Alabama has room to improve during bye

The Alabama Crimson Tide sit in a pretty good position at this point in the season, but there’s always room to get better.

At 7-1, 4-1 in the SEC, the Tide are just outside the College Football Playoff picture, ranked No. 6 in the committee’s first set of rankings. They have a chance to make some noise both in the playoff bracket and the SEC West down the stretch, with three of their four remaining games at home.

1. Containing mobile quarterbacks. Joshua Dobbs, a Tennessee sophomore seeing his first significant game action, was able to find big running lanes against Alabama last weekend. Figuring out a way to shore that up should be Nick Saban and Kirby Smart’s top priority during the bye. LSU’s Anthony Jennings isn’t a runner, but he has some mobility. After that, Alabama runs into Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott and Auburn’s Nick Marshall, two quarterbacks that can make game-breaking plays with their legs.
2. Get healthy. The bye week comes at a good time for the Tide, as they have nicks and bruises all over the roster. Center Ryan Kelly should be fully healed after missing time, while T.J. Yeldon missed practice this past week with a foot injury that knocked him out of the Tennessee game. Left tackle Cam Robinson and tight end Brian Vogler will probably miss time coming out of the bye, but getting everyone some rest will be beneficial heading into the final stretch.
3. Be consistent. Nick Saban described his team as Hulk-like earlier in the season, turning up their intensity when they needed it and saying they needed to be ready to smash at all times. They came out and smashed Tennessee in the first quarter last week, but then played pedestrian football the rest of the way. They’ll need four quarters of effort against LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn, something Saban needs to continue to hammer on in practice.
4. Get the rest of the receivers more involved. Blake Sims has done all the coaches could ask for, but that’s involved throwing Amari Cooper the ball on more than 40 percent of his passing attempts. It’s well past time for the rest of the receiving corps to step up. DeAndrew White, Christion Jones and O.J. Howard have all been shut out of the offense for long stretches, and they’ll be needed for Alabama to continue its playoff push.
5. Kick the ball better. Adam Griffith was looking like one of the best kickers in the nation after hitting his first seven field goal attempts to start the season. Since then, he’s fallen off big time. He’s made just 2-of-6 field goals since then, including two in the loss at Ole Miss. Griffith didn’t get any cracks at breaking out of his slump against Tennessee, and he missed an extra point to further the concern. Alabama is going to have some tough matchups down the road, and as the Tide learned in the Ole Miss loss, every possession matters.

Brett Weisband

A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.