitter.com/VYi6bn5tmc
— Stadium (@Stadium) February 15, 2019
Bama’s season largely is going to hinge on one issue: whether Bama’s secondary actually starts playing to its potential. Saban is loaded with talent everywhere, yet we hear every year about how his losses to the NFL are going to weaken the team. Nope. Not yet. No, the real chink in the Tide’s armor has been the strangely inconsistent and, at times, astonishingly disorganized and indifferent play at corner and safety. This is purely a coaching issue…period. You can’t have a bunch of blue-chippers blowing assignments, missing signals, lining up in the wrong coverage, and generally nullifying their four- and five-star reputations without wondering why in the world the position coaches can’t solve the problem. There are simply too many superior athletes back there for that to be happening.
Bama has been injury prone and young ok the back end as those talented DBs tend to jump early to the NFL.. I honestly hope for more consistent LB play this year…
I’m hoping for more consistent coaching all around.
This is terrible!
I wonder if their is any other school in the SEC that would trade coaching staffs with Alabama.
I bet there isn’t many in the Power Five that would.
Everyone is hoping the Tide will falter. I’ll take them to win the SEC championship next season, RIGHT NOW.
They have a developed program. Unmatched by any other in the conference and few in the nation.
Quit whining.
Show me how you know Stoops was offered the Michigan job Liar Paris
Not surprised you selected an effeminate French city liar
I think this D is clearly better than last year. For one, we return Surtain, Diggs (who is the best DB), Carter and McKinney as starting DBs. That’s huge, and 3 OLBs returning for senior year, as well as Davis on the line. Moses at MLB will be big. I thought Wilson was mostly a liability and not nearly as good as previous MLBs for Bama.
At DC last season it was a disaster. Lupoi had to be benched essentially, and Golding made playcaller on the fly. Now Golding is the actual DC so that mess is cleaned up. Alot of veteran, talented coaches coming in.
Also, I love how the argument for why UGA is ranked ahead of Bama by some is that we gave up 28 to them. Umm, didn’t they give up even more, you know, in the loss? And we gave up points to Oklahoma, but didn’t UGA, you know, lose to Texas? Just idiotic logic.
I would agree that this is click bait. I’m a huge Dawg fan but we lost a good bit to the NFL too, including an all-American CB. Bama has just as many blue chip players (probably a smidge more) and equal if not better athletes at every skill position (I.e, Tua, Harris, Jeudy, Diggs). Where do we have an advantage that would move us in front of a team that’s beaten us the last two times with superior coaching? I hope we beat the snot out of Bama next year, assuming we get to the SECCG, but I’ll hold up celebrating until we ACTUALLY beat the king.
All you do is stoke their egos with that sort of posting.
Lol @ armyrat being upset because he’s actually taking the red and black glasses off and telling it like it is. Do you care to dispute anything he says?
Of course he doesn’t…UGArmyret is all about the UGA fans blowing smoke up each other’s a$$… Actually discussing the article is stroking an ego to his dumba$$.
He like the UGA fans that tell us how UGA is the best at everything… He is just like Ilivmudawgs when it comes to contributing on SDS…
It’s going to be the same showdown this year as it was the last two. Georgia and Bama will slug it out and everyone else will whine. I just hope the winner beats the crap out of Clemson. See y’all in December.
Going position by position for 2019, I don’t see any clear advantages for UGA over Bama other than O-line and placekicker. Several pushes, but Bama still has more talent and depth, if only just.
The biggest upside I see is that Kirby is still developing as a HC, so more room to improve there. Also, while both schools lost both coordinators, UGA filled with existing personnel who have been with the program for a while. Should be a more seamless transition.
I need to see Kirby’s team beat Saban on the field before I buy into this opinion piece. Three consecutive razor-thin championship losses to Saban pretty much sets the bar we’ve got to get over.